The 5 Most Memorable Super Bowl Halftime Shows

While we may not live in the US (yet) it seems Super Bowl fever has jumped the Pacific in the passed couple of years.

I guess following that whole Meatloaf debacle most Aussies are having to look overseas for the sport and entertainment fusion spectaculars, with the Super Bowl halftime show being pretty much the biggest one going.

And we’re talking star-studded, this year’s included, with it being recently confirmed that joining Beyonce and Coldplay for today’s Super Bowl 50 halftime show, will be previous Super Bowl half time performer Bruno Mars.

So with that in mind, come with us and look back across the 5 Most Memorable Superbowl Halftime Shows.

Katy Perry and her Awkward Dancing Shark

There was one thing and one thing only that made this Super Bowl so special. That adorably useless shark dancer. Looking like someone with a peg leg attempting the Macarena, this cuddly little killer of the oceans got almost as much media coverage the the game. Not that you can blame the media, it’s just so cute.

Madonna, LMFAO and M.I.A.’s Middle Finger

Was I the only person you thought this was the campest Super Bowl halftime show ever? I for one fucking loved it (as I do everything Madonna did up until Ray Of Light) more so because the whole homo-erotic fantasy of oiled up Ancient Egyptian soldiers pulling Madonna into a stadium to the tune of Vogue seemed lost on the football loving crowd. There was a number of stand out moments of this performance from this impossibly jointed back up dancer to LMFAO’s entirely superfluous cameo. The real winner of course was M.I.A. and her middle finger. Live fast die young bad girls do it well.

Beyonce and Destiny’s Child Being Fired Out Of The Stage

This halftime show was so good that right afterwards the stadium lost power for a whole hour. That’s right Beyonce done blown all the fuses. Showing why she is the most recognisable woman in music today, Yonce was fierce all over the stage with some of the most kinetic choreography to ever be put on the halftime stage. Oh yeah and there was that part where she shot the other members of Destiny’s Child out of the stage to back her up for some vintage DC numbers, making any of us who were in high school in the ’00s lose our shit.

Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s Notorious Wardrobe Moment

You can’t write a Super Bowl halftime story without including this, the most notorious of all halftime shows thanks to what was described as a “wardrobe malfunction“. Which is to say JT ripped open Janet Jackson’s top and exposed her strangely tasselled nipple. Seriously though, the fall out from this was so huge, you’d have thought Justin and Janet had just had at each other on stage people were so outraged.

Michael Jackson Proving Why He Was The King Of Pop

https://youtu.be/idg8TNknvDU

Keeping it in the family for this one, it’s kind of fitting that while Janet’s may be seen as one of the worst halftime shows ever (unfairly I’d say) her brother’s attempt is seen by many as the defining example on how to do it right. The first time the viewership for the Super Bowl ever increased during the halftime show, MJ does everything from seemingly teleporting around the stadium to gathering a groups of kids for a singalong of Heal The World. And while that last scene may not look as wholesome today as it did then, there is no denying Michael Jackson‘s talent as a performer and grade A spectacle maker.

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