Bootsy Collins to Perform at Halftime of Cincinnati Bengals Playoff Game – Billboard

Funk legend Bootsy Collins will take the stage on Sunday (Jan. 15) night to cheer on the Cincinnati Bengals for a halftime performance during his hometown team’s battle against the Baltimore Ravens in the first round of the NFL playoffs.

Marking the funketeer’s first public live performance since 2019, the halftime set will feature the debut of his new track, “The Ickey Shuffle.” The thumping song is a tribute to legendary Bengals running back Ickey Woods — a beloved late 1980s-early 1990s fan favorite best known for his iconic end zone dance of the same name — and it showcases Collins’ song, Ouiwey Collins, on vocals and is accompanied by a high-energy video starring Woods, the Ben-Gals cheerleaders and some digital tigers.

Collins will unveil the song at halftime of the game that begins on NBC at 8:15 p.m. ET, with members of nearby Dayton, Ohio’s The Ohio Players (“Fire,” “Love Rollercoaster”) joining in on the jam; the performance was originally slated to take place during the ill-fated Jan. 2 game between the Bengals and Buffalo Bills, during which Bills player Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field after suffering cardiac arrest.

“We was ready to funk it out with the Bengals Who-Dey Baby and something just wasn’t right, everything just went chaotic,” Collins said of the scotched performance in a statement. “I immediately started watching the monitor in my dressing room and seen that beautiful young man on the ground. Patti my wife immediately looked at me and I said ‘Patti, God is trying to tell us that we all need to be On The One right now’ and she agreed. Bless that young man.” Collins will also play his Bengals pump-up anthem “Fear Da Tiger” during halftime.

Bengals fans are invited to create their own version of the Shuffle, with partial proceeds from the track going to the Jovante Woods Foundation in honor of Ickey and Chandra Woods’ 16-year-old song, Jovante, who died in 2010 from complications of an asthma attack.

Before Woods takes it to the stage, the game will open with a performance of the National Anthem by a member of the Stranger Things family. The Bengals announced that Aidan Fisher, the guitar body double for Joseph Quinn’s Metallica-shredding character Eddie Munson, will shred the Anthem to kick off the wild card game that marks the third battle between the Ravens and Bengals this season and the follow-up to last week’s Cincinnati victory.

Watch the “Ickey Shuffle” video below.