(Picture by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Photos)
Many moons in the past, the Tremendous Bowl halftime present was seen like every other soccer sport’s halftime present, solely offered on an even bigger scale — which is to say that whereas there was leisure, it wasn’t essentially the kind of factor you’d exit of your strategy to watch. Instances have modified. The times of thematic marching band performances are gone, and up to date producers of the occasion have leaned closely on spectacle, nostalgia, and platinum pop stars to ship a must-see musical manufacturing annually. With Tremendous Bowl LVII proper across the nook, airing reside on Fox on Sunday, February 12 with an anticipated show-stopping efficiency from nine-time Grammy-winning celebrity Rihanna, we have a look again on the evolution of the Tremendous Bowl halftime present, starting with the Seventies.
Up with Individuals
The Tremendous Bowl’s early halftime reveals have been dominated by marching bands, however they’d some competitors — most importantly courtesy of Up with Individuals, the multi-cultural efficiency troupe that sprung out of the Ethical Re-Armament motion of the ’60s. Between 1976 and 1986, Up with Individuals carried out throughout 4 halftime reveals, and added a fifth efficiency to their listing with an look through the pre-game present for Tremendous Bowl XXV in 1991. Developments have lengthy since handed Up with Individuals by, however they’ll ceaselessly stay a captivating footnote in Tremendous Bowl historical past.
Tremendous Bowl XXI
Performers: By the point Up with Individuals made their ultimate halftime present look in 1986, it was clear the troupe was perceived as foolish and old school. Naturally, the NFL went youthful and hipper the next yr by hiring George Burns and Mickey Rooney to topline the halftime leisure for a salute to Hollywood’s one hundredth anniversary, which featured the Grambling and USC marching bands, some highschool drill groups, and a handful of Disney characters. Viewers demographics have been clearly not but a key concern for the league.
Essential Response: There’s no denying that Burns and Rooney have been a pair of Hollywood legends, however this halftime present was a spectacle previous its prime when it aired, and it’s extensively derided in the present day as one of many Tremendous Bowl’s worst.
Verdict: Rotten
Tremendous Bowl XXII
Performers: Radio Metropolis Music Corridor served because the producer for Tremendous Bowl XXII’s halftime present, hiring Chubby Checker to carry out with the Rockettes and the marching bands for San Diego State College and USC. Though Checker was having fun with one thing of a comeback on the time, due to his look with the Fats Boys on a canopy of his signature hit “The Twist,” this present didn’t precisely have its finger on the heartbeat of a technology.
Essential Response: Describing a present that contained “44 Rockettes, 88 pianos, a 400-piece swing band and a jowly Chubby Checker, excessive atop a make-believe jukebox, singing the well-known Sixties aria, ‘Let’s Twist Once more, Like We Did Final Summer time,’” the Los Angeles Instances snarked, “the musicale represented the quiet, understated good style that has change into the hallmark of the Tremendous Bowl.”
Verdict: Rotten
Tremendous Bowl XXIII
Performers: Give the NFL this a lot: whenever you identify a present “Be Bop Bamboozled in 3-D,” you’re just about telling folks up entrance what they’ll anticipate to get. Tremendous Bowl XXIII’s halftime leisure was led by Elvis Presto, the nom de guerre adopted by a former Strong Gold dancer turned Elvis impersonator, and included 3D footage (viewable with glasses obtained courtesy of a tie-in promotion with Eating regimen Coke) and what was billed as “the world’s largest card trick.”
Essential Response: “It was all meant to be very tongue-in-cheek. It’s all very a lot a lampoon,” laughed producer Dan Witkowski years later. “I believe it began once we hit on the identify Elvis Presto. The remaining type of developed from there.”
Verdict: Rotten
Tremendous Bowl XXIV
Performers: Tremendous Bowl XXIV was held in New Orleans and coincided with the fortieth anniversary of Charles Schulz’s beloved Peanuts comics, so naturally, the league determined to place ’em each collectively for a halftime present that celebrated Charlie Brown and the gang, in addition to the tradition of New Orleans. Performers included singer Irma Thomas, fiddler Doug Kershaw, and clarinetist Pete Fountain… plus Snoopy.
Essential Response: “A tribute to New Orleans, additionally to the fortieth anniversary of the sketch Peanuts, and possibly additionally to medicine,” wrote Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield. “As a result of Charlie Brown has what precisely the hell to do with jambalaya and Mardi Gras once more?”
