2018 Super Bowl Halftime Show: Reactions and Thoughts

This might be a brand new series where I just voice my reactions and thoughts on certain music-related things, usually performances. Last week, I did a Reactions and Thoughts post for the Grammys. Now I'm going to talk about the Halftime Show Performance for the 52^nd Super Bowl.


Before I get into that, I just want to quickly talk about the performance of the National Anthem from P!nk. I thought she sounded really good for the most part. She wasn't pitch perfect, but she was sick with the flu. She already has my respect for continuing with her performance because if I had the flu, I wouldn't want to leave my bed, let alone perform for millions of people. She still sounded pretty good and though it wasn't perfect, I was pleased with it. I don't expect perfection out of anyone. I think people over-criticize some things and want them to be perfect. A good example is the halftime show performance, which I will get into right now.


The halftime show performance was done by Justin Timberlake this year. This is nothing new to him. He performed during the halftime show for the Super Bowl in 2004 with Janet Jackson, which featured the controversial wardrobe malfunction in which Timberlake exposed Jackson's breast for about half a second. As far as what I think, I don't think this was intentional. I think it was just an accident. These things happen. I won't go any further since that's a whole other topic. But despite this, they allowed Timberlake to perform again this year. Some people didn't like this and there were mixed reactions when it was announced that he would be the halftime performer. Though I don't usually like repeats, I think Justin Timberlake is a really good performer, so I was okay with him. Leading up to the big performance, JT released his fifth studio album, Man Of The Woods. If you read my last post, you'd know that I thought the album was okay overall. Filthy was definitely a single that had people mixed, including me. It's grown on me a little bit, but I still have some mixed thoughts on it. I compared it to Perfect Illusion by Lady Gaga in my last post as it's the big lead single before the Super Bowl performance that had some people mixed. But overall, I wasn't too impressed with the album.


Of course the performance opened up with Filthy, which I guess was expected. Part of me told me he wouldn't perform it for some reason since it's such a weird song. But he did and it was okay. I guess it was good way to kick things off. Then he performed Rock Your Body, which is one of my favorite songs from him. I really enjoyed this part. I liked his dance moves and he really got the crowd going, which is what makes him a good performer. Also, I love the song, so that may have had an impact on what I thought of the performance. But I liked it. Then he did a little snippet of Señorita, which led into SexyBack, another huge favorite of mine. Definitely one of his best songs that just had to be performed. Again, he had some great moves here and I thought he did a nice job on the vocals. He managed to keep me entertained. It was energetic and fun. I liked the backup dancers. Again, I don't know if me loving the song is what made me enjoy this. But either way, I thought he did well here. Immediately after, he did My Love, yet another favorite of mine and one of the best from FutureSex/LoveSounds. He really brought the energy here and had the crowd going. His voice was really good. Once again, I liked the backup dancers. I was thoroughly entertained. Following this, he did Cry Me A River, which was a massive hit from Justified. I don't love this one as much as the other three (Rock Your Body, SexyBack, and My Love), so I wasn't as into this part. But I still like the song and I thought his vocals were good here. I really liked the choreography. He still made it energetic and fun. After this, he performed Suit & Tie, which was the big lead single from The 20/20 Experience. I like the song, though I don't love it. The performance of it was okay. I liked the setup of it with the big marching band in the background. I also really liked the dance moves. But I would've liked some more vocals from JT here. I get that the dancing with the mic stand prevented that. But it didn't sound as good with just the backup vocals. Following that was a performance of Until The End Of Time, which I liked. I like how he stripped it down to him and the piano. His voice sounded good. This then led into a performance of I Would Die 4 U with a pre-recorded video of Prince projecting. I really liked this and the fact that he did a tribute to Prince. I thought it was really nice. As we got closer to the end, he did Mirrors, one of his biggest hits. His vocals were good. I really liked this part. The setup was cool. It's my personal favorite song and I was pleased with the performance. And to finish it off, he did his big 2016 hit, Can't Stop The Feeling. He definitely ended things off on a positive note with such a fun jam. I enjoyed it. It was very colorful and I liked the dancers. And that boy is really lucky. But I thought that was a great way to end the show.


Overall, I thought this halftime show was enjoyable. I've seen a lot of criticism and honestly it feels like some people try to find reasons to hate on things. I'm sure some people have legitimate reasons as to why they disliked it. But I enjoyed it. I wouldn't go as far as to say it was one of the best. JT didn't exactly top Lady Gaga's halftime show last year. But I thought it was good. It wasn't perfect by any means, but I don't expect perfection. When not comparing this to other halftime shows, this was really good and I feel like the people that disliked this didn't like it because it didn't live up to other halftime show performances from previous years. A lot of work still went into this and I'm impressed with anyone that can put on a show like this. It was fun and enjoyable. Like I said, Justin Timberlake is a great performer and one of the best male artists of this decade. While this performance was not one of the best, I enjoyed it for what it was and I appreciate the amount of work that went into it. He did a good job in my eyes. Timberlake is one of my favorite artists, so I may be somewhat biased and I kind of went into the performance assuming that it would be really good. So my opinion may not be worth much, but I liked it and I thought I should just put that out there since I've seen a lot of negative thoughts on the show he put on.


Feel free to watch it on JT's official Vevo YouTube account: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6xUgawDQB0


If I had to rate it, I would give it a 3.5/5 (or a 7/10), which is a B according to my grading scale. It was good, there's no doubt about that. It wasn't amazing, but I enjoyed it and I think Timberlake did a very nice job. Keep in mind, this was all just my opinion. I hope you enjoyed.