By: Rachel Herskovitz
The Super Bowl is one of the few events that America still watches live. And even if you’re not a fan of football, the teams that are playing, or even great (or bad) commercials… everyone is a fan of music. The Super Bowl Halftime Show is the ultimate music event, bringing together the biggest names for a performance that is supposed to rival the game itself. Below is the ranking of the 5 most memorable Superbowl performances (in our lifetime at least)
5. Aerosmith, Britney Spears, N’Sync, Nelly & Mary J. Blige (2001)
This show was the ultimate early 2000’s showcase. A medley that felt like it was produced by an MTV awards show team. The best moment was the medley of Nelly, N’Sync, and Britney singing “Walk This Way”… with Aerosmith, the ultimate collaborators (see Run DMC)
4. Michael Jackson (1993)
Do you remember where you were during this performance? I guarantee you do. Michael Jackson exploded from the floor and stared at the crowd for a full 90 seconds before going into his biggest hits.
3. Beyonce (2013)
Beyonce had just come off of a lip-syncing controversy while singing the National Anthem at Barack Obama’s inauguration. But, Beyonce used that to her advantage, coming out with a performance that showed her true star power. And when the power went out in New Orleans in the second half of the game, we all wondered whether Nola could truly handle Queen Bey.
2. Katy Perry w/ Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott (2015)
Katy Perry entered on a mechanical tiger, she had about 1,000 outfit changes, and poked fun at the deflated balls controversy that was engulfing the Superbowl. But most importantly, this performance introduced us to Left Shark
1. Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, P. Diddy, Kid Rock, Jessica Simpson, and Nelly (2004)
This performance reached a level of national scandal unlike, well, anything else. While the performance itself was actually incredible, it was the nip slip during JT and Janet Jackson’s duet that rocked the country. And this had impacts that are still felt today. Janet Jackson’s career never truly recovered (she was banned from MTV, etc.) and network TV had to change their live + delay timing so they could have more time to censor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n75nNPE5Zhs
