Picture Courtesy of Rolling Stone<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On January 15th, 1967, the first Super Bowl halftime show aired on<\/p>\n\n\n\n
national television in the United States. Approximately 24 million people watched the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kansas City Chiefs face off against the Green Bay Packers. For the halftime festivities, a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
humble marching band, the Symphonic Marching Band from the University of Arizona,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
played\/performed \u201cThe Liberty Bell\u201d for the crowd. Like the Star Spangled Banner, the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
show seemed like another pure moment of patriotism uniting all people living in the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
land of the free, a.k.a America. Who would have ever thought that 56 years later, 125<\/p>\n\n\n\n
million people would watch a monochromatically-clad pregnant superstar, Rihanna,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
perform from her astounding catalog of hits in mid-air? The Super Bowl halftime show<\/p>\n\n\n\n
can be simply described as the moment for an artist or a group to reach the pinnacle of<\/p>\n\n\n\n
their career in 15 minutes. It can also be a moment for controversy. In 2004, Janet<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jackson\u2019s breast was partially exposed by Justin Timberlake during the performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some argue the moment had great repercussions for Janet Jackson\u2019s career even after a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
public apology from both artists. In 2022, the artist Eminem finished singing and took a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
knee in homage to football player Colin Kaepernick. At that moment, Eminem took the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
risk of inviting political opinion to the performance. The show is also a time when many<\/p>\n\n\n\n
artists, whether solo or part of an ensemble, invite other guest artists onto the stage to<\/p>\n\n\n\n
collaborate or perform a song they created together. What do all of these moments do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They add an air of mystery and excitement to the show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Approximately 5 million additional people watched Rihanna\u2019s halftime show in relation<\/p>\n\n\n\n
to the total viewers who watched the actual football game. People sported t-shirts<\/p>\n\n\n\n
playfully stating how \u201ccute\u201d it was that there was a football game in the middle of a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rihanna concert. Rihanna\u2019s performance was simple enough. She performed many of her<\/p>\n\n\n\n
greatest hits and was the first pregnant performer and female billionaire to ever grace the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
stage. Impressive. But where does that leave Rihanna\u2019s actual performance in the context<\/p>\n\n\n\n
of all of the halftime shows we have watched?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2013, megastar Beyonc\u00e9 performed some of her solo hits and then invited<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kelly Roland and Michelle Williams to recreate Destiny\u2019s Child. In the Fieldston News<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ranking, we place this show in the number one slot for the best halftime show in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beyonc\u00e9 paid homage to her Destiny\u2019s Child roots and sang and danced with perfection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2007, Prince took the stage in Miami in the middle of a thunderstorm and performed a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Foo Fighters\u2019 song, a Queen song and his famous guitar solo from \u201cPurple Rain.\u201d We<\/p>\n\n\n\n
place him at number 2, along with the regard as having one of the best shows in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
American culture. In 2022, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kendrick Lamar, engaged in a riveting old school look into the history of West Coast rap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Highlights included Mary J. Blige singing solo and 50 Cent hanging upside down to<\/p>\n\n\n\n
recreate his iconic look from the \u201cIn Da Club\u201d music video. The results were electric. We<\/p>\n\n\n\n
place this at number 3. In 2009, Bruce Springsteen performed a 14-minute set with \u201cBorn<\/p>\n\n\n\n
to Run\u201d and \u201cGlory Days\u201d in the mix. It felt like a true homage to the country. We place<\/p>\n\n\n\n
his show at number 4. Rounding out the top 5 is Diana Ross who, in 1996, lowered<\/p>\n\n\n\n
herself onto the stage on a crane made of sparklers. She performed some of her solo hits<\/p>\n\n\n\n
as well as some of her greatest songs while in the Supremes. Ms. Ross rounds out our top<\/p>\n\n\n\n
5 for blazing a trail that many female performers would follow. Interestingly enough, Ms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ross had no guests onstage and some people argued that parts of her performance were<\/p>\n\n\n\n
clumsy, and even poorly produced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did Rihanna lip-sync her performance? Many critics, including D.J Howard Stern<\/p>\n\n\n\n
seem to think so. Ironically, all of the performances, for all artists, are pre-recorded and<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the artist decides in the moment how much they want to sing live. This makes sense<\/p>\n\n\n\n
considering over 100 million people are watching and the accompanying dance routines<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and stage maneuvers are too breathtaking to perform while singing at the same time. Like<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Diana Ross, Rihanna had no guests. Many people half expected Jay Z to come out of the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
audience and join her for a song. Other people assumed Drake would appear to join her<\/p>\n\n\n\n
for one of their duets. Most people might argue that Rihanna\u2019s biggest gamble was<\/p>\n\n\n\n
putting herself in front of \u2153 of the population of all of the United States, pregnant and<\/p>\n\n\n\n
solo, to perform at one would certainly say, is the high point of her career. Some of us<\/p>\n\n\n\n
even wondered if her husband, ASAP Rocky, would come out of the stands and join her<\/p>\n\n\n\n
in support or in song. Was it the anticipation or these expectations that changed how we<\/p>\n\n\n\n
viewed Rihanna\u2019s performance? Quite possibly. Watching the show, it was amazing to<\/p>\n\n\n\n
relive the multitude of iconic hits this illustrious artist has performed in her career. Some<\/p>\n\n\n\n
people argued that the dancers outfits and her stopping mid-performance to apply some<\/p>\n\n\n\n
her own Fenty makeup made it feel a little bit like a commercial for her products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nonetheless, her performance seemed almost too simple or unadorned by all the bells and<\/p>\n\n\n\n
whistles and drama Americans have come to expect of these 15 minutes in the middle of<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a football game. Bottom line? Rihanna sounded amazing. It\u2019s astounding to consider the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
bravery of performing in front of that many people when vulnerable and pregnant. The biggest gamble was that she simply relied on the strength of her talent. We place her at<\/p>\n\n\n\n
number 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Picture Courtesy of Rolling Stone On January 15th, 1967, the first Super Bowl halftime show aired on national television in the United States. Approximately 24 million people watched the Kansas City Chiefs face off against the Green Bay Packers. For the halftime festivities, a humble marching band, the Symphonic Marching Band from the University of Arizona, played\/performed \u201cThe Liberty Bell\u201d for the crowd. Like the Star Spangled Banner, the show seemed like another pure moment<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":327,"featured_media":7334,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[319,435,318,321],"tags":[],"coauthors":[478],"class_list":["post-7333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-culture","category-news","category-opinion"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/Screen-Shot-2023-02-28-at-1.52.50-PM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7335,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7333\/revisions\/7335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7333"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fieldstonnews.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}