The 37-year-old star covered the singer’s track ‘I Would Die 4 U’ during his very special show at the Super Bowl LII, which saw the Philadelphia Eagles triumph over the New England Patriots, winning 41 to 33.
Justin honoured the ‘Purple Rain’ hitmaker with the cover, whilst a huge video projection of Prince singing along to the track joined him during the performance at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota – Prince’s hometown.
Justin kicked off the show in front of an intimate crowd before dancing out onto the main stage to his classic track ‘Rock Your Body’, perfectly in sync with his backing dancers. It was then time to segue into hits like ‘Señorita’ and ‘Sexy Back’ before ploughing through ‘My Love’ and ‘Cry Me A River’ in the energetic 13 minute set, which had the crowd jumping throughout.
And a Justin Timberlake show wouldn’t be one without a classic dance break and the singer rushed onto the pitch to take part in a perfectly in-sync routine in front of the 66,000 that had gathered for the annual sporting event. Justin was then joined by a huge orchestra as he performed a snippet of ‘Suit and Tie’ accompanied by drums, trumpets, saxophones, tubas and trombones.
It was then time for the Prince tribute, with Justin asking the crowd to “put their cellphones up in Minneapolis to light it up tonight” as he made his way to the piano. The huge projection of Prince lit up as the two duetted on ‘I Would Die 4 U’. The whole stadium was turned purple to pay tribute to the late singer, who passed away in April 2016 at the age of 57.
Segueing into the last part of his set, Justin sang ‘Mirrors’, where he was joined on the pitch by hundreds of dancers who held the reflective surfaces above their head, lighting up the entire stadium. From mirrors to colour, the stadium burst with all different colours of the rainbow as Justin wowed the crowds with his hit track ‘Can’t Stop The Feeling’ before making his way into the stands to sing with his fans and even snapping a “Super Bowl selfie” with a lucky football fan.