Beyoncé and Chris Martin (left) performing at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2016; Rihanna on the Super Bowl halftime show in 2023. Photo / Getty Images, composite
Wardrobe malfunctions, BLM salutes: the Super Bowl halftime show has a history of talked-about moments. These are its most jaw-dropping.
Since the 70s, the Super Bowl halftime show has evolved from a simple school marching-band parade to one of the glitziest events on the pop calendar. And one of the most-watched entertainment events on the planet.
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Grammy-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar will entertain the American Football fans at this Sunday’s Super Bowl (February 10, NZT) which, thanks to the time difference, kicks off at 12.30pm NZT (3.30pm PST, 6.30pm EST). Little is known about what he has planned – except that it will involve “storytelling” – but hopefully it will be more thrilling than the underwhelming 2024 headliner, Usher.
So it’s an excellent chance to look back on the event’s most celebrated and – and awkward – moments, from Beyoncé‘s tumble to Diana Ross’s helicopter stunt.
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Ella Fitzgerald was the first A-lister to perform at the Super Bowl, in a special halftime tribute to jazz giant Louis Armstrong, who had died the previous year. Jazz trumpeter Al Hirt performed with Fitzgerald in 1972, but he was an old hand on his third appearance, having topped the bill at the very first Super Bowl in 1967.
Halfway between a band, a social club and a cult, Up With People were the first pop group to perform at the Super Bowl. In previous years, the only entertainment had been marching bands – mainly from local schools and universities – though there were a few celebrity bandleaders and soloists, such as jazz-man Doc Severinsen.
Introduced as “150 young men and women representing the aspirations of our nation”, the aggressively wholesome collective had its roots in the Moral Re-Armament movement, and aimed to promote solid moral values through its perky rock’n’roll medleys.
Up With People returned four more times in the 70s and 80s, making them the most-booked Super Bowl halftime act. It’s a shame they weren’t booked in their 60s heyday: back then, a young Glenn Close was a member.
This Disney-produced halftime show gave the studio a chance to promote its newly revived TV variety show, The (New) Mickey Mouse Club. It featured group performances from the club (and dozens of slightly creepy children in mouse ears). It was the first Super Bowl to involve audience participation, with members of the audience waving colourful placards on cue, to create patterns around the arena – these stunts have since become a regular feature.
The 80s were a fallow period for halftime entertainment, reverting to military bands such as Tops in Blue (1985) and ageing jazz figureheads like 40s icon Helen O’Connell (1981). But Super Bowl XXII aimed higher, dragging no fewer than 88 grand pianos on to the field for the most theatrical halftime show to date. The Rockettes danced while rock’n’roller Chubby Checker serenaded the crowd.
The Super Bowl halftime show as we know it – risqué, dangerous and celebrity-obsessed – began here, with a particularly garish Disney pageant. New Kids on the Block were the first real pop stars to make an appearance, and were at the height of their fame in 1991. The boy band looked a little nonplussed next to Mickey Mouse, but that didn’t stop their young fans running across the field just to be near them.
Jackson appeared out of a cloud of white smoke, as if by magic, and stood motionless onstage for two whole minutes before whipping off his sunglasses and launching into his 1991 hit Jam. It was an unforgettable moment, that came as Jackson’s public image was at its peak, but would be tainted just a few months later by child abuse accusations levelled at the singer that summer.
Some people worry about how to make an entrance, but the soul diva knew that planning a stylish exit can be equally important. As she finished her set, she looked up to the sky (”Oh my – here comes my ride!”), before a helicopter arrived to carry her away.
A fictional band more entertaining than most real bands. Eighteen years after the movie, the popularity of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd’s alter-egos Jake and Elwood Blues was still high enough for them to headline the Super Bowl, in a star-studded line-up that also included James Brown and ZZ Top. Due to Belushi’s death in 1982, Jake was played by the actor’s younger brother Jim Belushi, joining Ackroyd and John Goodman on stage.
The Cuban-American songstress teamed up with the Motown legend for a powerful medley of their hits, closing a soul-and-salsa themed Super Bowl that also included performances from Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Savion Glover.
The most disappointing Super Bowl show? On paper, the line-up was first rate: other acts in 2000 included Phil Collins, Toni Braxton and Tina Turner. But Disney – back producing the Super Bowl once again – gave each performance its schmaltzy kiss of death.
Phil Collins angered Genesis fans by playing a song from the soundtrack for Disney’s 1999 cartoon Tarzan, while Aguilera and Iglesias didn’t give viewers the sultry duet they were hoping for, instead offering up a stilted rendition of a best-forgotten ballad called Celebrate the Future Hand in Hand.
Another hefty line-up of acts with little to nothing in common: there’s a strange satisfaction to seeing a random handful of famous musical names thrown in a blender and forced to collaborate. A sing-a-long between Johnny Rotten and Pavarotti could hardly be weirder.
And yet, somehow, it worked. In 2016, this glorious A-List mess was dubbed “The Most Iconic Moment of All Time” by that esteemed periodical, E! Entertainment.