Verdict: Rotten
Tremendous Bowl XXV
Performers: By the early ’90s, the league — and extra importantly, the networks trapped in an annual bidding warfare for the correct to broadcast the present — acknowledged the necessity to safeguard towards counter-programming luring viewers’ eyes away at halftime, notably throughout a stretch of video games that included a sequence of lopsided victories. Enter New Youngsters on the Block, who took the stage throughout Tremendous Bowl XXV’s halftime for a Disney-inspired celebration that included a efficiency of “It’s a Small World.” It was preempted through the broadcast by a Gulf Struggle speech from President George Bush, and overshadowed afterward by Whitney Houston’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” — all of which was a aid to the New Youngsters, in response to member Donnie Wahlberg.
Essential Response: “I don’t know the way a lot pleasure I take within the precise efficiency,” admitted Wahlberg. “However I take pleasure in the truth that we have been the primary ones to do it.”
Verdict: Recent. As Wahlberg famous, the New Youngsters have been the primary of-the-moment pop stars to carry out throughout a Tremendous Bowl halftime present… even when nobody outdoors the stadium noticed it.
Tremendous Bowl XXVI
Performers: Held on the Metrodome in Minneapolis, the Tremendous Bowl XXVI halftime present was themed round “Winter Magic,” that includes Gloria Estefan, Olympic determine skaters Dorothy Hamill and Brian Boitano, and backup from rapping children, dancers, and members of the 1980 U.S. Olympics hockey staff.
Essential Response: It could have had its absurdly entertaining moments, however the present was embarrassed by Fox’s In Residing Coloration, which aired a “Tremendous Halftime Get together” episode that leeched roughly 22 million viewers away from the sport.
Verdict: Rotten
Tremendous Bowl XXVII
(Picture by Steve Granitz/WireImage)
Performers: Stung by the halftime scores from the earlier yr, producers stepped up their sport for Tremendous Bowl XXVII, reserving Michael Jackson — nonetheless out selling his 1991 Harmful LP — to carry out a three-song set that’s extensively credited with redefining the league’s strategy to the present. (Watch the video on YouTube.)
Essential Response: Because the New York Instances put it, “Michael Jackson’s legacy will ceaselessly embrace this title: King of Pigskin.”
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl XXVIII
Performers: No nation artist was greater within the ’90s than Garth Brooks. He didn’t play through the Tremendous Bowl XXVIII halftime present, however producers lined up a multi-platinum quartet to convey adequate star wattage to its “Rockin’ Nation Sunday” spectacular, hiring Clint Black, Tanya Tucker, Travis Tritt, and the Judds to carry out.
Essential Response: “Nation music haters pressured to observe this spectacle will need to have had their worst suspicion confirmed,” wrote Leisure Weekly’s Ken Tucker. “That nation is simply pop with with much less sophistication.”
Verdict: Rotten
Tremendous Bowl XXIX
Performers: Clearly, this sport’s halftime present is not any stranger to weird spectacle, however even in context, Tremendous Bowl XXIX is one thing particular. Designed to tie in with Disneyland’s new Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye attraction, it featured stand-ins for Harrison Ford and Karen Allen on a quest to rescue the stolen Lombardi Trophy (and musical numbers from Patti LaBelle, Tony Bennett, Arturo Sandoval, and the Miami Sound Machine).
Essential Response: Phrases can’t fairly do it justice, however SB Nation might need summed it up greatest: “Indiana Jones + singers dad and mom will love + Disney music = a halftime present so Nineteen Nineties it needs to be carrying spaghetti straps and feathered bangs.”
Verdict: Rotten
Tremendous Bowl XXX
Performers: There’s no denying that Diana Ross was nicely previous her hitmaking prime when she took the stage for the Tremendous Bowl XXX halftime present… however there’s additionally no arguing that she got here to point out everybody else the way it needs to be achieved. Traditional songs? Verify. A whopping 4 outfit modifications? Verify. Leaving the sector in a helicopter? Verify.
Essential Response: “A spectacular triumph,” wrote Tom Shales for the Washington Publish. “Maybe the most effective halftime present ever.”
