Super Bowl halftime shows ranked
Here's a look back at who scored—and who fumbled—over the past 30 years' worth of shows, including Usher's performance at Super Bowl LVIII
Music Features Super Bowl
Superstars playing the Super Bowl is a relatively recent phenomenon. During the game’s first quarter century, the NFL was loathe to offend the public at large, so instead of pop phenomena, they’d anchor the halftime show with dance troupes and marching bands—or, in the case of a truly bizarre program from 1989, a magical Elvis Presley impersonator called Elvis Presto. Things started to change in 1993, when Michael Jackson headlined the Super Bowl Halftime Show at the Rose Bowl. Sure, New Kids on the Block appeared at halftime during in 1991, but Michael Jackson treated the game as an afterthought: he put a concert into the confines of the Super Bowl.
It took a while for the NFL to loosen up enough to let other artists follow Jackson’s lead. For the next 10 years, they made halting progress until there was a sea change in the early 2000s, a change that started with Aerosmith and NYSNC sharing the stage in 2001 and solidified with U2 commanding the stadium in 2002. From that point forward, it’s been nothing but superstars headlining the Halftime Show, a tradition that continued with Usher’s performance during Super Bowl LVIII. Here, we look back at the highlights—as well as a few debacles—from the last three decades.
137 Comments
Ya’ll scared of the beyhive? Prince is #1 and it’s not close.
When Beyonce performs at the super bowl do her fans whine that she isn’t given a super bowl ring? It seems like they throw a fit whenever some sort of prize is up for grabs and she doesn’t get it.
Fuck her and her EDM award stealing ass anyway ( I’m sure next time her team will enter her for best Spoken Word, Classical and Latin award as well)
Full points for using a Jalen Hurts gif.
Yeah.
I’m a Michael Jackson superfan, and I still have Prince #1, MJ #2 when it comes to Superbowl performances. And, when it comes to Beyonce performances, I thought her doing Formation in 2016 was better than the entirety of her 2013 set, if only because Formation is a much better Superbowl song (along with Bruno Mars) than what she did in 2013.
You’re still proud to be a Michael Jackson super fan after it became abundantly clear that he was a child molester?
Maybe they just like bad boys with a streak of controversy. Pedophilia is pretty bad!
Well if you’re in possession of the incontrovertible evidence that would prove his guilt, give it to the LA County DA, have them re-open the case, and be a hero.
Otherwise, spare me the indignation and go piss up a rope.
Cheers.
You have to admit the fact that he had a doorbell to know when people were coming down the hallway is pretty weird.
I took one look at the headline and though “Well, Prince is obviously #1, no contest”
Exactly.
Same.
I mean, he closed by playing “Purple Rain” IN THE FUCKING RAIN. Even God thought it was the best halftime show.
Producers warned Prince it was going to be raining and asked if it would cause a problem. Prince’s response? “Can you make it rain harder?”.
Prince: “Well I’ll just have to make more pancakes then”
putting Beyonce over Prince is a fucking war crimecall the Hague
fucking Purple Rain, in the rain?? I mean he couldn’t have drawn that shit up any better. I’m not sure Beyonce is top 5. U2, Who, the full hip hop act…I want to put Tom Petty up there because he’s one of my all-time faves but yeah they basically “just” put on a rock and roll show.
Absolutely the best performance. And the article left out…IN THE RAIN. Having “Purple Rain” being played live..IN THE RAIN, makes it over the top.I’ll say that Beyonce was very good, but it’s second. I seriously doubt she would have done that exact same performance, and most likely couldn’t do all the dancing etc, in the rain.
I think it could have went to Beyonce or Prince, it’s different types of performances, and both are massive cultural moments that really make you gasp.
Beyonce was #1 because it gifted us this
…and people stayed in the pouring rain to see him perform. They didn’t head for shelter in the stadium. Everyone remembers Prince and Purple Rain in the rain. Same can’t be said about Beyonce, I forgot she even performed until now.
Exactly.
Lol…I was gonna say!
I love (LOVE) me some Beyonce, but, come ON – Prince *buried* that motherfucker.
This was such a layup that it makes me reconsider Allmusic.com’s credibility for whiffing on this.
I don’t care for Prince, or Beyonce, but the latter seems to have this really bizarre cult leader thing going on with her fans, especially when it comes to criticism. (Even moreso than Prince who’s most die hard fans can be more insufferable than Beatles fans.)
It shouldn’t even be up for debate. Prince #1
It’s not. They needed some clicks.
I dunno, Rihanna was pretty out there.
Did you watch Rihanna last night? Boring, warmed-over garbage. Her lip synching was so off it was distracting.
