The Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers face off at Super Bowl LVIII on Monday afternoon (NZT) at the impressive Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. But for many, the actual game will be an afterthought as they impatiently wait for, then obsessively critique the now iconic halftime show.
This year’s show is slightly odd: It’s headlined by eight-time Grammy award winner Usher, who will be appearing in his second Super Bowl and is seen as a secure choice by the NFL, but the presence of the now-ubiquitous Chiefs fan Taylor Swift will make him the second-most watched singer attending the game.
Here’s a look back at the good and bad from the world’s most prominent intersection of sport and music:
“I will absolutely be singing live … this is what I was born to do, what I was born for” said Beyonce after receiving criticism for appearing to lip sync during US President Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony. A fortnight later at the Super Bowl she gave a stunning performance that not only overshadowed the game itself, but also played a pretty large hand in Twitter’s massive rise to prominence as a cultural behemoth. After halftime, a partial blackout of the stadium’s lights delayed the restart by 45 minutes, prompting around 300,000 tweets a minute connecting the two events through memes, jokes and commentary.
Super Bowl LVI: Old school hip hop
Dr Dre performing at the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Photo / Getty Images
“Oh great, they’re finally playing some cool music,” said everyone who grew up with Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Dr Dre and 50 Cent, before bitterly realising that actually makes them quite old.
Super Bowl XXXVIII: Justice for Janet
The most infamous moment in halftime history came in 2004, in the middle of George W. Bush’s presidency and America’s hard turn towards the sort of political environment we have today. The reaction to Janet Jackson’s exposed breast was insane, disproportionate, heavily reflective of the resurgence of conservative influence on popular culture and has unfortunately been the first thing people think about when Jackson’s name is mentioned (meanwhile Justin Timberlake’s career didn’t seem to suffer at all). The desire to view it repeatedly was also the catalyst for an on-demand video upload service which would become known as YouTube.
Super Bowl XLIX: Left Shark
Katy Perry was upstaged by an unco-ordinated shark during her 2015 Super Bowl halftime show in Glendale, Arizona. Photo / WireImage
Katy Perry performs onstage during the Pepsi Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show at University of Phoenix Stadium.
So far the only halftime show where the most culturally impactful moment was an out-of-sync backup dancer.
Super Bowl XLV: The Black Eyed Peas kill their career
“Hideous”, “brutal” and “a futuristic eyesore” were some of the critical reactions to the renowned sell-outs’ performance, which was supposed to be a way of getting a younger market back after the fallout of Nipplegate had finally subsided. To make it worse, Fergie embarrassed herself even further with a shockingly bad rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner at the 2018 NBA All Star Game.
Super Bowl LI: Born This Way
Subverting the US Pledge of Allegiance by using it as a launch pad into Born This Way, Gaga didn’t just break ground by effortlessly turning America’s most aggressively heteronormative annual event into the gayest at the same time. The use of a fleet of 300 drones and 3D technology was a first, and the performance was immediately praised as being one of the best ever.
Super Bowl LIII: Maroon 5 stink up the joint
Adam Levine takes his shirt off during the Super Bowl halftime show. Photo / AP
The only thing notable about this phoned-in load of trash was Adam Levine’s desire to take off his shirt, unintentionally creating a debate about why the musical equivalent of unbuttered toast’s nipples are okay for TV while Janet Jackson’s aren’t.
Super Bowl XXVII: Michael Jackson changes everything
A serious degree of aggression from rival networks led to a ratings drop of almost a quarter during the previous year’s halftime break, so the NFL brought out the King Of Pop in 1993 to perform in front of more than 100,000 at Pasadena’s Rosebowl. It was a performance that set the template for big-name acts ever since and is certainly more fondly remembered than that year’s pregame coin toss – carried out by none other than O.J. Simpson.
Super Bowl LVII: Rihanna’s comeback
Rihanna finally agreed to perform at the halftime show for the NFL Super Bowl 57 football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023, in Glendale, Arizona. Photo / AP
Rhi-Rhi said no thank you to the NFL when asked to perform at Super Bowl LIII, due the league’s nosedive in reputation after its treatment of Colin Kaepernick. Her stance resulted in the aforementioned Maroon 5 disaster, but four years later a visibly pregnant Rhianna had a new makeup brand and the Super Bowl was the perfect place to push it and return from an overall five-year performance hiatus.
Super Bowl XLI: Purple Rain
Prince, pictured here during his 2007 Super Bowl halftime show. Photo / Getty Images
No Super Bowl halftime list would be complete without Prince, whose performance in Miami has gone down as the most iconic in history. Legend has it that when he was told a thunderstorm would likely hit Dolphin Stadium, Prince requested that it “rain harder”, creating a stunning visual that hadn’t been seen before or since. He effortlessly covered Queen, Tina Turner, Jimi Hendrix and the Foo Fighters before finishing with his own, perfect signature track to finish.
