One of the major non-football storylines that centers around the Super Bowl is the halftime show. These days, the halftime show is one of the most exciting performances of the year and is headlined by some of the biggest artists of all time.
In 2023, Rihanna took the stage at State Farm Stadium during Super Bowl LVII. Before that, five performers took the stage for Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles, California: Eminem, Dr. Dre. Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige performed halfway through the Rams win over the Bengals. Just a few years after that performance, Kendrick Lamar is once again hitting the Super Bowl stage, this time as a headliner.
The NFL, Roc Nation and Apple Music announced ahead of Sunday’s Week 1 games that the 17-time Grammy winner will be this year’s performer. SZA was announced as the special guest a few weeks before the big game.
Usher headlined the Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show in Las Vegas in 2024.
For the artists who play the halftime show at the Super Bowl, they’re entertaining an audience that is exponentially bigger than any they’ve ever encountered. It was not always like that however.
So, what were the shows like before they were must-see television? Do you remember that killer halftime show featuring the Rockettes, Chubby Checker and the 88 grand pianos in 1988? Do you remember the captivating “Be Bop Bamboozled” at the Orange Bowl in 1989? No, no you do not. Ditto Carol Channing (twice) or any one of those four annoyingly contrived Up With People performances in the late ’70s and early ’80s.
The Super Bowl halftime show, before Michael Jackson, was an endless wasteland of college marching bands and maddening flag-spinning tributes, from salutes to Hollywood (twice), to Motown, to the Big Band Era, to the Caribbean, to Duke Ellington. We also got the New Kids on the Block (1991) not singing any of their biggest hits and Gloria…
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