The Weeknd's Super Bowl Halftime Show Look Surprises Fans; Bandages In 'After Hours' Era Explained

The Weeknd surprised fans when he went for a natural look instead of his bandaged alter ego for Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show.

The 30-year-old singer ditched the bandages and prosthetics he sported in previous performances when he took the stage at Tampa, Florida's Raymond James Stadium. Only his backup dancers were wearing bandages when he performed "Can't Feel My Face" and "House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls."

Explaining his bandaged "After Hours" character, The Weeknd told Variety in an interview Sunday, "The significance of the entire head bandages is reflecting on the absurd culture of Hollywood celebrity and people manipulating themselves for superficial reasons to please and be validated."

"It’s all a progression and we watch The Character’s storyline hit heightened levels of danger and absurdity as his tale goes on," he continued.

In November 2019, the singer first unveiled his red-jacketed alter ego in the music video for "Heartless," the lead single of his fourth studio album. The character next appeared on the album’s cover in March 2020, this time with a bloodied face.

The Weeknd also showed up at the American Music Awards in November with his face wrapped in bandages. He then sparked surgery rumors when he released the music video for "Save Your Tears" due to his thinned and crooked nose, bloated cheeks, puffed-up lips and surgery scars across his cheeks.

When asked about the message he wanted to bring to the audience as he intentionally made his face increasingly unattractive while promoting the album, the singer said appearance doesn't matter to him.

"I suppose you could take that being attractive isn’t important to me but a compelling narrative is," he told Variety.

And though most fans already figured out he was sporting prosthetics, some were still shocked to see The Weeknd's actual face at his Super Bowl LV performance.

"Me realizing The Weeknd face isn’t all f----d up..." one person tweeted.

"Does #TheWeeknd still have those prosthetics on his face or is this how he really looks?" another added.

The Weeknd's appearance wasn't the only thing that caught the attention of netizens as one part of his performance also became a viral meme. A clip of him looking around frantically as he appeared to get lost in a complex tunnel during his performance immediately sent Twitter into a meme-ing frenzy.

"6 year old me looking for my mom after I lost her in the mall," one wrote.

"Entering an apartment where I know a dog lives," another added.