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl XXXI
Performers: So far as most of us are involved, the Blues Brothers successfully ceased to exist after John Belushi’s premature passing in 1982. However surviving Brother Dan Aykroyd had different concepts, enlisting Belushi’s brother Jim, John Goodman, and the members of ZZ High for a Tremendous Bowl “Blues Brothers Bash” that made up in perspective no matter it could have lacked in necessity.
Essential Response: “The occasion solely served to remind everybody that John Belushi was nonetheless useless,” wrote the San Francisco Chronicle’s Peter Hartlaub, “and that Jim Belushi ought to keep on with straight-to-video Okay-9 sequels.”
Verdict: James Brown made an look, ergo the one attainable verdict is Recent.
Tremendous Bowl XXXII
Performers: The league helped Motown have fun its fortieth anniversary with a halftime musical extravaganza that includes basic Hitsville acts (Smokey Robinson, the Temptations, Martha Reeves) alongside the label’s new wave of chart-toppers (Boyz II Males, Queen Latifah). Additionally: the Grambling State College Marching Band.
Essential Response: “The set opens with the Temptations in what seem like full denim fits,” shrugged Vox, “and solely goes downhill from there.”
Verdict: The presentation won’t have been good, however the songs are classics. Recent.
Tremendous Bowl XXXIII
Performers: Pundits chortled when Aerosmith performed alongside ‘N Sync and Britney Spears in Tremendous Bowl XXXV, however it was simply a part of an extended custom of halftime reveals constructed out of wildly disparate substances. Living proof: Tremendous Bowl XXXIII’s halftime leisure, which boasted a invoice that included Stevie Surprise, Gloria Estefan, and briefly in style swing revivalists Huge Dangerous Voodoo Daddy.
Essential Response: Lamenting that “Apparently somebody thought Stevie Surprise didn’t pack sufficient star energy to command all the Tremendous Bowl halftime stage,” Idolator known as the top outcome “in every single place.”
Verdict: It’s removed from good, however Stevie performing “Sir Duke” in honor of Duke Ellington’s one hundredth birthday? Recent.
Tremendous Bowl XXXIV
Performers: As soon as once more, Disney took the manufacturing reins for a Tremendous Bowl halftime present, providing viewers a “Tapestry of Nations” that featured an intriguing-looking roster of performers — Phil Collins, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, Toni Braxton, and Tina Turner — who have been handed a set listing that resolutely refused to play to any of their strengths. From Turner’s lackluster rendition of “Proud Mary” to Collins’ efficiency of a ballad from the Tarzan soundtrack, this by no means actually acquired out of second gear.
Essential Response: “Something produced by Disney is predicted to be corny and nostalgic, sufficient to make you offended and never go to work the following day,” wrote Yahoo! Music’s Rob O’Connor. “It takes a full lineup of processed cheese to high the pack.”
Verdict: Rotten
Tremendous Bowl XXXV
Performers: As we’ve seen, the Tremendous Bowl tends to toss unrelated acts collectively for its halftime reveals, and as typically as not, the outcomes aren’t as weirdly entertaining as they could appear on paper. However Tremendous Bowl XXXV bucked that pattern with a invoice boasting Aerosmith, ‘N Sync, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, and Nelly — a wild collision of pop, rock, and R&B stars that labored despite itself.
Essential Response: Adam Graham of the Detroit Information known as it “Probably the most enjoyable halftime present the Tremendous Bowl has ever produced, one whose sheer pop would possibly gained’t quickly, if ever, be matched.”
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl XXXVI
(Picture by KMazur/WireImage)
Performers: Understandably slightly leery about embracing frivolity so quickly after the September 11 assaults, Janet Jackson rebuffed the NFL’s overtures for Tremendous Bowl XXXVI — in order that they turned to U2, who delivered a heartfelt set that included scrolling the victims’ names on a giant display screen and culminated with frontman Bono opening his jacket to disclose the American flag. (Watch the video on YouTube.)
Essential Response: “It was,” decreed Sports activities Illustrated, “arguably the most effective Tremendous Bowl halftime present of all time.”
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl XXXVII
Performers: What does Sting must do with No Doubt? Because the Police co-founder advised Howard Stern years later, he and frontwoman Gwen Stefani go means again — a bond that manifested itself when she inducted the band into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame later that yr. Stefani and Sting’s duet on the Police hit “Message in a Bottle” stole the present from Shania Twain, who took a vital drubbing for her allegedly lip-synced efficiency.
