Photo courtesy of Oscar Keys/Unsplash.
The Super Bowl halftime show is one of the entertainment world’s biggest nights. Performers every year pull out the big guns. Lady Gaga made her mark by jumping off the stadium roof last year. Beyonce waded into politics with her Black Lives Matter statement at the 2016 performance. This year’s performance–which was helmed by Adam Levine, Travis Scott, and Big Boi–was an unsurprisingly lackluster addition to an already dull Super Bowl. While Maroon 5 has certainly had some top hits over the last few years, no one ever claims that Maroon 5 is a favorite band. The band’s music scores within the Billboard Hot 100, but it is rarely number one on the charts.
To its credit, Maroon 5 has remained relevant for almost twenty years and has a decent catalog of hits. Classics like “Harder to Breathe,” “This Love,” and “She Will Be Loved” are still popular along with more recent hits like “Girls Like You,” “Moves like Jagger,” & “Sugar.” Levine’s vocals without autotune were sweet, but thin. His attempts to spice up the show with awkward dance moves and the removal of his clothes led to some quality memes, but not a quality performance.
Maroon 5 was a bizarre headline choice given that the Super Bowl was played in Atlanta, one of the most racially diverse cities in America. Atlanta is known for its up and coming hip hop scene, but the halftime show featured only one performer from Atlanta–Big Boi. Big Boi’s entrance as he rode up to the stage decked in a fur coat was a total scene stealer, but his appearance was short and quickly replaced with a half-naked Adam Levine. Travis Scott appeared briefly and, while his introduction by Spongebob Squarepants’ “Sweet Victory” was heavily hyped, his heavily-bleeped performance of “SICKO MODE” and “Like a Light” left something to be desired.
While people did love the “Sweet Victory” shout out, many wished the Spongebob Squarepants segment had been a bit longer. Over 1.2 million people signed a petition to have “Sweet Victory” in full play at the 2019 Super Bowl in honor of the show’s creator Stephen Hillenburg, who passed away earlier this year. The Super Bowl played a brief clip but not even Nickelodeon was impressed, tweeting a cheeky gif that stated that the network was looking for a little more.
Maroon 5, a seemingly bland and inoffensive band, faced some controversy for its Super Bowl performance. Rihanna was originally scheduled to perform at the Super Bowl, but turned down the offer to stand in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the former NFL quarterback. Kaepernick has not been signed to the NFL since 2016, when he began kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial inequality. Travis Scott also turned down the gig at first, but agreed to perform when the NFL decided to donate $500,000 to the Dream Corps, a social justice advocacy group focused on fighting poverty. Maroon 5 then donated the same amount to Big Brothers Big Sisters, which is a youth mentorship organization. People also commented on the fact that Adam Levine was able to strip off and show his nipples–something Janet Jackson was shamedfor during her wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl.
It is safe to say that the 53rd Super Bowl halftime will not go down in the books as one of the greatest–but neither will the game itself. The halftime show is meant to be a spectacle of talent, dancers, and the best artists of the year. This year seemed to have none of that. •
