The Weekend officially has his own hometown holiday.
Toronto mayor John Tory took to social media on Sunday to announce that the Canadian city will observe Feb. 7 as “The Weeknd Day” in honor of the R&B superstar’s halftime show performance at Super Bowl LV.
“This Sunday — on Super Bowl Sunday — we celebrate The Weeknd as he becomes the first Canadian to headline a solo halftime show and only the third Canadian to ever perform live at one of the world’s most watched events,” Tory wrote in his proclamation. “Millions of people will be watching him and cheering him on but we know Scarborough, a community he continues to support, will be cheering the loudest.”
Other Canadians who have performed at the Super Bowl include actor Dan Aykroyd, who reprised his famous Blues Brothers character in 1997, and country singer Shania Twain, who rocked the big game in 2003.
Ahead of Sunday’s matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, The Weeknd revealed that he plans to buck recent tradition and go it alone during his 2021 Pepsi Super Bowl LV halftime performance.
“I’ve been reading a lot of rumors,” the singer told the NFL Network while discussing whether he’ll have any special guests on stage. “There wasn’t any room to fit it in the narrative and the story I was telling in the performance. So, there’s no special guests, no.”
In a recent Billboard cover story, The Weekend’s manager Wassim “Sal” Slaiby said the artist fronted $7 million of his own money to “make this halftime show be what he envisioned.” But the “Blinding Lights” singer won’t let up on any details regarding his vision, besides the fact that he and his team “built the stage within the stadium” and are “also using the field.”
Super Bowl LV takes place at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla.
See the City of Toronto’s full statement about The Weeknd Day below.
