Entertainment / February 8, 2021

Super Bowl: Everything that happened outside the game

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for TW. The Weeknd rehearses for the Super Bowl LV Halftime Show at Raymond James Stadium on Feb. 4, 2021 in Tampa, Fla.
Entertainment / February 8, 2021

Super Bowl: Everything that happened outside the game

Words: Dylan Murphy

We know a lot of you just want to know the most interesting bits without the pain of sitting through three hours of insufferable commercials. We gathered all the best bits. Including an appearance from Drake, Timothée Chalamet and Winona Ryder starring in an homage to Edward Scissorhands the best memes and everything you need to know about The Weeknd’s performance.

For 364 days of the year, there are a lot of people that could care less about American football, but such is the spectacle of the Super Bowl and its often explosive halftime show and weird corny ads a lot of us consider staying up to watch it.

Given the time difference, it can lead to an uncomfortable back and forth where you try to decide if you hate yourself enough to stay up to all hours of the morning to watch a game you barely understand despite watching every episode of Last Chance You on Netflix. Given the controversy around The Weeknd’s reported omission from the GRAMMYs due to his half time performance, it’s understandable people would want to catch it this year.

For those who didn’t stay up and want to know the bits that are actually interesting, you are in luck. We’ve wrapped it below;

The Weeknd’s performance and the inevitable memes

Unbelievably, despite having the most-streamed RnB album of all time, Canadian singer The Weeknd, was snubbed completely by the GRAMMYs this year, not even earning a single nomination.

Reports suggested it was because of disagreements about performing at both the GRAMMYs and the Super Bowl half time show.

So all eyes were on Abel for his performance in front of an estimated 22,000 fans (I also can’t believe they’d have that many people together when America is on fire) at the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.

He delivered a number of his hits and performed ‘I Can’t Feel My Face’ in a maze full of mirrors, leading to a load of memes on Twitter:

Abel even dipped back into his early works for songs like ‘Glass Table Girls’. Finishing his set on the field with ‘Blinded By The Lights’ before giving way to fireworks and applause.

You can watch the full performance below:

Drake from State Farm

Another Canadian heavy hitter was centre of attention in a bizarre appearance in a… State Farm commercial?

A pitch invader

That spin though.

The memes came full circle.

Reddit used all their marketing budget to celebrate the GameStop stock buyers

Reddit could only afford a super-fast five-second commercial, but they used their time to praise the users who organised a short squeeze on GameStop stock last month.

Timothée Chalamet and Winona Ryder pay tribute to Edward Scissorhands.

Timothée Chalamet starred as ‘Edgar Scissorhands’, the son of Edward Scissorhands in a new advert for an all-electric cadillac. It also saw Winona Ryder reprises her role as Kim Boggs.

Elsewhere, we ranked the top 20 Kendrick Lamar songs of all time.