I have nothing against Beyonce, but Prince is the clear cut #1 here and it isn’t close
Beyonce could take a shit on a stage and the dipshits here would insist it was history’s greatest artistic statement
It all looks pretty grim other than Prince, really
As an aside – what’s the Blues Brothers’ deal? The movie builds comedy around their deadpan Chicago accents and the juxtaposition of two gawky white guys with Aretha Franklin. But seeing Dan Aykroyd perform blues standards in a hat, whether it’s from 1996 or 1978, I just don’t get the premise.
Once people decide the reeeaaaalllly like a thing, it can reeeeeaaaalllly get out of hand.
I remember watching SNL reruns with my dad in the 1990s, and he reflexively laughed when an old Blue Brothers routine came on. I could understand where the movie made the characters funny, but I was like, “were they funny to begin with? Is the comedy in the square costumes? The dancing? Is it the idea of Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi being musicians?” Anyway, that also how I found out that my dad was a fan of Andy Kaufman.
Cocaine is a helluva drug.
The fun of a live performance is the energy of being in the room, the roar of the crowd, the spontaneity, the sense of being present with the performer.
The fun of TV is that everything is carefully controlled to look and sound as good as possible, with as many tries as the performers need with editors and producers working overtime to get it as close as they can to perfection.
Live performances on TV combine the worst of both worlds, and most of the halftime shows are C+ music videos at best, at least if you weren’t at the game.
Prince’s show was a thousand times better than Beyonce’s, but Ms. Knowles deserved the silver medal.
Exactly right. Prince ahead of everybody else by a solid mile. Beyonce is a deserving second. Her set was amazing, but Prince’s was legendary.
Starred for Prince, tolerated for Beyonce. I honestly don’t have her top 5.It may be because I’m getting tired of the noise claiming she’s the greatest thing ever, tbh.
I would give your comment more stars if I could.
FOUND HIM! GET HIM!
I was always kind of on the fence about her musical abilities vs her ability to perform (because she can put on one incredible performance), but that last album is truly incredible even if it’s a little less accessible to her typical radio play songs.
Having 24 writers for one song is a red flag. She performed at the Grammys years ago with Tina Turner and looked like a dope next to the Queen.
As the story goes…Producer: I’m sorry, Prince. It’s going to rain during your halftime show.Prince: Can you make it rain harder?
Regarding The Weeknd seeming “completely seperate from the proceedings” and “not playing to the crowd” I think it should be noted that his performance was during the height of Covid (that week there was 4000-5000 daily deaths in the USA), as a result, the stadium had limited the capacity to roughly 1/3, there wasn’t the “crowd” for him to play for.
fun fact: they call it the halftime show because it occurs between the first and second half of the Super Bowl
See this is why I value the comments section more than the features. Learn something every day.
Future historians will know that the Super Bowel was a yearly ritual performed by people in the declining years of the American Empire. The goal of the ritual was to cleanse your colon but the process was odd and elaborate. Groups of people would meet together and inject the wings of a creature called the buffalo as well as dipped beans with chips of corn. The records are not clear if these were foods or some sort of herbal laxative. The groups would then gather to watch special short plays from their corporate overlords. I know one of my young colleagues has tried to push a theory that some sort of gladiatorial style sporting event was also watched but here in the 31st century we find it very skeptical that even primitive pre-Revision humans would find entertainment in the barbaric practice of watching men play a game that causes brain damage to a large number of their players.
I’m very happy to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers ranked so highly. Tom Petty rightfully gets a ton of attention for writing a ridiculous number of great songs, but I feel the Heartbreakers don’t get their due from people who aren’t among their more dedicated fanbase. They are easily one of the top 5 American rock bands of all time. The Live Anthology released ~15 years ago, and the recent “Live at the Fillmore” set that came out prior to Christmas really highlight this.
I was excited to see that, too – although as a personal preference, I’d probably rank their performance second after Prince.
I’d probably rank them first, The Stones second, and Prince third, but I fully realize my opinion is strongly biased.
At this point is it fair to call Petty the best American rock songwriter ever? No one comes close to his volume of stone-cold classics, and their shows were religious experiences. I’ve NEVER seen a guy whip up a crowd like he could, often starting with one of his slower numbers and then blowing shit wide open. Every single live version of his songs were better than the studio tracks.Example, Don’t Come Around Here No More:Cuts at the end to parts of that bonkers video, but hearing Campbell just go the fuck off is simply incredible.
