Madonna was in charge of halftime entertainment at this year’s Super Bowl. Over the course of twelve minutes and three outfits (which became less bizarre as the performance progressed), the Queen of Pop was joined on a typically humble and underlit stage by Nicki Minaj, M.I.A, Cee Lo Green, and gormless pop duo LMFAO.
Was it any good? Well, it was certainly a visual spectacular, but that goes with the territory nowadays. As predicted by the other queen of pop , Madge lip-synched her way through the whole thing (or at the very least used a backing track), but she’s looking as nimble and athletic as ever at 53, with cartwheels and some frenetic dancing on display.
Yet it wasn’t Prince 2007, was it? Still the best halftime show, in my opinion. But enough of me, here’s what some other people thought (and if you missed it, judge for yourselves – footage of the whole Madonna show is below):
“Joyous, unironic, open-hearted … [Madonna] was both in full command and full of generosity towards her massive audience.” Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly [ Link ]
“The costumes were bizarre. And the dance moves were surprisingly stiff. But when the choir starting belting it out and Cee-Lo hit those high notes…she took me there.” Michael Solomon, The Guardian [ Link ]
“[This was] little more than an ingeniously well planned — and shockingly transparent — advertisement for her new album, ‘MDNA,’” Randall Roberts, LA Times [ Link ]
“This was Madonna’s party and besides breaking off bits of her greatest hits to remind people of a time when she was the biggest pop vixen on the planet, she had important career-advancing work to do.” Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune [Link]
“The way they rhymed “Madonna” with “you wanna” was terrific. Just tremendous. And a bunch of times! Which was also great. Music is great.” Seth MacFarlane on Twitter [ Link ]