Essential Response: “No due to Twain,” wrote the Los Angeles Instances, “Stefani saved the play by doing what she does greatest, super-charging a Southern California crowd in a stadium setting via sheer power of ska-sonality.”
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl XXXVIII
Performers: You keep in mind this one — even in the event you don’t keep in mind that Jessica Simpson, a College of Houston marching band, Child Rock, Diddy, and Nelly additionally carried out. These Tremendous Bowl XXXVIII halftime acts have been ran into the ashbin of historical past the second Justin Timberlake brought on the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” that prompted a record-setting variety of TiVo rewinds (in addition to a not-inconsiderable variety of FCC complaints).
Essential Response: “For one flashing second throughout her efficiency at Sunday’s sport, Janet’s brother was not essentially the most scandalous Jackson,” quipped Leisure Weekly.
Verdict: Rotten
Tremendous Bowl XXXIX
(Picture by Jeff Gross/Getty Photos)
Performers: Breaking with a stretch of combo-platter performances, the NFL lined up Paul McCartney for Tremendous Bowl XXXIX — as a result of in the event you’ve acquired a former Beatle on the stage, do you really want anyone else? The reply, after all, turned out to be “no, by no means.” (Watch the video on YouTube.)
Essential Response: “Who cares that ‘soccer’ means one thing completely totally different in Macca’s hometown of Liverpool?” requested Paste. “His halftime set of Beatles and solo hits was easy, concise and almost good.”
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl XL
Performers: Maybe solely within the context of the Tremendous Bowl might the Rolling Stones nonetheless appear considerably harmful in 2006. Months after releasing their A Larger Bang LP, the band performed the halftime present — and confronted censorship for vaguely naughty lyrics of their basic hit “Begin Me Up” and new single “Tough Justice.” Set off-happy mute buttons however, it was nonetheless the Stones, man.
Essential Response: “They could have joked about their age — with Mick Jagger introducing ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ by saying ‘This one we might have achieved at Tremendous Bowl I,’” admitted Hitfix, “however they didn’t come off like a protected nostalgia act.”
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl XLI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NN3gsSf-Ys
Performers: Lengthy heralded as one of the incendiary reside performers of his technology, Prince didn’t disappoint when the NFL employed him to play the halftime present at Tremendous Bowl XLI. As a substitute of trotting out his best hits, he strolled out within the rain to ship a fiery, finely calibrated assortment of originals and covers of well-known songs by different artists — all topped off with an unforgettable rendition of “Purple Rain.” For quite a lot of viewers, the Tremendous Bowl has by no means been the identical since.
Essential Response: “Prince,” argued Christina Capatides for CBS, “singlehandedly made it okay to be attractive, unpredictable and creative on the Tremendous Bowl once more.”
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl XLII
Performers: Apart from a quick flirtation with making outré movies within the ’80s, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers have by no means been an image-driven band. To their credit score, they held quick to that music-first identification at Tremendous Bowl XLII, eschewing the occasion’s conventional glamour in favor of a meat-and-potatoes rock ‘n’ roll present.
Essential Response: “Petty wasn’t a purpose to maintain watching at halftime,” noticed the Village Voice’s Tom Breihan. “He was a purpose to not change the channel.”
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl XLIII
(Picture by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic)
Performers: Telling reporters he’d handed up on the possibility to play the halftime present earlier than, Bruce Springsteen overtly admitted he modified his thoughts when invited to carry out at Tremendous Bowl XLIII as a result of he had a brand new report (2009’s Engaged on a Dream) to advertise. To a sure breed of rock fan, there’s nothing fairly like a Springsteen present, notably with the E Avenue Band, and with a crowd of hundreds of thousands at their backs, they couldn’t assist however rock and roll — however possibly it wasn’t fairly the transcendent spectacle the Boss’s followers have been used to. (Watch the video on YouTube.)
Essential Response: “Whereas shilling doesn’t carry the sting it as soon as did, maybe Springsteen let the burden of accountability restrict his creativeness in his 12-minute set,” Jon Caramanica of the New York Instances urged.
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl XLIV
(Picture by Kevin Mazur/WireImage)
Performers: They have been a long time faraway from their artistic and industrial peak and so they hadn’t launched an album of latest materials in years, which made the Who one thing of an odd selection for Tremendous Bowl XLIV. In fact, even when Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend have been the final surviving members of the unique lineup, they nonetheless pack sufficient rock ‘n’ roll punch to promote out stadiums; sadly, Townshend was scuffling with well being points within the weeks main as much as the sport, which contributed to their halftime present’s altogether underwhelming air.
