Months-delayed announcements, angry fan petitions, hard-line charity stipulations – this is not how halftime shows rolled out a decade ago.
As the messy lead-up to 2019’s Super Bowl LIII halftime show [is about to go on], confirmed performers dealing with waves of bad press [have badly tarnished] what’s supposed to be one of the most exciting gigs of their careers – proof of just how far the halftime show has fallen as one of music’s so-called biggest nights.
After months of reports that many of America’s biggest stars had turned down the halftime show slot, news broke that Maroon 5 would be performing at the game on Feb. 3. As fans wrote petitions urging the band not to play in the show, the NFL delayed officially announcing the halftime show lineup for months, waiting until mid-January – weeks before the game – to actually confirm Maroon 5 would be playing. And when the rapper Travis Scott recently announced he would be joining Maroon 5 on the stage, he affirmed that he only agreed to perform if the NFL made a donation to a social justice organization, and yet still received criticism for signing on to the show.