By Jonathan Landrum Jr., Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --While Usher gears up for his 2024 Super Bowl halftime performance, the singer will lean on his previous experience of hitting the NFL's biggest stage to help prepare for the 13-minute set.
The Grammy winner said he's using his appearance with Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am in 2011 as a "cheat sheet." He was recently chosen to headline the halftime festivities from Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Feb. 11 — the same day he's expected to release his ninth studio album "Coming Home."
"I got a chance to see a bit of what it felt like," Usher told The Associated Press in a recent interview. In his first Super Bowl performance, he descended from the stadium ceiling to perform "OMG" in Arlington, Texas.
Usher's appearance lasted less than two minutes, but the moment gave him plenty of insight into conducting a show with such limited time. His album "Confessions" ranks among one of the best-selling music projects of all time and launched No. 1 hits such as "Yeah!" with Ludacris and Lil Jon, "Burn" and "Confessions Part II." He's had other hits such as "U Got It Bad," "U Remind Me," "You Make Me Wanna" and "Love in the Club" — lots of material to cover during one of the year's biggest cultural moments.
"Don't take the moments for granted because you only get 13 of them," said the singer, who is currently headlining his "Usher: My Way" sold-out residency in Las Vegas. "The hardest part is trying to figure out how to squeeze it all in when you actually have a large catalog, or a lot of records people celebrate and love."
Usher called his musical opportunities to perform part of "God's plan to entertain the world." As he prepares for the Super Bowl stage, the singer is promoting Type 1 diabetes screening through an ad campaign called The 1 Pledge movement, which launched Wednesday.
Usher's child was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 6 in 2014.
"Had I known about this opportunity early, I would feel better," said Usher, who is a paid spokesperson of the healthcare company Sanofi on the ad campaign. "There's a range of things that you have to get acclimated to like identifying the doctors, the philosophy of how you want to live your life and manage you blood glucose levels."
He added: "It's not just a journey for the child. It's a journey for the entire family."
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More