You can tell, watching this duet, that Stefani is a lifelong Sting fan. A couple of years ago, she tweeted a photo of her star-struck younger self asking the Police frontman for his autograph back in 1983. Exactly two decades later, she got to share a stage with him, accompanied by her band No Doubt. That year’s halftime show also featured Shania Twain.
The most over-analysed 9/16ths of a second in TV history: Nipplegate. Timberlake grabbed hold of Jackson’s bodice onstage, and pulled it away to reveal her naked breast (and its elaborate metallic nipple shield). Apparently, the stunt was intended only to reveal her bra, but it backfired.
Cue 540,000 complaints to the Federal Communications Commission, a US$550,000 fine for broadcaster CBS, and the invention of YouTube. Yes, really. Tech guru Jawed Karim has since admitted that his frustration with trying to find footage of the “wardrobe malfunction” inspired him to create the video-sharing platform.
It’s easy to forget the Jackson’s wasn’t the only contentious costume: singer Kid Rock also came under fire for wearing a sleeveless stars-and-stripes poncho, which some viewers considered an insult to the American flag.
When Timberlake returned in 2018, his set was marred by “malfunctions” of a different sort, with fans complaining about poor sound quality and inaudible vocals.
After the Jackson/Timberlake debacle, the organisers played it safe for several years, by only booking acts whose nipples no one would want to see. This run of male, middle-aged headliners included Paul McCartney (2005), Tom Petty (2008) and The Who (2010), but The Rolling Stones turned out to be a more daring option.
The NFL censored the lyrics to two of their songs (including Start Me Up, with its notorious closing line about giving a man ... erm, satisfaction). Versions of the story differ, but it seems the Stones went along with the ban before the broadcast – but then chose to perform the uncensored versions live on stage.
For sheer musicianship, Prince’s 2007 outing is hard to beat. Prince may have been the only singer on the line-up, but he didn’t need anyone else, treating the crowd to a medley of his own hits interspersed with a couple of carefully chosen covers (We Will Rock You, and a Hendrix-esque All Along the Watch Tower). The crowning moment, though, was one that no rehearsal could have prepared for: a sudden rainfall while he played Purple Rain.
The Boss proved to his fans that he was as supple as ever, by offering a special treat for viewers at home. During one particularly blistering guitar solo, Springsteen did a “power-slide”, gliding crotch-first along the stage and directly into a TV camera.
The R&B group broke the half-decade-long trend of booking nostalgia acts, with a punchy, contemporary set to kick-start the new decade. To keep the ageing rockers happy, they were joined by Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash.
MIA may only have made a fleeting appearance at the Super Bowl (popping up with Nikki Minaj to support headliner Madonna in just one song). But MIA became the main news story when she gave the bird to viewers at home.
She later claimed that it was intended as an inoffensive, religious gesture, but the NFL disagreed, suing the singer for US$1.5 million. Other acts that year included Cee Lo Green, Cirque du Soleil and LMFAO.
The costumes, backing dancers and bizarre visuals of the pop singer’s set had all been drilled to perfection – except for one man in a shark costume. Funny videos of the man known only as “left shark” went viral online, after the backing dancer appeared to botch his dance routine in front of an audience of millions.
Another Super Bowl performance remembered not for its quality, but for how close it came to catastrophe. In her set, Beyoncé nearly tumbled off the stage, but regained her composure, and even did her best to pass off the near-disastrous fall as a new dance move.
More impressive still, she even managed to make Coldplay sound cool, with Beyoncé and Bruno Mars joining the band for their show-closing songs Fix You and Up & Up.
Everyone was on tenterhooks for Lady Gaga’s show, wondering if the usually outspoken LGBT activist would take the opportunity to lambast the newly-inaugurated President Trump. The platinum performer played Woody Guthrie’s civil rights anthem This Land Is Your Land and her own inclusive track Born This Way, offering enough of an agenda to please those who agree with her, but keeping it subtle enough not to turn off those who don’t. And of course, in true Gaga style, she showed some dramatic flair by incorporating fire and aerial acrobatics into her show – before diving down a set of stairs and on to the field.
The power of Dr Dre’s speed dial was on full display at this triumphant show as he roped in the crème de la crème of Nineties rap. From Snoop Dogg to Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent to Mary J Blige, it was a glorious exhibition of the genre. The staging was a little odd: a series of white houses, surrounded by a sea of bopping ravers dressed in fluffy onesies.
But the moment when Eminem’s Lose Yourself blended seamlessly into Snoop Dogg’s Still D R E was an unbeatable nostalgia rush. The one moment of controversy came when Eminem took the knee at the end of his performance.
She attracted a bit of flak pre-performance, with some commentators angered that the Barbadian sensation seemed more concerned with using the Super Bowl to flog merchandise on her Savage x Fenty clothing line. But in the end, Rihanna pulled it off, with a series of bombshells, from revealing that she was pregnant with her second child to smashing out a cascading series of hits, including We Found Love, Only Girl (In the World) and Work.
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The staging was immaculate too, with the singer and her dancers performing from a series of Crash Bandicoot-style glowing platforms seemingly to float across the pitch. It was the most-watched performance in the event’s history, with 121 million viewers.
The 61-year-old rocker and style icon will perform in New Zealand for the first time.