• Feb

  5

  Madonna Super Bowl halftime show: not the best or worst ever

  Filed under: Music; Tagged as: Madonna Super Bowl halftime show, Superbowl
  
  

  Madonna performs during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl XLVI football game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. © AP photo by Chris O'Meara.

  Read more: Walter Tunis’ take on Madonna’s halftime show.

  Madonna hadn’t even disappeared into the floor of her Super Bowl halftime show stage before haters were piling on the tweets including the annual declaration of “Worst Super Bowl halftime show ever,” along with slags on Madge’s age (53), music, etc.

  People, everything doesn’t have to be a best or worst ever.

  I’d place it comfortably in the middle.

  I was ready to put Madonna at the top of the list if she brought it, and she brought a lot to the Super Bowl including an eye-popping stage that at one point swallowed the football field, Trojan warriors, a bunch of guest stars and several drumlines.

  Madonna embraced the Super Bowl stage for the big, overblown spectacle that it is. In doing so, she also fulfilled an oft-relearned lesson: big, overblown spectacles can often end up feeling a little hollow. She picked a good set list of pumped-up, dance-oriented numbers like Vogue, Music and Like a Prayer, along with some other dashes like guest artist LMFAO’s Sexy and I Know It for a set that never slowed down and filled the venue. And she loaded the stage with lots of action, including a tightrope walker who was making men across the globe wince with his every move.  Thankfully, she did not use the performance to pound us over the head with her upcoming album, MDNA, or movie, W.E. – whatever happened to words in titles?

  It was fun. Did I feel like it was great artistry, like when Prince reminded us why Purple Rain is one of the greatest pop songs ever in 2007? No. Was is incredibly moving, like U2′s post 9/11 performance in 2002? No. But if you like Madonna, it was great to see her out there , if not a bit amusing to think that she is now considered “safe” enough for this stage after she was regarded as so scandalous in the 1980s and ’90s.

  In picking Super Bowl halftime acts, the NFL tries to come up with something that will make everyone happy, which will never happen. But it has aimed to pick artists with broad appeal who have had substantial careers. Madonna haters have been around since she first showed off her belly button on MTV in 1983. But the woman has had a ground-breaking, chart-topping career and has remained somewhere in the spotlight for nearly three decades.

  And the age comments? Let’s consider many halftime performers of recent vintage such as the Rolling Stones and the Who have been considerably older than Madonna when they played – and I’d say she wears 53 very well. Also consider a lot of the Super Bowl ads are laced with ’80s tunes and the big buzz ad this year was based on a movie that came out just two years after Like a Virgin.

  A lot of us have gotten older.

  So it was a fun, somewhat memorable if not all together inspiring halftime show. Not the best or worst ever, but then again, few things are.

  
  Comments Off

Comments Closed