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Memorial Day Weeknd: Hitmaker thrills Ford Field at first of two concerts

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Memorial Day Weeknd: Hitmaker thrills Ford Field at first of two concerts



The Toronto superstar lit up downtown Detroit with a stunning stage production full of blinding lights.

The lights were blinding inside Ford Field on Saturday night — as were the lasers, bursts of pyrotechnics and flashes from phones in the audience — as Toronto superstar the Weeknd brought his After Hours Til Dawn Tour to the downtown stadium, a stunning stage spectacle that made full, thrilling use of the Detroit Lions’ home and made his last stop at the venue, in July 2022, seem like a warmup act.

The stage was outfitted with a long runway that stretched the full length of the stadium floor, with two wings that expanded out to the sides. (From overhead, the stage resembled a cross.) Sections of the venue’s club level were blocked off to house huge lighting rigs which flashed weapons grade strobe lights, and the full production transformed the stadium into a massive dance floor for the sold-out crowd of more than 40,000 fans.

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Those fans were treated to more than two hours of hits that were accentuated by dark synth stabs and booming bass drops while the Weeknd, aka 35-year-old Abel Tesfaye, sang over top in his smooth, polished tones. Saturday was the first round of the singer’s two-night stand at Ford Field, and he clocks in again for work at the venue on Sunday night.

“Remember I told you last time we were gonna play two nights?” he asked the audience, and indeed, that was a promise he made at Ford Field three years ago. Such a feat was unthinkable when the Weeknd made his Detroit debut at Saint Andrew’s Hall back in 2012 or when he played an undersold show at the Fox Theatre a year later, but such has been the run for the artist who started with a trio of mixtapes in 2011 and was known early on for never showing his face.

Now his face is everywhere, including the movies, and there were no mentions on stage of “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” the companion piece to his current album which is currently playing to empty audiences at a theater near you and is destined to pick up several Razzies at the end of the year. (The movie is, at best, unsuccessful, and that’s being generous.)

But that’s OK because the stage is where he belongs, and this time his vision was even more fully realized than the last time around, with a crumbling cityscape surrounding the main stage, a mega-sized video wall as the stage’s backdrop, and a towering gold statue at the center of the production that looked like either a hood ornament or an Oscar statue’s female counterpart.

A squad of more than two dozen female dancers wore all red and covered their faces with gold masks, and the Weeknd wore a hooded robe and a mask with light-up eyes for the first few songs. It was like if “Eyes Wide Shut” was a stadium tour, with pop-R&B as the soundtrack instead of the dark, eerie chants from the Kubrick movie.

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Detroit, MI

Why did officials go to monitor twice in Lions vs. Bucs? Pool report offers explanation

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Why did officials go to monitor twice in Lions vs. Bucs? Pool report offers explanation


Sometimes, all it takes is a week for the pendulum to swing.

After being on the wrong end of some controversial officiating in a loss at the Kansas City Chiefs in Week 6, the Detroit Lions benefitted from a rather confusing sequence involving the referees in their 24-9 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday.

The play in question came with 11:36 remaining in the fourth quarter. Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield dropped back to pass on fourth-and-medium and found tight end Cade Otton over the middle of the field. Otton, covered by linebacker Alex Anzalone, extended for the line to gain. The ball came loose, and the Bucs recovered. A fumble on fourth down can’t be advanced by the offense unless it’s collected by the player who fumbled. Otton didn’t get on top of the ball, but the referees’ initial ruling was Otton had gained enough yards for a first down.

Lions head coach Dan Campbell threw the challenge flag. Confusion first arose because it was announced in the stadium that the Lions were challenging whether Otton completed the process of the catch. In the postgame pool report, however, NFL vice president of instant replay Mark Butterworth said Campbell specified he was challenging the line to gain. Regardless, “all reviewable aspects of the play are under review” during a challenge, according to Butterworth, no matter what the challenge is for.

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Also drawing some controversy was the replay review itself. Officials made their way to the monitor and initially upheld the call on the field, giving the Bucs, trailing by 15 points and near midfield, a first down. The referees then went back to the monitor for what appeared to be a second look at the replay. They returned with a different ruling, this time saying Otton was short of the first down. Also of note: Otton was down before he fumbled.

Butterworth explained the second review was triggered because there was access gained to a camera angle that was not available when they first went to the monitor.

“Later in the process we received an enhanced view from broadcast that showed that when the knee was down, the ball was short of the line to gain,” Butterworth said. “We were having issues with the referee’s O2O (official-to-official communication system), which is why he (the referee on the field) was brought back to the monitor. We did not show him anything on the screen at that point, it was simply to communicate to clean up the ruling on the field.”

Mayfield said after the game he was “still pretty damn confused about the double review.”

“A lot of things in that game that were a little questionable, but a lot of frustration at the end of that (game),” Mayfield said. “It might be displaced onto (NFL official) John Hussey in the moment, but it’s — I work my ass off and I put a lot into this game, so when things that I don’t see are deemed fair, I’m going to let somebody know.”

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rsilva@detroitnews.com

@rich_silva18



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Former congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick lying in state at Wright Museum

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Former congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick lying in state at Wright Museum


Former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick lie in state on Monday at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History for a daylong visitation ahead of her funeral on Wednesday.

Cheeks Kilpatrick, 80, died on Oct. 7 following a long illness, family and friends said.

The mother of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick served seven terms in Congress and nine terms in the Michigan House of Representatives as a Democrat. She left office at the end of 2010 after losing reelection in a Democratic primary.

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Cheeks Kilpatrick’s funeral is planned to begin at noon on Wednesday at Greater Emmanuel Church of God in Christ, 19190 Schaefer Hwy., on Detroit’s west side.

Monday’s visitation was scheduled from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the museum, 315 E. Warren.



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MSP trooper injured after vehicle strikes patrol car on I-96 in Detroit

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MSP trooper injured after vehicle strikes patrol car on I-96 in Detroit


A Michigan State Police trooper was injured after his patrol car was struck by a Jeep Cherokee driver who lost control on Interstate 96 in Detroit, running into the trooper’s car during a crash investigation, police said.

The trooper was sitting on the shoulder of westbound I-96 at Fullerton Avenue in Detroit investigating a single-vehicle crash, according to Michigan State Police.

The 55-year-old driver of the Jeep Cherokee lost control and struck the patrol car, pushing it into the rear of the car involved in the initial crash, according to MSP. The trooper was in his patrol car and was injured, as were two people in the Jeep.

“It is important for drivers to remember to slow down in wet weather,” said MSP First Lt. Mike Shaw in a press release. “This particular driver was not only driving too fast for road conditions, he also had three of his four tires worn below the wear bars which also led him to lose control and crash.”

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kberg@detroitnews.com



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