How Much Does Usher Get Paid For Super Bowl Halftime Show? The Figures Are Shocking

How Much Does Usher Get Paid For Super Bowl Halftime Show? 

It was previously reported that Super Bowl Halftime performers do not get paid. However, NFL’s vice president of communications, Brian McCarthy, clarified to Newsweek, “The NFL covers all costs associated with the show and does pay the performers’ union scale. There is not an appearance fee, but the artists are indeed paid union scale.” The union scale is the minimum amount that bosses have to pay performers. It’s estimated that it’s “a fraction of the six- and seven-figure sums” the artists typically earn, according to Forbes.

According to National Football League spokesperson Joanna Hunter, Super Bowl Halftime Show performers aren’t paid but the NFL does cover the expenses for their performance. “We do not pay the artists,” Hunter told Forbes in 2016. “We cover expenses and production costs.” However, there is a limit to how much the NFL will pay. The Weeknd’s manager Wassim “Sal” Slaiby told Billboard in 2021 that the “Starboy” singer contributed $7 million of his own money to “make this halftime show be what he envisioned” when he performed at the Super Bowl LV.

 Though USher may be being paid little for his performance, his music sales are about the explode. In data compiled by Forbes, 2023 Super Bowl performer Rihanna’s digital album sales climbed by 301%, while digital song sales surged by 390%. Though Rhianna didn’t have any new songs to promote, while Usher released his latest album COMING HOME on February 9, a couple days before the big Super Bowl performance.

How much do Super Bowl dancers get paid?

Super Bowl dancers get paid union rates based on SAG-AFTRA guidelines. Dancers should be paid between $788 and $1030 a day, depending on how many are in a routine. For rehearsals, they are

When The Weeknd performed at the Super Bowl in 2021, the Los Angeles Times investigated that “paid dancers received $712 for show day and $45 per hour for their rehearsal time, as well as a $30 per diem and a $250 COVID stipend if a dancer was asked to report to a clinic for a test on a nonwork day. Unpaid dancers sat in stadium bleachers for up to two hours in the cold while waiting to rehearse as their paid counterparts spent that time in green rooms.”

The professional dancers are different from volunteered dancers on the field. Jana Fleishman, executive vice president of strategy and communications for Halftime producers Roc Nation told the Los Angeles Times, “As in years past, it is completely up to the volunteer candidates to participate. Volunteers are not asked to learn choreography.” Field cast performers are paid $15 an hour.

After a controversy where paid dancers were dancing along non-paid dancers, SAG-AFTRA said, “no professional dancers will be asked to work for free as part of the halftime show. SAG-AFTRA will be advising our professional dancer members that they should not be rehearsing or working on the Super Bowl halftime show without compensation.”

Usher’s reaction to performing at Super Bowl LVIII

The R&B legend was ecstatic to tell the world of his headlining spot at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. “As of August, I knew. And I had to keep it a secret up until the grand unveiling for the world,” Usher told CBS News. “And I couldn’t let my kids know. So, like, any kind of documents I’m receiving, you know, we had, like, a code word that we would only talk on the telephone to let it be known that we were discussing ‘Utah,’ you know?” Utah was the code word for the Super Bowl.

“You don’t get a chance to surprise your kids that often anymore. It’s like, there’s no fantasy moments,” he said. Usher’s kids advised him “to pray about” playing the Super Bowl in the past.

“You know, everybody says they want to win a Grammy, or they want to win an Oscar, or a Tony, or an Emmy. A Super Bowl is something that everybody wants to play,” he said. “And here it is. It happened.”

When It Was Just a Game: Remembering the First Super Bowl

For more about the Super Bowl, football fans can check out When It Was Just a Game: Remembering the First Super Bowl by Harvey Frommer. The best-selling book delves into the history of the first Super Bowl, which was originally known as the AFL-NFL Championship Game. (The term “Super Bowl” was coined only in its third year.) The debut game, between the winning Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs, was played in front of only 61,946 people at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum—an audience well below the stadium’s capacity. Harvey Frommer, a sports historian and reporter, puts the tale of that momentous game together using oral history, gathered by hundreds of interviews with players, coaches, media and spectators alike.