Madonna Super Bowl halftime show reviews hit the net with a vengeance following her live but lip synched performance. The pressure to do well in her performance was high. Trying her best, the 53-year-old Material Girl did her best to present what she personally hyped as an act that needed to be the greatest show on earth in the weeks before the big game. While Madonna has gotten panned by many critics, those who liked her halftime show say the performance was ruined by one of the hip hop stars that performed with her. Here’s our review of what went right and wrong during halftime, including a critique of the rapper M.I.A. (the British hip hop star)…
Folks making fun of the pop music singer Madonna for being old and washed up, and criticizing the quality of the half time show performance during Super Bowl 2012 have been downright mean. I thought she did well for a 53-year-old. Heck, she did a great job if she had only been a 23-year-old. Lifelong fans of the Vogue singer thought Madonna fared quite well for herself dancing and prancing on her five-inch tall stiletto heels and bending and contorting like a Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas starlet during the world’s grandest football stadium entertainment sporting event ritual.
While the initial feedback on social media was pretty mixed many websites such as Hollywood Life (who actually empathized with the pop music star) were praising her special event performance. With headlines like, “Madonna’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Was Pretty Epic”, they actually reached out to extend a hearty congratulations to her for doing what they felt was a terrific job enduring the choreography of the tough dance number with only a few faux pas.
[Actually, so many mainstream media outlets and rumor mills were talking about Madonna’s act that many seemed to ignore the very real fact that Tom Brady (eco-friendly husband of Gisele Bundchen and quarterback for the New England Patriots) was robbed of his Super Bowl ring by Eli Manning and those crazy New York Giants. Gisele got busted on camera criticizing her husband’s team mates for not catching the ball, creating yet another celebrity scandal for the NFL — but her OOPS moment caught on video was unintentional.]
Unfortunately the purposeful and childish actions by the English rapper and hip-hop star named M.I.A. has brought even more negative criticism to Madonna’s Superbowl Halftime Show.
M.I.A flipped her middle finger to the world during the show during the show. That’s pretty sad. Back in M.I.A.’s native Britain, the London Times noted today that while all eyes may have been on Madonna at halftime, “it was the extended middle finger of the British hip-hop star M.I.A. that caused the most controversy.” No one is even mentioning the performances by Cee Lo Green or Nicki Minaj.
[At least Cee Lo Green got some good press for his work as a judge on the reality television show The Voice that aired after the Super Bowl.]
M.I.A. could only hope to be considered in the same positive star light as Madonna. Clearly, she is desperate for attention and was jealous of Madonna. Most Americans have the impression of her now that she’s a second-rate wannabe pop music inspired hip hop star drawing attention to herself by any negative means possible. I have not heard if her actions were meant to have any profound political or deep social meaning beyond just creating an internet buzz, which it did. Now, ESPN is reporting entertainment news (rather than talking about sports), saying:
The NFL and a major television network are apologizing for another Super Bowl halftime show.
There was no wardrobe malfunction, nothing like that glimpse of Janet Jackson’s nipple eight years ago that caused an uproar and a government scrutiny. Instead, it was an extended middle finger from British singer M.I.A. during Sunday night’s performance of Madonna’s new single, “Give Me All Your Luvin.”
In front of some 114 million viewers, she flipped the bird and appeared to sing, “I don’t give a (expletive)” at one point, though it was hard to hear her clearly.
To that end, and that end alone, M.I.A. wins. But she made a poor wager — because if she had not done what she did, most Americans would be Google searching for her name right now trying to find out more about who she is and to give her music a listen.
Sadly there are very vocal critics who once again see Madonna as the bad girl in all of this — even thought she had nothing to do with the celebrity scandal. Melissa Henson, The Parents Television Council’s director of communications said that “They clearly knew who they were getting when they hired Madonna, no stranger to controversy.” Brian McCarthy, a spokesman for the NFL (the organization in charge of producing Madonna’s halftime show for live TV said quite simply, “The obscene gesture in the performance was completely inappropriate, very disappointing and we apologize to our fans…”, never addressing the fact Madonna was not the one who flipped off the camera.
ESPN went further on to note that, “M.I.A.’s record label said Monday it had no comment and her Twitter account was silent since noting she was in Lucas Oil Stadium with Madonna. And the Material Girl had no immediate comment.” Little did she know that her publicity stunt to help make her famous in the United States would seriously alienate so many potential new fans.
Madonna has had a controversial past, but this is one time when Madonna is getting thrown under the bus for being a bystander. According to NBC spokesman Christopher McCloskey, “The NFL hired the talent and produced the halftime show. “ Well there you have it, the NFL is to blame, not M.I.A.? Clearly the NFL is no stranger to controversy, and if you expect them to hire talent and produce a half time show while trying to run a decent Super Bowl Championship game for both visitors and television viewers, this is what you get when you try to mix too much together was the gist.
Today’s controversy overshadows the real work done by Madonna in the real world. In a recent press release Madonna announced her Raising Malawi charity is planning to break ground on building 10 schools in Malawi. Sounds to me like Madonna has come a long way since being the “Material Girl” of the 1980s. Perhaps that is a lesson that could be learned by the spoiled brat M.I.A. — and fans could cut Madonna some slack for trying so hard to put on a show while acting like such a good sport.
Man, we wish she had been missing in action during Madonna’s halftime show. The entire incident simply puts a blight on the NFL organization and creates a creative hurdle for all future performers to have to leap over in an effort to make sure no one does anything so stupid on live television in front of so many American families again.
What did you think of Madonna’s halftime show? Did M.I.A. flipping the bird at television viewers while shouting expletives ruin the performance?