This Sunday, February 12, the city of Glendale, in the suburbs of Phoenix (Arizona), will be the scene of the most important media event of the year across the Atlantic. Expectations are high for the 57e edition of the Super Bowl, and not just for the National Football League (NFL) championship final. Because, at halftime of the match between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia EaglesRihanna will perform for the first time since December 2017.
Rihanna, before her Super Bowl show: “Something exhilarating about this challenge”
After years of music hiatus, Rihanna will return to the stage this Sunday for the highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime show. https://t.co/ibzws680g9 pic.twitter.com/cwux5WQzkN
— THE TEAM (@theteam) February 10, 2023
Five years without a concert, in other words an eternity for any artist, even more so for a pop megastar. A break so long that in the meantime, the Chiefs of the spectacular Patrick Mahomes have already appeared twice in the Super Bowl (2020 and 2021) and the Eagles have won the 52e final in February 2018. However, for a great comeback, Rihanna has undoubtedly chosen the best opportunity.
Today, the NFL is increasingly controversial, with repeated controversies: the name Redskins abandoned by Washington Franchise, the case of Colin Kaepernickplayers accused of sexual assault barely sanctioned… Sport itself worries about its consequences on player health.
But the Super Bowl retains a special aura, the moment that brings Americans together in front of the TV like no other. It counts for twenty-nine of the thirty highest ratings of all time in the United States and the editions of the last decade are at the top of the ranking.
On the other hand, it is also a luxury that the NFL can no longer do without. The half-time show has gone from mere animation, to occupy the public, to the highlight of the evening.
A great aging party
The Super Bowl is the culmination of the season, but the game is not necessarily a great moment of entertainment. In a sport where the phases of the game are very short, the breaks and advertising breaks extremely repetitive (count more than three hours of live), it is necessary to bring a little fervor in the stadiums and for the viewers.
From the first edition in January 1967, we resumed the tradition of university matches by inviting the brass bands of neighboring schools. Singing stars were quickly invited to the show, but always in a specific setting, with school or military orchestras, and above all a theme for each edition (often linked to the “greatness of America”.) In the 1970sthere have also been bigger, more visual shows, with costumes, sets and covers of pop songs, like of the show celebrating the country’s bicentenary in 1976.
The Super Bowl becomes a national and family event with recurring Disney shows, and also very patriotic in a country never lacking in symbols. In 1985, it was even the US Air Force which was in charge of a clearly propaganda show (entitled «World of Children’s Dream»).
But on the programming side, things are starting to go in circles. The themes focus on birthday parties, nostalgic and often sanitized celebrations of the culture of yesteryear. Above all, we often see the same: l’organisation Up The People and its dancing and kind celebrations will participate six times and seem more and more bland and superficial.
In January 1991, the event lost its luster: the spectacle of the 25th anniversary of the Super Bowl was eclipsed by the news of the gulf warten days after the start of Operation “Desert Storm”. The highlight of the evening actually happens before the game, when the National anthem is played by Whitney Houston.
The year after, the NFL and the CBS network suffer an affront: the show «Winter Magic»in connection with the Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, disinterested viewers. Rather than watching figure skatingthey zapped on Fox, which voluntarily scheduled an episode of the comedy series for halftime In Living Color.
For the next edition, in 1993, this huge drop in ratings pushed the NFL to bet on a difficult move, but with guaranteed success: invite the king of pop.
We feel the excitement of the public, even thirty years later. Michael Jackson is then so iconic that he can stay almost two minutes without doing anything and inspire admiration. In less than a quarter of an hour, he offers an ultra-calibrated medley, which resembles an excerpt from his tour and ends up surrounded by 3,500 children on stage… The peak audience from halftime to halftime other is new and the concert is the highlight of a forgettable finale (and one way, 52-17 for the Dallas Cowboys against the Buffalo Bills). The recipe has been found. Impossible to go back.
More stars, and the logic is reversed
As one cannot easily match the aura of Michael Jackson, the NFL is going to bet on groups of stars. First by musical genre, with homages to country (1994), blues (1997) or the Motown label (1998), then with sometimes improbable but striking casts, like Aerosmith and NSYNCaccompanied by Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige and Nelly in 2001.
We are targeting a younger audience, with pop stars a little less smooth than before. Then came 2004 and the moment that crystallized the taste for provocation and American puritanism: Janet Jackson’s breast revealed by Justin Timberlake live. The collective unconscious has forgotten the rest of the concert: the incident dubbed «nipplegate» remained in the news until the following year. It caused a wave of censorship and new regulation about what could be said or shown on television (including the use of a five-minute delay for the Oscars ceremony, a few weeks later).
Perhaps in response, from the following year, a new trend asserted itself: a single headliner. And usually rock glories of old, like Paul McCartney (2005), the Rolling Stones (2006), Prince (2007), Bruce Springsteen et son E Street Band (2009) or the Who (2010).
The NFL restores its image with its loyal (and conservative) public, artists have a resurgence in popularity (and album sales). The model will quickly be updated to accommodate more recent stars, with more dancing performances, flashy choreography and staging. We had Diana Ross who concluded his concert in a helicopter in 1996we will have Madonna with Cirque du Soleil (2012), Beyoncé reforming Destiny’s Child (2013), Katy Perry on a Clockwork Lion (2015) or Lady Gaga jumping from Houston stadium roof (2017).
Left shark.
Right shark.
All awesome. ????????@katyperry‘s iconic @SuperBowl XLIX Halftime Show! pic.twitter.com/fqOMy2sPHF— NFL (@NFL) January 29, 2020
If the Super Bowl has long offered unbalanced encounters, those of recent editions were often very tight. Yet, for several years, audience surveys have shown growing disinterest for the game itself. It has even happened that halftime attracts more people in front of the TV that both teams on the field.
It’s not so much about American football anymore. Moreover, in comparison, the finals of conferences AFC et NFCplayed two weeks earlier, do not even reach half the Super Bowl viewership figures.
The seasons follow one another, but the halftime show has become a lasting cultural marker. On the NFL YouTube channel, the Super Bowl concerts are by far the most watched content. The duo Shakira and Jennifer Lopez in 2020 explodes the scores (over 264 million views), already followed by the five star reunion of rap and hip-hop legends from February 2022 (Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, accompanied by 50 Cent and Anderson .Paak).
Rihanna has no choice, she has to be at the same level of mastery as its predecessors. The NFL doesn’t have a choice either: its musical spectacle has a wider reach, more international, than the one played with a ball. His favorite field is no longer really the reason for his success, but an excellent pretext.