Essential Response: “All that was lacking,” wrote the New Orleans Instances-Picayune’s Keith Spera, “was Austin Powers.”
Verdict: Rotten
Tremendous Bowl XLV
Performers: It appears pretty doubtless that the overlap between Black Eyed Peas and Weapons N’ Roses followers is terribly slim, and but for Tremendous Bowl XLV, organizers lined up a halftime present that discovered Peas vocalist Fergie making an attempt to wail her means via the GNR hit “Candy Baby O’ Mine” with exiled Weapons co-founder Slash on guitar. Considerably predictably, it in contrast unfavorably with the unique.
Essential Response: “That is how far Slash has fallen,” lamented SB Nation’s Brian Floyd. “Fortunately no person will keep in mind his half as they rip all the things else in regards to the present. At the least he’s acquired that going for him.”
Verdict: Rotten
Tremendous Bowl XLVI
Performers: Like Bruce Springsteen, Madonna had a brand new report to advertise when she was approached to carry out on the Tremendous Bowl halftime present — and he or she pulled out all of the stops, enlisting Nicki Minaj, M.I.A., and stars-of-the-moment LMFAO to hitch her in a hits-laden set that naturally included her then-current single, “Give Me All Your Luvin’.” The efficiency wasn’t brief on spectacle — she entered being pulled on a chariot! — however fairly just a few critics, whereas entertained, resented being so transparently offered a invoice of products.
Essential Response: “Regardless of its success and extravagance, this complete halftime package deal most of all was little greater than an ingeniously nicely deliberate — and shockingly clear — commercial,” wrote the Los Angeles Instances’ Randall Roberts, “and never far more.”
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl XLVII
Performers: Beyoncé was nonetheless months faraway from releasing her self-titled fifth solo album when she took the stage throughout Tremendous Bowl XLVII, however her disbanded woman group Future’s Baby had a brand new compilation to advertise, so it shocked roughly nobody that the trio staged a short lived reunion within the midst of Beyoncé’s career-encompassing halftime present. Nonetheless, no matter it lacked when it comes to shock worth, it greater than made up with stage presentation, choreography, and sheer bootylicious abandon.
Essential Response: “From the second she appeared as a large silhouette towards a plume of smoke whereas the late Inexperienced Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi’s legendary ‘excellence should be pursued’ Tremendous Bowl speech was heard,” wrote the Hollywood Reporter’s David Rooney, “Beyoncé turned on a high-energy, sexually charged efficiency with thrilling multimedia components.”
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl XLVIII
Performers: Bruno Mars’ Unorthodox Jukebox LP was within the midst of its quadruple-platinum chart run when he carried out at Tremendous Bowl XLVIII, and though he was solely on his second album, he already had greater than sufficient hits underneath his belt to deal with the halftime present on his personal — however he nonetheless introduced out the Crimson Scorching Chili Peppers for a mid-set team-up on the band’s 1991 hit “Give It Away.” The Peppers later admitted they’d been miming their efficiency, however to the oldsters at residence, it didn’t matter a lot.
Essential Response: “Mars’ efficiency was close to flawless, however the carry in crowd noise when the Chili Peppers performed advised a narrative: on this event spontaneous rock dynamism trumped slick soul pop,” wrote the Sydney Morning Herald’s Peter Vincent.
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl XLIX
Performers: The NFL continued its streak of choosing buzzy youthful pop performers when placing collectively the invoice for Tremendous Bowl XLIX, hiring Katy Perry for the halftime present — and though Perry opened her set to incorporate visitor appearances from Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott, it was completely her present. Effectively, possibly hers and Left Shark’s, however nonetheless.
Essential Response: “With the entertaining, hassle-free present, Perry proved the NFL appropriate in her choice as halftime,” argued USA Immediately’s Chris Chase, calling the present “one of many few issues the NFL acquired proper this yr.”
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl 50
(Picture by Matt Cowan/Getty Photos)
Performers: For the Tremendous Bowl’s grand fiftieth anniversary celebration, the league lined up Coldplay to headline, with visitor appearances from Beyoncé and Bruno Mars with Mark Ronson. Nothing towards the fellows in Coldplay, however their midtempo catalog isn’t precisely fitted to such a occasion — all of which is to say it’s no shock that the majority pundits stated Beyoncé’s efficiency of “Formation” was the spotlight of the set. (Watch the video on YouTube.)
