Amazing 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show
I didn’t watch the Super Bowl because I have no interest in sports whatsoever.
I didn’t watch the Super Bowl commercials because capitalism is evil.
But I did watch the incredible Super Bowl halftime show. I thought I would share some thoughts about it.
In short, the show was awesome. Shakira and J-Lo delivered amazing performances, as everyone expected. This much could go without saying.
But the first thing that impressed me was the quality of the production values, good enough that it was a legitimate concert performance. Most past Super Bowl shows have been a joke in that regard, and I never thought it would be otherwise. But they really got it together this year. I don’t know if the credit goes to the artists and their production crews, the Super Bowl production crew, or just the advances of technology, but it was a really watchable show even if it hadn’t been happening in the halftime of a football game. Even the sound quality was great, at least in the Youtube video I watched. Maybe it was all pre-recorded, but who cares, in this special circumstance? But I suspect not, since Shakira sang without her studio auto-tuning.
Now I’m not particularly a fan of Shikira or J-Lo, their music or their perfomances. (Though I do like J-Lo in movies.) But I appreciate their incredible dancing and singing. I was completely entertained. And their energy! It would be amazing had they been 25 years old, but, as many have noted, Shikira is 43 and J-Lo is 50!
I loved the Latinx bent of much of the material. As a trying-to-be-woke white person, I get a warm feeling when I see good minority representation. And props for going there, even speaking some Spanish, as there are sadly parts of our country’s population that may have found it offensive. I loved it.
The backup dancers were also awesome. And so many of them! The choreography was great. And I liked the excllent visuals of the circluar stage, like when it turned into a canyon with waterfalls. I wish the TV camera work would have shown more of it.
I did not care for the overt sexuality of the dancing. I understand that that sort of thing is pretty fundamental to the music biz these days. But I am an aging transsexual woman with zero sex drive, so it’s totally outside my wheelhouse. Nevertheless, I just feel it is a somewhat degrading presentation of these talented, smart women. It caters to the patriarchy (of which I was once an active member.)
Best Super Bowl halftime show ever? I haven’t watched all of them, but I think the crown is still held by Beyoncé. (Again, I’m not particularly a fan, but I respect her talent bigly.) Besides her amazing performance, it was politically so radical and in-your-face. (In my face, anyway.) So Queen Bey maintains her hold on the crown, in my humble opinion, but the 2020 show is surely a contender.
[Edit: I guess Jay-Z gets credit for the production values.]
