The Best, Worst and Wildest Super Bowl Halftime Shows Ever – Bleacher Report
What began with college marching bands showing their stripes, the Super Bowl halftime show soon became a full-blown music industry event.1989’s performer was a literal Elvis impersonator, but that kind of small-time stuff would soon be a thing of the past. By the time Michael Jackson’s 1993 performance at Super Bowl XXVII got the whole world talking, the Super Bowl halftime show quickly became as big of a spectacle as the game itself.Now for Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans on Sunday, the halftime show will be headlined by Kendrick Lamar, with an appearance by SZA and surely some other surprise guests. With that, we’re taking an opportunity to look back on some of the most memorable Super Bowl halftime performances of all time, for better or worse.When Bruce Springsteen took the stage at Super Bowl XLII, it was pretty clear that The Boss understood the assignment. The lights and constant screaming of 75,000 people at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium didn’t faze him one bit.In fact, it only seemed to inspire him to perform in bigger and better fashion. Springsteen jumped into the crowd multiple times as Max Weinberg pounded away at the drums, the E Street Band horn section crushed and guitarist Stevie Van Zandt hyped up the star shouting “It’s Boss time!” as they got into “Glory Days.”Was there a power slide? You bet! Springsteen is the embodiment of the workmanlike American football ethos, and we’re giving him the nod over the Rolling Stones because for 15 minutes, he was one with the people the whole way at halftime.To think Beyoncé allowed her immaculate Super Bowl halftime show reputation to be brought down by playing second fiddle to Coldplay and Bruno Mars three years hence (more on that later) does a disservice to her headlining performance at Super Bowl XLVII.Her choreography was off the charts and teeming with her uncompromised swagger from the minute she took the stage for “Crazy In Love.” Her Destiny’s Child bandmates Michelle WIlliams and Kelly Rowland joined her at one point for “Single Ladies,” “Bootylicious” and “Independent Women, Part 1” and they were marvelous together.Queen Bey closed with a melodramatic rendition of “Halo” that tugged at every heartstring imaginable and little did we know that we were merely on the precipice of the career of one of the greatest live performers of all time.U2’s Super Bowl XXXVI performance at the Superdome was one of the final moments of the last truly great era of the band, and it was sublime. Opening the set with “Beautiful Day” brought much-needed catharsis for a heavy-hearted nation in the wake of 9/11, and Bono and company nailed it.Displaying the names of all who died in the horrific tragedy was a bold move, but Bono dug deep and found the tact and respect that we all yearned for in a moment like this. When it all came together, set to “Where The Streets Have No Name,” it forever lives on as one of the greatest moments in Super Bowl halftime show history.Shortly before Prince’s halftime show performance at Super Bowl XLI in Miami, it started to rain. By the time the set came to “Purple Rain,” the entire performance felt so surreal. Like…could Prince have actually planned for this?!On a stage shaped like his signature symbol, The Purple One opened with “Let’s Go Crazy,” was joined triumphantly by the Florida A&M marching band and members of his backing band, The New Power Generation.He played an insane improvised guitar solo on a version of “All Along The Watchtower,” and even made covering the Foo Fighters’ “Best of You” look natural. In arguably the single greatest Super Bowl halftime show performance ever, Prince shined as the pinnacle of American music; it was rock, it was soul, it was blues, it was all that and more. And you could see on his face that it all really meant something to him. There will never be anyone like Prince.Rihanna absolutely flexed on the people from the moment her Super Bowl LVII performance hit. Opening with “B—h Better Have My Money”?! Sheesh. For everyone who’d been waiting for seven years since her last album (and still are today, tbh) this collection of straight-up #hits was a glorious consolation prize.In her sculpted red leather corset beneath a matching cargo jumpsuit, RiRi traversed musical styles on a high tech, LED light-crusted floating platform before settling into the stage below.Surrounded by dancers dressed in white, hers was one of the most visually stunning entries on this list. She gets extra points for performing “All Of The Lights” without inviting Kanye West to join her, and she essentially announced her second pregnancy by performing with a noticeable baby bump. Legendary.Super Bowl 50 was supposed to be a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but booking Coldplay to play the halftime show left a lot to be desired. At this point in their careers, the British band were the embodiment of the commercial pop rock machine, and having Chris Martin cover “Purple Rain” came across as sacrilege.Bruno Mars joined in with Mark Ronson dropping some Guitar Center-worthy turntable scratches into “Uptown Funk” and Mars’ corny on-stage persona felt like he was about to break out into “Who Let The Dogs Out?” at any moment.Even