In my view that is fair, but I also realized my opinion is very biased. The genius behind it all was Petty’s songwriting, but I don’t think he’d have reached the level of success he did if he hadn’t had the Heartbreakers behind him to bring his vision to life. I agree about his shows being a religious experience, but I’ll say I feel the same way when I see a select number of others perform. I love this verse from the TP and the HB song “Have Love Will Travel”. I’m an atheist, and it more or less sums up what rock and roll means to me. How about a cheer for all those bad girls
And all the boys that play that rock and roll
They love it like you love Jesus
It does the same thing to their souls
To me that title belongs to Robert Hunter, though I agree that Petty was very good
I like Tom Petty, but I could happily go through life without ever hearing Don’t Come Around Here No More or Mary Jane’s Last Dance ever again. When he got into doing detailed videos, his songwriting went downhill.I would put Springsteen above Tom Petty in songwriting, or I could make an argument for John Fogerty for greatest American rock songwriter.
I don’t care much for the studio version of Don’t Come Around…, and a lot of his bigger hits like Mary Jane’s, Into the Great Wide Open and Free Fallin don’t do much for me. But I could list 50 that I think are absolute classics. Springsteen doesn’t hit the spot for me quite the same way; I prefer Petty’s hopefulness. Fogerty I put behind those two.
My mother was at Super Bowl IV. She saw Ella Fitzgerald perform during the halftime show. Unfortunately, she had no idea who she was.
#1 Prince.#2 U2.#3-#30 everybody else. We usually turn to Puppy Bowl / Kitten Bowl. Cuz puppies.
Actually they have the Kitty’s during halftime. I much rather see if a cute dog with a handicap gets a forever home it’s so heartwarming.
I know you’re trolling. You know you’re trolling. Everyone knows you’re trolling.
I got to Prince at #2 and was very confused
What in the hell
Maybe I’m mellowing in my old age but I’ve liked several of the recent shows. I thought JT, Gaga, Dre and even Katy Perry clearly put some real effort into it, and at least deserved points for trying. It’s a thankless task, let’s face it.
Also that shark wasn’t lost, he was just losing his damn shark mind getting down.
Reading the captions it just made me feel bad for the writer who seems incapable of feeling joy.
I would like to give a shoutout to the 2001 show (ranked 20th) because it was so massively ridiculous that I found it immensely entertaining. Like an Aquaman level of glorious stupid.
Prince put on the best show. U2 met the moment better than anyone could have. Beyoncé was certainly the best Beyoncé.
Come on, if you’re going to rank these things, at least rank them correctly. How can Prince not be #1? It’s not just a great Super Bowl performance but an iconic all-time performance. And as far as I can tell, he’s neither lip-syncing nor fake guitar playing.
I know this website has lately been trying to make the case for Beyonce as the greatest of all time, but give credit where credit is due. There’s no shame in coming in second to Prince.
In a fucking downpour.
Didn’t Cannibal Corpse play that one year?
Yeah, that’s right. With guest star Sammy Davis Junior.
You are smocking crack… Prince is #1
Prince and U2 have held the top two spots for awhile and probably will for awhile as well.Beyoncé and the Dre/Em/Snoop one are fighting for the bronze.
Prince was far and away the #1 for me.
The Weeknd #2 (shitty mix aside)
U2 #3
Bruno Mars 2014 # 4
Bring back Up With People!
real heads demand Hooray For Everything
the greatest Halftime show, Rock Around the World:
Is that the same Simpsons where they sing Walk on the Wild Side but change the lyrics to “all the races sing – do do-do do-do do-do-do…” Because that’s a joke that just gets funnier as time goes on
U2 needs to be #31
Ugh, U2 is the worst. 2022 should have been higher.
U2’s performance after 9/11 was really moving.
The only one of these I saw in person was the Aerosmith/NSYNC show at Giants/Ravens. It was OK but the best part was watching them set up and then take the whole thing down in such a short time.
Stephen: “At his best, there was nobody better than Prince, and he was at his best here.” Also Stephen: “Beyonce was better than Prince.”Jesus.
I have no idea how Prince is number 2 here. Playing Purple Rain on one of the most watched annual events, in the fucking rain no less, was just perfection. Poetic even. Love some Beyonce (and she got robbed at the Grammys), but definitely second to Prince here.
bey over prince? jay z pay off? FOH!
“At his best, there was nobody better than Prince, and he was at his best here.”So uhhhh I guess* he should’ve been number 1 on this list then?*no guess necessary, Prince’s halftime show stands alone
Yeah I think The People have spoken on that one. This list certainly did its job from a reader engagement standpoint.
Thanks for the high ranking of Tom Petty! Their performance is the one that still sticks out in my mind.
At his best, there was nobody better than Prince, and he was at his best here.Do you not see the irony of writing this sentence about Prince as you put him in second place?
Prince and Petty deserve those top-ten rankings; The Who, McCartney and The Stones should be higher.
Decent list. Can we agree that the Black Eyed Peas (2011) was the worst?
Clearly, based on its placement, they do not agree with that.
I’d give that distinction to Maroon 5.
