Superbowl Halftime Shows: What’s Worked and What Hasn’t

Analyzing trends of success and failure in the history of the event and making predictions about this year’s performance (Article written pre-Superbowl 2024)

When you think of music’s biggest honor, what comes to mind? A Grammy? A Billboard Music Award? A Taylor Swift feature? While these events would be acceptable answers, the pinnacle of musical excellence and relevance has to be The Super Bowl Halftime Show, a place where only the greatest artists of their time get the chance to perform––an honor so few artists are proposed. For some, this show solidifies one as an all-time great; for others, this show catapults the end of a career and the downward spiral to shame. Usher, this year’s performer, hopes to find himself among the greats––like Imagine Dragons––and avoid any fatal mistakes that could solidify his irrelevance, like Adam Levine.

When thinking about the best halftime shows, there is truly only one that comes to mind. Michael Jackson was debatably one of the best musicians of the 1980s, with songs such as P.Y.T and Beat It assisting in launching him to superstardom in the span of a few years. Therefore, when his halftime show was announced, the world braced itself for a spectacle. The show was relatively short, but the sight of Michael in his sunglasses makes people of all ages shout with emphatic glee. Coldplay also had one of the most underrated halftime shows of all time. They opened the show with the song Paradise, followed by amazing choreography and vocals from Bruno Mars in his new song Uptown Funk. Then, Beyonce and her backup dancers appeared and began to dance slowly toward Bruno, as Chris Martin stood in the middle of the two A-list celebrities, belting Coldplay songs all the while. Another recent show that “smashed the stage” (Gavin Deluties, ‘26) was that of Dr. Dre, Eminem, 50 Cent, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, and Snoop Dogg. These artists demonstrated that age is just a number, as they put on a great show despite Dr. Dre approaching 60 years old! Thus, there's still hope for the older generation. 

Despite these amazing performances, the ones that stick out are often performances that capture our attention for all the wrong reasons. Believe it or not, before the year 1988, nearly all of the halftime shows contained high school marching bands, which, though fairly impressive, failed to appeal to as broad of an audience. As a result, in 1989, the NFL decided to change its halftime performance and managed to bring out something even worse. The show began and to everyone's great joy, Elvis Presley came out onto the stage and all the children shouted with glee. There was only one problem: Elvis had been dead for almost 10 years and the guy on the stage was not renowned musician Elvis Presley, but instead an imposter named Elvis Presto, who could neither dance nor sing. Elvis Presto could, however, perform extremely underwhelming magic tricks––and perform them he did. Of course, many others will remember the Janet Jackson incident, which scarred younger audiences watching at home in 2001. However, nothing could have prepared children for how inappropriate the 2018 halftime show truly was. As the football season progressed, fans across the world waited eagerly on the edge of their seats to find out who the Super Bowl LIII performer would be. Many hoped for Taylor Swift, Drake, or Kanye West. Much to their surprise, Maroon 5, a band known for hits like “Moves Like Jagger” and “Payphone,” was picked. Despite the excited anticipation of some, the highlight for many ended up being Levine's spontaneous decision to seductively rip off his shirt. 

In the days leading up to his performance, Usher has generally mixed opinions. However, we believe that Usher has a very high ceiling with great songs such as “Hey Daddy.” Unfortunately, after listening to some other Usher songs, his apparent repetitiveness and lack of versatility lead us to believe that he may end up in the doghouse after this one. 

Lach McCaghren, Luke Felago, and Quinn Falvey