Beyoncé couldn’t save this train wreck when she was thrust into backing vocals for Mars and Martin. This definitely has to qualify as the worst use of Beyoncé since Austin Powers 3.When the Super Bowl made its way back to Atlanta for the first time in nearly 20 years, a celebration of the incredible force that is Southern hip-hop was an obvious choice for the halftime show.Instead, we got Adam Levine and milquetoast Maroon 5. Full stop. Not centering this show around Southern hip-hop (or even Atlanta native Janelle Monáe) was a total miss. Never mind that Big Boi (sans André 3000, natch in 2018) eventually rolled up in a convertible Cadillac to play “The Way You Move” or that Travis Scott (a Houston rapper) pulled up too.Because Levine walking through a crowd of young women holding paper lanterns, only to later bare his abs for all of them to swoon over, is the antithesis of what the Dirty South is synonymous with and had people all over the country rushing to the kitchen for another beer instead.Even though the Black Eyed Peas’ stage production looked right out of the latest Tron movie (not a bad thing), it’s really hard to find any redeeming qualities in the group and its Super Bowl XLV halftime show when Fergie is on the mic oversinging.She’s about as random of an addition to the group as Poochie was to The Itchy & Scratchy Show. The set’s audio issues and Usher’s cameo with out-of-sync backup dancers didn’t help either. And look, Will.i.am has legit energy and dude deserves his flowers. But Fergie and Slash’s “Sweet Child O’ Mine” duet was a total stretch that had Tokyo luxury hotel cabaret vibes (not a good thing.)We should’ve seen her all-time dud of a national anthem at the 2020 NBA All-Star Game coming after this.The Super Bowl XXXIV halftime show was shoe-horned into part of Disney’s year-long Millennium Celebration, and this one was a stinker from the jump.Christina Aguilera and Enrique Iglesias singing a duet of a song off the Disney soundtrack album for the year 2000 while surrounded by some insane amalgamation of Cirque du Soleil meets Disney on Ice meets a bad acid trip…does that sound like something you’d be interested in? Didn’t think so.Then came Phil Collins with a backward Kangol hat and weird cargo pants on, the network television version of Toni Braxton and narration in between it all by Edward James Olmos because, huh?While it might seem like a pretty obvious illusion today, anyone watching the Super Bowl XXVII halftime show 32 years ago had their minds effectively blown by Michael Jackson’s teleportation trick.As the performance began, Jackson appeared on a Jumbotron, and then was seemingly zapped up through the screen atop the structure. Then he disappeared, only to reappear with the same effect on the other Jumbotron across the Rose Bowl. Then in the blink of an eye, he was gone again, only to teleport to the 50-yard line for a performance that definitely ranks in the “best” category if it weren’t such wild early-’90s magic.While everyone talks about Justin Timberlake flipping down Janet Jackson’s top to reveal a nipple tassel-covered boob at the end of Janet’s Super Bowl XXXVIII performance, this whole show was already super-duper wild leading up to that point.First, Jessica Simpson pumped up the Houston crowd by shouting “Choose to Partyyy!” to start the show…uhhh? Make no mistake about it: Janet was on point, but she shared nearly as much stage time as P. Diddy and that whole arc did not age well.A group of HBCU cheerleaders danced around Diddy (who was wearing a Julius Peppers Panthers jersey) singing “Ooh Diddy you’re so fine, you’re so fine you blow my mind, hey Diddy!” Nelly was there too. Watch it again today if you feel like a good cringe. And if that didn’t age terribly enough, Kid Rock showed up to play “Bawitdaba” wearing an American flag like a serape poncho.When was the last time you watched the clip of M.I.A flipping the bird to the camera during Madonna’s Super Bowl XLVI set? It happens in a flash and is actually pretty innocuous compared to the other transgressions within Madonna’s headlining set in Indianapolis.Being the self-appointed cultural shapeshifter that she is, Madonna emerged as an Egyptian queen of sorts, going into “Vogue” followed by the techno-fied “Music.” Before we know it, she dances on a platform dangerously close to tightrope walker Andy Lewis’ acrobatics (why not?) and then gets hoisted up on the shoulders of LMFAO (remember them? We didn’t either.)It wasn’t until Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. emerged as pom-pom toting Egyptian princess cheerleader/dancers (seriously) that the middle finger heard round the world popped up. After the complete wildness of a set that also featured Cee-Lo leading a marching band, complaining about a little bird feels like sheer pearl clutching in the madness.And then, there was Left Shark.In a Super Bowl XLIX halftime show set that started with Katy Perry riding out on an animatronic space lion and featured a guest spot from Lenny Kravitz on guitar and a rare Missy Elliott appearance, all anyone could talk about was the person in a shark suit to Katy’s left who went rogue with the dance moves during “California Girls.”Wherever you are Left Shark, we salute you and your unforgettable place in Super Bowl Halftime show history!