Essential Response: “By the point Bruno Mars challenged Bey to a dance-off,” wrote Vox’s Caroline Framke, “she’d stolen the present as soon as and for all.”
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl LI
Performers: The 51st version of any long-running occasion is certain to really feel slightly anticlimactic after all of the pageantry that goes together with hitting that half-century milestone, however no matter Woman Gaga’s halftime present lacked in built-in anticipation, it greater than made up in sheer showmanship. From patriotic opening numbers to jaw-dropping aerial work and a hits-studded set that ran the gamut from chart-topping favorites to newer materials, she took command of the most important viewers of her multiplatinum profession — and by no means let go. “We’re right here to make you are feeling good,” she advised the group at one level, and that aim was greater than evident in her efficiency.
Essential Response: “Woman Gaga’s Tremendous Bowl halftime present,” wrote Time’s Daniel D’addario, “stands as among the many easiest within the historical past of the shape, racing ambitiously via the artist’s complete profession and placing ahead the qualities of the artist that simply work.”
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl LII
Performers: Justin Timberlake returned to the halftime stage for the primary time since his “Nipplegate” fiasco in 2004. And whereas he didn’t convey Janet Jackson again with him for a repeat efficiency, he did pay tribute to the not too long ago departed Minneapolis hometown hero Prince by way of what some anticipated to be a hologram, however was really a projection of the purple one on a display screen.
Essential Response: “The efficiency was respectable, and Timberlake sounded good and danced even higher. So far as half-time reveals go, it was passable, a enjoyable however forgettable show of the singer’s substantial skills,” wrote The Guardian’s Jake Nevins. EW’s Darren Franich summed it up: “He performed it too protected; he took Attractive away.”
Verdict: Recent (barely)
Tremendous Bowl LIII
Performers: Maroon 5 took on what promised to be a thankless job, headlining throughout a yr wherein controversy rampaged via the NFL over participant Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling through the Nationwide Anthem. (Rihanna and Cardi B reportedly stated, “Thanks, however no” to the gig in solidarity with the previous quarterback.) Rappers Travis Scott and Huge Boi additionally carried out.
Essential Response: Yeesh. Not good. You’d suppose Nickelback performed based mostly on the halftime present opinions. The New York Instances‘ Jon Caramanica gave the impression to be satisfying a private vendetta in his assessment: “Maroon 5 — a quasi-soul, quasi-rock, totally funkless band…doubtless the third or eighth or possibly 14th selection for a headliner…Maroon 5 was a cynically apt selection…as simple to neglect as gentle climate…a efficiency that was dynamically flat, mushy on the edges, worthy of one thing a lot worse than derision: a shrug…an inessential efficiency from a band which may have misplaced some ethical authority if it had any ethical authority to lose.” Vox’s headline: “Maroon 5 was high quality.” Author Alex Abad-Santos went on to elaborate: “Maroon 5’s 2019 Tremendous Bowl halftime present was aggressively high quality.” Another adjectives spherical out the image: “fundamental,” “flavorless,” “painful,” and “tasted like concern.”
Verdict: Rotten
Tremendous Bowl LIV
Performers: Politics raged as soon as extra within the background of the Tremendous Bowl in 2020 – which was one of many final main occasions held in that blissful interval we’d now name “BC,” or Earlier than COVID. The nationwide anthem kneeling protest remained a divisive problem and America was gearing up for a fraught election season, but when anybody might unite each side of the aisle, and the nation, it was Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, joined briefly by Dangerous Bunny and J. Balvin. After Shakira’s six-minute set – wherein she was the primary Latinx artist to carry out music in Spanish throughout a halftime present – J-Lo got here in and wowed with a ferociously choreographed journey via her best hits, together with “Let’s Get Loud” and “Ready For Tonight.”
