The Weeknd’s disorienting Super Bowl halftime show felt right. Earlier, Miley shined

Would it be a classy affair, with shrimp cocktail and cigars? The Weeknd’s promotional materials for the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show in Tampa seemed to suggest indulgence, suits and leather driving gloves and Champagne on ice.

Or would the show address the moment we’re in, the crushing year we’ve lived through? Would he play from the rafters with the cardboard people instead of center stage on the field?

The Weeknd, a.k.a. Canadian pop star Abel Tesfaye, found a way to do it all in a show that straddled the line of excess and commentary. He moved around Raymond James Stadium, hovering above the stands, the pirate ship in haunting silhouette.

The battle between good and evil was on from the start, when an angelic, red-eyed figure descended into a chorus of white-robed lookalikes. The Weeknd, in a sparkling red blazer, opened with his party hit Starboy, then headed into the first notes of The Hills, one of the best intros of a song, ever.

Then, where were we? We didn’t know, and that was the point. He wove through a maze of lights and sang into a dizzying fisheye lens, transfixing and disorienting, like the Weeknd himself.

The arc of the Weeknd’s art bends toward hedonism, skewering our baser instincts and obsession with pleasure. In recent music videos and on red carpets, he’s played a desperate character who emerges from a spiral with botched plastic surgery. It’s a wink to the virus of vanity, and many wondered if he would show up in bandages for this performance. He delegated that duty to his proxies, dancing with wrapped heads, aptly, for I Can’t Feel My Face.

He injected air with I Feel It Coming and Save Your Tears, arranging Earned It with choral singers and ascendant violins. But the darkness, as it does, returned. The bandaged dancers assembled on the field in an staccato, apocalyptic party that led into Blinding Lights, the megahit that’s spent dozens of weeks in the Billboard Top 10.

It’s a tricky moment to entertain. How do you drink from the chalice of show business when so many people are hurting? The Weeknd bunked in a lavish Davis Islands mansion, and also fed local healthcare workers local soul food. He spent $7 million of his own money to execute his halftime vision, produced by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and live-event producer Jesse Collins.

There is no real clean getaway when it comes to navigating these times, the push and pull of following our desires and doing what we know is right. The Weeknd knows this. He gave an artful nod to the perils of reality, the depravity of man, the whipsaw of every 24 hours this year, and the gift of good song to get us through.

Earlier Sunday afternoon, before the game, Miley Cyrus and guest stars Joan Jett and Billy Idol performed for about 7,500 vaccinated health care workers from Tampa Bay and the around the country, including Kansas City.

She heaped praise, noting the sacrifices they made to “get back to doing what we love, being who want want to be, fulfilling our purposes.”

“This is my first show in about a year,” she told the crowd. “I could not image a better way to do this than here in Tampa with all these healthcare heroes, surrounded by the people that are making this show possible. We are so appreciative of you and all your diligence, and for that, we’re gonna rock hard.”

Steve Harvey hosted the show before the show, streaming on TikTok and CBS. “This is not any old tailgate,” he said. “This is the best tailgate you’ve ever been to in your life.”

TikTokers predicted the winning team. Most said Kansas City. TikTok showed celeb videos, recipes for Rotel cheese dip and Huli Huli wings, a tutorial to make a planter out of a football, while everyone in the comments demanded to see Miley.

Eventually, Harvey came back, and it was time. Almost.

“Let’s take one last look at some TikToks from the season while we wait for Miley to take the stage,” he said. After 10 more minutes of TikToks, the people got what they wanted.

She delivered the ‘80s rock promise from the first beats. “Oh Miley, you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind. Hey Miley!” She ran onstage outside Raymond James Stadium, wearing a black and pink leather cheerleading outfit that read FTW (”for the win”), backed by a giant gumball machine and megaphone.

Idol looked exactly the same as he did in the ‘80s. They paired up for Night Crawling and White Wedding. A side note: TikTok’s vertical format is not the best for getting two people in frame. At times, we at home were staring at a sparkly wagon wheel.

Miley has reinvented herself a million times, but her current Joan Jett vibe might be her best. She killed Heart of Glass by Blondie and took a break to gyrate on the motorcycle before launching into Nine Inch Nails’ Head Like a Hole. She wove her hits into covers, wrapping Nothing Breaks Like a Heart with Jolene by her real-life godmother, Dolly Parton. She delivered an Edge of Seventeen medley she called “blessed by Stevie Nicks herself.”

You never know what to expect with Miley, but in this context, she was kind of ... therapeutic? She talked about patience, being kinder to each other. She told everyone to leave their masks on, but “underneath there, put on the biggest smile that you’ve ever had.

“We’re together listening to live music,” she said. “Can you believe it?”

This story was originally published February 7, 2021 at 8:35 PM.