Ah, the Super Bowl – when every Australian pretends to be interested in American football for five seconds.
But just as interesting as the on-field action are the Super Bowl’s consistently massive halftime shows. While this year’s underwhelming effort from Justin Timberlake isn’t earning the best reception from viewers, we’ve run through five halftime shows which stopped the world – whether it was for all the right or all the wrong reasons. Take a look below:
JANET JACKSON & JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE (2004)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82wcmJRmhWU
While Justin Timberlake’s 2018 performance was underwhelming, he’s probably thanking Jesus Christ that he isn’t going through this shit show once more. When Janet Jackson brought out Justin Timberlake to perform ‘Rock Your Body’ in 2004, she probably wasn’t expecting to fall victim to one of the biggest onstage blunders of all time. Towards the end of the star-studded performance, JT somehow pulled part of Jackson’s costume off, exposing her right nipple to millions across the world.
While nipples are pretty damn harmless in our opinion, others weren’t so lax: The FCC received 500,000 complaints, broadcaster CBS was fined $550,000, although the fee was eventually dismissed. Despite all the wardrobe malfunctions that happen on runways, television shows, and intoxicated club punters that you see every weekend, nothing will quite match the furore surrounding Nipplegate.
BEYONCE (2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDPITj1wlkg
After dropping her fiery single ‘Formation’ in 2016, Beyonce took to the halftime show with a powerful message to send. In the midst of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and increasing racial tensions in the United States, the Destiny’s Child diva came to the field with an army of backup dancers, donning berets and black leather in an homage to the uniform of the Black Panthers.
The game took place 50 years after the Black Panthers formed, and also less than 50 miles from their birthplace in Oakland, California. Despite being one of pop’s biggest stars, this is just one flagrant display of Beyonce’s activism. Previously, she’s donated money to the civil rights movement and even paid bail for Black Lives Matter protesters, while also producing a short film about racial injustice in the States.
KATY PERRY (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmcWZ2Bzoho
The organisers of the 2015 halftime show spent a lot of time and money making a giant mechanical lion that Katy Perry rode onto the field. However, it was a guy in a plush shark costume that stole all the attention during Perry’s performance, proving that sometimes, less really is more. With endearingly goofy and off-kilter dance moves during ‘Teenage Dream,’ the aquatic back-up dancer was named ‘Left Shark’ and immediately became a meme.
Some people even got Left Shark tattoos, and to this day, Left Shark still puts this glorious routine into his CV. And while some people may think he looks stupid, it’s all been thumbs up on his end. “Actually, I don’t get any negative feedback,” he says. “If anything, people are like, ‘Whoa, that’s so cool!'”
PRINCE (2007)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuJN-sY43bQ
While many fans of the late legend are currently voicing their disapproval of Justin Timberlake’s tribute to Prince at this year’s Super Bowl, we were able to witness the real deal back in 2007, when he commanded what is largely hailed as the best halftime show of all time. Wearing a full aqua suit and commanding a stage illuminated in neon, Prince delved into a cover of Queen’s stadium-sized anthem ‘We Will Rock You’ and his own 1984 single ‘Let’s Go Crazy.’
But, you know, nothing beats Prince playing ‘Purple Rain’ in the pouring rain. Huge.
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS (2014)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wL8sAr1Ym0
Red Hot Chili Peppers & Bruno Mars aren’t the first two artists we would join together in a dream collaboration, but that’s exactly what happened at the Super Bowl in 2014 – and to make matters worse, people eventually realised that RHCP’s instruments were unplugged the whole damn time.
RHCP bassist Flea eventually admitted that only the vocals were done live on the night, and that instruments were unplugged to make the whole faking situation obvious. “”There were a zillion things that could go wrong and ruin the sound for the folks watching in the stadium and the TV viewers… There was not any room for argument on this,” he said of the NFL’s decision.
