The Super Bowl halftime show has become as gargantuan a spectacle as the game itself, with an estimated 120 million people tuning in around the world to be wowed in a tight 15 minute time slot. The most coveted entertainment slot on television has seen some legendary performances over the years from some of the biggest icons in music. And there's been plenty of controversy along the way, from Janet Jackson's nipple exposé in 2004 to the NFL filing a lawsuit against M.I.A. for £1.5million for giving the middle finger while performing alongside Madonna. It's fair to say the halftime show rarely disappoints.
Last year, Usher took the honours with guest appearances from Alicia Keys, Lil Jon and Ludacris. The singer pulled out all the stops as he sang, danced and even roller-skated without missing a beat. In 2023, Rihanna took the stage and used her performance to announce her second pregnancy. The pressure will be on Kendrick Lamar to raise the bar even higher with his eagerly-anticipated turn this Sunday.
Ahead of the musical extravaganza, we take a look back at some of the most iconic halftime shows in Super Bowl history in history kicking things off with the King of Pop... The one that started it all, Michael Jackson’s epic 1993 performance birthed the mammoth spectacle that is the halftime show. With a children's choir, a giant globe soaring above the 50-yard line and an epic moonwalk to Billie Jean, Jacko threw everything into his performance that threw down the gauntlet for future stars.
Drawing a TV audience of a whopping 133 million, more people tuned in to watch Michael's 12-minute set than the entire first half of the game. Things didn't go quite as smoothly for Michael's younger sister.... During her 2004 Super Bowl performance with Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson ended up exposing herself in front of one of millions live on TV. As the singers belted out a duet of hit single Rock Your Body, Justin strutted over to Janet and tore off part of her costume in front of a 140 million-strong audience, revealing her jewellery clad breast.
The moment was quickly explained as a “wardrobe malfunction” and MTV who produced the segment hasn’t been allowed near the Super Bowl since. Such was the controversy surrounding the shock nudity, Janet's glittering career derailed with shocking force as she was mercilessly axed from upcoming performances and TV appearances. Last year, Justin issued a grovelling public apology to the his former co-performer for letting her take the wrap for the incident.
After the controversy of 'nipplegate' the year before, the Half Time Show was placed in Paul McCartney's very safe hands 12 months later. The former Beatle ran through legendary hits from his decade-spanning career, including Drive My Car, Live and Let Die and of course, a rousing singalong rendition of Hey Jude as the finale. It takes a lot to upstage Queen of Controversy Madonna, but British rapper M.I.A managed to do just that when she flashed her middle finger mid-performance.
The star, who made a guest appearance alongside Madge and Nicki Minaj, later claimed she made the one-fingered salute as a symbol of spiritual devotion to a Hindu goddess. But even Madonna wasn’t impressed calling the stunt “childish and irrelevant”. The NFL even tried to sue M.I.A. – also known as Mathangi Maya Arulpragasam – for a whopping $16.6million (£11.4m) claiming the music star had breached their contract and ruined the NFL’s 'goodwill and reputation.' Both sides settled the case in 2014 for an unknown amount of money.
Queen Bee was always going to put on one hell of a show, and when her time came she did not disappoint. She even brought her old Destiny's Child band mates out of girlband retirement for the occasion - but in keeping with tradition she was still centre stage. From Run the World, Independent Women Part 1 and ending on a spine-tinging rendition of ballad Halo, Beyonce's career-spanning setlist landed her the fourth most watched halftime in Super Bowl history.
Arriving into the stadium on a robotic tiger, 'lying above the heads of the crowd and bringing out Missy Elliott and Lenny Kravitz for guest cameos, Katy Perry went all out to make her shot at the Super Bowl show one to remember. But despite all that Katy still managed to get upstaged, by a dancing shark no less, who momentarily forgot his closely choreographed dance moves and free-styled through the mishap.
The hilarious moment sparked a viral frenzy with #LeftShark trending on worldwide Twitter within minutes as viewers lapped up the on stage blunder. Chris Martin's Coldplay were billed as the 2016 headliners but they called upon a little help from their friends to get the party started. A leotard-clad Beyoncé showed up with a troupe of backing dancers to perform a stomping rendition of her hit Formation direct from the pitch.
