The anticipated Super Bowl LII was aired throughout America on February 4, 2018. The halftime show featured special guest performer, Justin Timberlake. The performance has a lot of people talking about it.
“I thought it was pretty good,” freshman Danny Salisbury said. “It was better than the ones in the past.”
But before the Super Bowl, Timberlake released his new album called “Man Of The Woods,” which featured pop artists such as Alicia Keys and Chris Stapleton. One of his hit songs from that album is Say Something featuring Chris Stapleton. The song made it to the top 10 on iTunes Apple Music’s top charts.
This was not the first time Timberlake performed in the Super Bowl, back in 2001, he performed with Britney Spears and NSYNC, his former boy band. In 2004, he also performed alongside Janet Jackson. The 2004 performance had made headlines and had viewers shocked due to Timberlake accidentally exposing Jackson’s breast for a split second.
Critics were quick and as was the FCC to bring heat to Jackson more so than Timberlake for the “nip slip.” Once again, the 2018 Pepsi halftime show also made headlines, however, unlike 2004, these headlines were not of an incident, but about Timberlake’s performance. Social media outlets, including Twitter were filled with negative comments and backlash of the performer from his outfit choice to his tribute to Prince, a former iconic American singer that died in 2016.
The week following up to Super bowl Sunday, rumors had already begun stating that Timberlake was going to have a hologram as a tribute to Prince.
Compared to Prince’s 2007 performance, Justin Timberlake was concerned a “wimpy joke.” Playing a tribute to Prince during the halftime show would’ve been disrespectful. Prince, whom passed away in 2016, was born in Minneapolis and had many hits. He was known as the “King of Pop”. He also gave the Super Bowl one of the best performances in 2007.
During the Super Bowl XLI halftime show, there wasn’t a hologram, but there was a projection of Prince performing I Would die 4 U and it also made the town turn into the color purple. Prince sang his songs during the halftime show, while Timberlake let his background music and background singers do the heavy lifting.
From the hologram, it followed a distractingly mumbled opening in which fans could barely even pick out Timberlake’s lyrics.
“I’m not the biggest fan of Timberlake,” freshman Isabella Rodas said. “His energy didn’t exceed the energy of other singers.” Unlike Timberlake, Prince also knew how to balance his songs. But, Timberlake’s attempt to remix his own pop classics resulted in wobbly rock arrangement.
In addition to the skill of his balance, Prince also knew how to stick his landing. Prince’s halftime show ended with one of the greatest moments in halftime history, his remarkable performance on Purple Rain.
Justin Timberlake could have made a much better halftime show by focusing on highlighting his own talents and his unique voice. Compared to previous halftime shows, this one was disappointing and underwhelming.