Super Bowl Music

So, as I'm writing this, I am getting prepared for Sunday, February 3, 2013, when over 110 million viewers watch the super-sized sporting event known as the Super Bowl. Now, anybody that knows me knows that I hate Super-Bowl Sunday, I do not see the point in throwing these gigantic parties for what's really just another football game. The only special thing about this game is that the winning team gets a trophy...wow, such a great thing to work toward. Anyway, the only times I would ever considering watching the Super Bowl is to watch the half time shows. Even then, usually I'm dissapointed because the artists that perform are either obscure, have no talent beyond their auto-tuned albums, or they just march around the stage lip-synching their own songs. I'm not saying that every half-time show has been like this, but more times than one do the half-time shows suck. And then there's the performances of The Star Spangled Banner, which could go from being extremely bad or extremely phenomenal. So first, I would like to re-cap the best and worst music performances of the past Super Bowls:

Worst Star Spangled Banner Perfomances

Aaron Neville, Aretha Franklin, and Dr. John-Super Bowl 2006
(Good idea with the Gospel Choir, but it was much better in theory than in practice)

Christina Aguilera-Super Bowl 2011
(Epic oversinging, and messing up the words? Yeah... F-, Christina)


Best Star Spangled Banner Performances

Marvin Gaye-Super Bowl 1983
(Perfect touch of soul, and simply marvelous)

Whitney Houston-Super Bowl 1991
(No gimmicks, no oversinging, just the National Anthem and a great voice. A++!)


Worst Half-Time Performances

Madonna-Super Bowl 2012
(Half-assing by Nicki Minaj, innapropriate behavior from MIA, and walking around the stage and obvious lip-synching from Madonna? From the queen of pop, this show was a dissappointment...to say the least.)

The Black Eyed Peas-Super Bowl 2011
(2011 was just not a good year for music. First Christina disgraced the National Anthem, and then The Black Eyed Peas delivered one of the poorest live performances in enterainment history. Their hearts clearly weren't in it as the purposely fudged the lines to one of their own songs. They were unable to translate their songs into a live setting, thus highlighting how extremely annoying "Boom Boom Pow" and "OMG" really are. Slash comes out of nowhere and is completely out of place with the rest of the setlist, and the bands costumes are ridiculously made-up to distract from the lame show they've preared. If this isn't a career killing performance, I don't know what is. F--)

Best Half-Time Performances

Prince-Super Bowl 2007
(With a purple guitar in hand, and a setlist of his greatest hits, only Prince would be able to get buff football fans singing falsetto during his show-stopping performance.)

Michael Jackson-Super Bowl 1993
(Blown-out to the fullest extent, Michael Jackson may have been losing his grip on the mainstream, but he was sure well and alive during this clasic half-time show. And ending with a bang, he was able to re-assure his dominance as the king of pop.)


So, now that we've looked back, let's look ahead to tomorrow. Who's performing?
Well, Alicia Keys will sing the National Anthem, but not in the way we're used to. She, like every artist before her, wants to put a new spin on it. This can go either really badly or excellently. Alicia is a very talented singer, but more times than not, singers who do their own version of the National Anthem end up falling flat on their face. And Alicia might oversing as well, we'll see.
Also, the Sandy Hook Elementary choir will perform "America The Beautiful" during Pre-Game as well. Obviously this is to pay tribute to the schoo after their tragedy in December. I think it is a wonderful idea, and a great way to show America's support for them.

And now Beyonce. We've all known since October that she's been chosen to perform at half-time. I know I should be excited about this...but I'm not. You see, ever since she released "Single Ladies", I've lost respect for her as an artist. She's become WAY too pretentious about female empowerment and she sings about it WAY too much now. I know that gender equality is still an issue, but singing stupid songs like "Single Ladies" and "Run The World (Girls)" only set this movement back. Also, if she lip-synched at Obama's inauguration, then I have a bad feeling about the Super Bowl too. But, who knows, maybe Beyonce will actually sing and bring justice back to the half-time show. I mean, after The Black Eyed Peas and Madonna brought the bar WAY down, there's really nowhere else to go but up. This is just my prediction, and as Ellie Goulding would say "Anything Could Happen".
I'll be watching the Super Bowl again, mainly because I'm going to a party with all my friends and there will be free food. Other than that, I'm pretty sure I'll enjoy the commercials...lol.