Essential Response: A lot of the main focus main as much as the halftime present was on the milestone being made by having two Latina performers take the stage, and Lopez staged a chills-on-the-back-of-your-neck second when daughter Emmie Muñiz sang Bruce Springsteen’s “Born within the USA” as mother waved round a cape that includes the Puerto Rican and American flags. After the present there was chatter about a few of revealing costumes – come on, we haven’t gotten previous this?! – and who upstaged whom. “[Lopez] pushed additional with dance than Shakira did, at the price of grip of singing,” Craig Jenkins wrote for Vulture. “Her intricate routines nodded to the Tremendous Bowl’s marching-band previous, and urged that somebody’s listening to the fearlessly vertical routines in Cheer and large-scale productions like Homecoming.” However the overwhelming evaluation was that this was a landmark halftime present, and one loaded with which means for the sport and the nation. For Rolling Stone, Suzy Exposito wrote, “… as a lot as this sport has additional aggravated divisions in america — it’s unattainable to minimize the truth that for 15 fleeting minutes, a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of eyes have been on Latinas. And never simply Latinas, however Latinas getting loud.”
Verdict: Fresca
Tremendous Bowl LV
(Picture by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Photos)
Performers: To say 2021 was an odd yr, could be an understatement. And that sentiment might simply be utilized to the yr’s Tremendous Bowl halftime present. Almost one yr into the COVID-19 pandemic, Tampa Bay’s Raymond James Stadium sported a socially-distanced crowd of 25,000 followers, with one other 30,000 life-size cutouts filling these coveted seats. The Weeknd took word of the state of affairs and, as an alternative of including high-caliber visitor stars, he pivoted his 13-minute set to characteristic a Las Vegas cityscape, a military of face-bandaged back-up dancers, a choir of shiny robots, and an epic firework present. As he journeyed via his largest hits, from “Starboy” and “Can’t Really feel My Face” to “I Really feel It Coming,” it grew to become evident that this meme-worthy efficiency wasn’t centered solely on these within the stadium’s seats, however extra so, for the hundreds of thousands of locked-down viewers at residence. (Watch the video on YouTube.)
Essential Response: Apart from a quick musical interlude on the inexperienced, The Weeknd carried out most of his set from a stage arrange within the stands. That, proper there, was an enormous pivot from the Tremendous Bowl’s long-standing custom of setting its halftime reveals on a stage in the midst of the sector. Patrick Ryan of USA Immediately in contrast it to “your common VMAs medley with a barely greater price range, reasonably than a efficiency that was envisioned and executed particularly for a stage as huge because the Tremendous Bowl.” That stated, The Weeknd did his greatest to rise above the manufacturing challenges and as Benjamin Lee of The Guardian factors out, “it was energetic and indulgent sufficient for that to not be noticeable.”
Verdict: Recent
Tremendous Bowl LVI
(Picture by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Photos)
Performers: It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that 2022 set the brand new commonplace for Tremendous Bowl halftime reveals. Not solely was this the primary in-person Tremendous Bowl because the Covid-19 pandemic shut issues down, the yr marked the first-ever efficiency helmed by a hip-hop performer. In truth, this yr’s present was helmed by a banging roster of hip-hop royalty – led by Dr. Dre and that includes Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, and Eminem – who gave a nostalgic homage to L.A.’s impression on the tradition.
The close to 15-minute set kicked off with Dre and Snoop performing classics, “The Subsequent Episode” and “California Love,” earlier than dropping into 50 Cent’s “In Da Membership” – taking us all again to 2003 along with his white tank high, G-Unit gold chain, and upside-down hanging verses. On the roof of the two-story set, Mary J. Blige carried out “Household Affair” and introduced the home down with “No Extra Drama,” earlier than Kendrick Lamar modified the tone with “Alright,” setting the viewers up with Eminem’s all-time basic “Lose Your self,” and the present’s huge nearer, “Nonetheless D.R.E.” (Watch the video on YouTube.)
Essential Response: The Los Angeles Instances known as the efficiency, “a festive, funky, completely trunk-rattling halftime present.” And it was. The power was infectious and the social gathering ambiance succeeded at getting these at SoFi Stadium, and viewers at residence, on their toes. After 50 years of hip-hop, this was a milestone, to make certain. However one has to marvel why it took this lengthy for rap music to take middle stage. Rumored efforts of the NFL’s try at censoring lyrics by Dre and Kendrick referencing police brutality, and a failed try at stopping Eminem from paying homage to Colin Kaepernick by kneeling on the stage, was a reminder to viewers that, though this was an epic efficiency for the books, we nonetheless have plenty of work to do. Or, as Advanced identified, “It was an enormous second for the style — however not sufficiently big to overshadow all of the injustice that engendered the second.”
Verdict: Recent
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