The Super Bowl is the pinnacle of competition for American football teams. It is where the best of the best take each other on at the end of a long and grueling season.
The halftime break in play is home to a different sort of performance. The halftime shows provide viewers in the stadium and at home the chance to take in some of the brightest names in music and entrainment.
This year, the Canadian megastar The Weeknd provided the music and helped make the show as big as possible by providing $7 million of his own money to the production.
The singer’s generosity comes on top of the fact that stars are not actually paid for their performance time at the break. The thinking is that it is a massive shop window and a chance to take their career to the next level.
The expense and production costs for such a big show are certainly impressive. The relatively short performances of ten to fifteen minutes can cost as much as $10 million to set up. While it might sound like a lot, the reward to the artists is often just as striking.
The viewership of tens of millions of people watching the stage helps to dramatically improve the promotion of the performers. A good example is the 2017 show which saw Lady Gaga garner a 1,000 percent increase in digital sales of her back catalogue on the day of the Super Bowl.
The valuable exposure of the show is certainly a game-changer. In Gaga’s case, the show was a big winner. The performer rolled out all the big hits and even caught a football on the fly before making her exit ahead of the second half. Now that’s how to promote yourself in style!
The halftime break is also a great time for football fans to make the most of changes in the liveodds. American football is a fantastic sport for live betting, thanks to the regular shakeup in play. The halftime offers the chance to take stock of what’s going on in the game and make any necessary changes to tactics.
Along with this, the halftime break is known throughout the world for its explosion of color and spectacle. The dramatic halftime shows are integral to businesses hoping to profit from the massive advertising space.
As the shows have become bigger and more expensive, some commentators have opined that younger fans might be even more interested in the show than the game itself.
Be that as it may, there’s little doubt that the halftime shows carry a heck of a lot of weight.
The following are a selection of the best Super Bowl halftime shows that helped light up the stadium and bring the millions of television spectators throughout the world a big-time performance.
Beyonce, 2013
Beyonce and her former bandmates Destiny’s Child put on a fantastic display in New Orleans. The scene of the Baltimore Ravens overcoming the San Francisco 49ers 34-31 shortly afterwards, the halftime show was just as exciting.
The whole show benefitted from a wild level of powerful lights and music that nearly brought the roof off. In news that may or may not be unrelated, the stadium suffered a power outage in the third quarter. The lights went out for 34 minutes.
Thankfully the Ravens were leading 28-6 at the time of the power failure. An unforgettable occasion in many ways.
Katy Perry with Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliot, 2015
The mega performance from Perry, Kravitz and Elliot holds the record for highest viewership figures ever, with 118.5 million viewers watching.
Featuring a memorable giant mechanized lion, the show also won fans for the seemingly random moves of a dancer dressed in a shark costume. Perry’s performance also helped keep her name in the limelight, with Kravitz and Elliot offering valuable support.
Prince, 2007
For sheer artistry and showmanship, the halftime show from the much-missed Prince is many people’s pick of the best.
Taking place in Miami, one of the greatest musicians and performers that ever lived played a medley of his own and other songwriters classic hits.
A funky ‘Let’s Go Crazy’ and ‘1999’ joined forces with Bob Dylan’s ‘All Along the Watchtower’, a song that was also made famous in the 60s by another legendary performer, Jimi Hendrix.
The purple one also took on the work of the Foo Fighters with an imaginative cover of the band’s ‘Best of You’. Prince’s incredible guitar work transformed the song into a soulful epic.
But it was his own classic song Purple Rain that truly won the attention of the millions of viewers tuning in. The fact that it took place within a rain-soaked stadium only added to the breath-taking scenes on show.