As a classic rock guy, I definitely enjoyed when Petty, The Who, etc. took their turns putting up quality performances. But Prince put on a show that you knew was something special as you were watching it. His ought to be number 1. Also, did I miss the Chili Peppers in this list? I remember that one being controversial for some reason
My vote for #1 goes to the time Mankind beat The Rock for the WWF title, then Prince. Beyonce automatically gets bounced from the top 5 because they didn’t do Survivor during the Destiny’s Child reunion.
C’mon. It’s Prince #1. Everyone knows it. The entire commentariat knows it. Every single person who even glanced at the title of the article knows it.
The Stones were awful. Richards was deadass chatting with the paid dancers in font of the stage while the soundtrack played his guitar part.
OMG Elvis Presto.
He wasnt the star though, it was the 3D glasses that came in the newspapers. EVERYONE was talking about it. I remember waiting for the half time show VIVIDLY. It kinda worked okay but the act was cheesy AF.
Damn, Prince # 2, eh?Lemme guess, Whitney Houston isn’t your #1 S.B. National Anthem, is it?
Depends, did Beyonce also sing the National Anthem?
Beyonce above Prince? Come on! Bey is good at what she does, but the media needs to quit acting like she’s the greatest human being on Earth. It’s the music version of Tom Brady syndrome.
During the game’s first quarter century, the NFL was loathe to offend the public at largeThe word is “loath.” As in, “I’m loath to point out grammatical mistakes, but I do so anyway in the futile hope that underpaid freelance writers with no proofreaders might self-improve.”
Yet you’ve used the “self-improve” rather than the obviously superior “improve themselves”??? YUCK.
Or just “improve.” It’s a reflexive verb if there’s no object.
Or find a synonym, since prove and proof are awkward in the same sentence.
Prince is so odd to me. I’ve never understood the hype around him. I mean, he’s a good musician, I guess, but I’ve never thought his music was particularly great. Then here, the consensus is all “obviously Prince is #1″, and again, I just don’t get it. I don’t hate or even dislike him. It’s just baffling to me, as I just don’t see it with him.
Where does the wedding of Pac man and Ms. Pac Man rank?
We could have had Sweet Victory. NEVER FORGET. Also, Shania Twain is fucking corny. Always has been.
Yeah but full pass for being so hot it make me ugly just looking at her.
1. Prince2. Madonna3. Lady Gaga4. Katy Perry5. Beyoncé
Yeah, no…this whole list was invalidated (IMHO) when listing Prince at #2 so, g’won, git and take this ‘ranking’ with you.
Who remembers the silhouette Prince created when he was playing his guitar behind the cloth backdrop?
Pepperidge Farm Remembers
And in the rain!
1st place: the one where Prince made it look like his guitar was his penisRunner up: the one where Janet Jackson showed her boobLast place: 28-way tie between literally every other performance
Man, that Indiana Jones halftime should be more infamous. It’s like someone tried to make a parody, but went too far. Just the first 5 seconds and White man cast as ethnic person (but probably less problematic) slumps shoulders as soul leaves his body.(Patti LaBelle pretaped) “Well, Indiana Jones, you got your trophy back. So tell me sugar, what are you going to do now?” “I’m going to give it to the winner of Super Bowl 26″ “That’s a new attitude” (Then sings New Attitude)
The Indiana Jones halftime show was just a promo for the Indiana Jones ride that opened in March of that year at Disneyland.
Nice to see Madonna’s original-recipe face again.
I had more fun listening to Beyonce than Prince.
Watching Madonna from 11 years ago and seeing her now really drives home how far she has fallen.
Does an industrial fan follow Beyonce around everywhere she goes? Better than Prince? Please. Not at any event.
Lifelong Prince fan and I own not one Beyonce album, but her show was absolutely the most energetic and visually interesting halftime I’ve ever seen.
Beyonce isn’t fit to fellate Prince’s corpse
Again with Beyonce? Puh-leeze. The girl can’t sing.
No, sorry, Beyonce was not remotely CLOSE to Prince playing in a total downpour.
Is there some unwritten rule that Beyonce needs to be first no matter what? No one remembers her performance, everyone remembers Prince’s set.
Dear lord…I can’t believe we use to think NSYNC were good dancers…let this be a lesson…choreography does not equal good dancing…
It’s a crime that Prince isn’t #1. Playing Purple Rain, in the rain, with the giant silhouette. It’s easily the most memorable of any of the performances.
Usher killed it. Glad to see him ranked so high. I renew my objection to U2 being on this list.
Agreed. Usher’s performance was impressive as hell.
Last night’s was #7??? GTFO.
Lmao, you all scared of Jay Z too?? Beyonce’s show was good but #1 not even close. I would rank it anywhere from 5-10.1. Prince
2. U2
3. Michael
4. Dr. Dre
5. Bey – if being generous.