Just like the rest of America, I was watching the Superbowl this past Sunday. Audiences were glued to their televisions throughout the game as I was looking on and hoping for a great halftime show because there really hasn’t been one in years. All I got was some horrible auto-tuning. In honor of one of the worst halftime shows i’ve seen yet, here is a look back at all the great and not so great performances in Superbowl Halftime history.
Not So Great: Black Eyed Peas
This past weekend’s halftime show was total stuff. When I heard the Black Eyed Peas were going to be performing, I really was going to give them a chance. That chance was very quickly blown. It felt like I was watching something more like a sound check than a real concert. Taboo had a really weird outfit that looked like an epileptic seizure waiting to happen, and Fergie looked like she was 40 years old. The only thing that saved this performance was the surprise Slash and Usher appearances. I just wasn’t happy at all, and I know that goes for millions of others as well.
Great: Aerosmith, Nsync, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, Nelly
This was probably my favorite halftime show, mainly because I was ten and I could listen to the music my parents hated as they listened to Aerosmith. It started off with Nsync, which had my sister glued and I will admit I had my foot tapping as well. Then Aerosmith came out for a set. Then it is just a big cluster of the biggest starts from all genres hitting the stage for a rendition of “Walk This Way”. It was really cool to see all these genres come in to do one major performance. This is what a great performance is really about.
Not So Great: Paul McCartney
I am a huge Paul McCartney fan and when I heard he was performing at the Super Bowl, I was all kinds of excited. I mean with all the technology out there now that he didn’t have years ago, he was bound to do something great. However, these high expectations are probably what most contributed to him being a “worst performance”. It also doesn’t help that this performance took place on the coat tails of the Janet Jackson fiasco, but I was still expecting him to do something amazing. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good.
Great: U2
U2 was just an all-around great show. It was a show that people ranging from 15 to 60 could enjoy. It really gave a small glimpse into what going to a U2 concert would be like. It was also a best because of the fact that they didn’t have a guest. They did the entire halftime show on their own and without boring audiences. That is an accomplishment within itself.
Great/Not So Great: Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson started off the show strong with a good number of guests along side her. This all took a turn though when she had a “wardrobe malfunction” and Justin Timberlake as the cause. It caused this big stir of controversy and cost a lot of money to get the FCC off their backs. It just wasn’t fair to all the other potential performers who will now be subject to much more scrutiny, while committees attempt to predict who could possibly get them fined.
