A scientific ranking of Super Bowl halftime shows
Here's the list:
5. Bruno Mars, Red Hot Chili Peppers (Super Bowl XLVIII, 2014)
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Super Bowl Producers took a big risk on Bruno Mars, the least-recognizable star in entrusted with the halftime slot in many years. So he came out with something to prove. After a children's chorus singing Billionaire raised false expectations that he might fall back on flashy schlock, he did the unthinkable — began his set with a drum solo, a full 50 seconds of nothing but laying down the beat. When his band took the stage for Locked Out of Heaven, they exploded in a way pyrotechnics never could. Styled and stepping like a young James Brown, Mars wrecked the house with a perfectly paced set that includedTreasure, Runaway Baby and then, with the Red Hot Chili Peppers,Give It Away, finishing with a rendition of Just the Way You Are that incorporated dedications from overseas members of the military.
4. 'N Sync, Aerosmith, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, Nelly (Super Bowl XXXV, 2001)
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the hottest boy band of the day,
old-school bad-boy rockers
Bye Bye Bye
I Don't Want to Miss a Thing
It's Gonna Be Me
Jaded
Walk This Way
Spears sang about see-saw swinging with the boys in the school and her feet flying up in the air, then kissed her fingertips and ran them down the cheek of a leering Steven Tyler.
Practically scandalous at the time, it now can be seen for the inspired insanity it truly was.
3. Beyoncé, Destiny's Child (Super Bowl XLVII, 2013)
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Working with a band, dancers and a cheerleading troupe,
Beyoncé
Run the World (Girls)
Love on Top
a ferocious take on
Crazy in Love
End of Time
Baby Boy
Bootylicious
Independent Women Part I
Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)
Halo
Mercedes-Benz Superdome
2. Prince (Super Bowl XLI, 2007)
version of
Let's Go Crazy
Baby I'm a Star
From there,
Proud Mary
All Along the Watchtower
Best of You
Purple Rain
1. U2 (Super Bowl XXXVI, 2002)
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iose
Beautiful Day
MLK
Where the Streets Have No Name
the
the only one that
Notice that a few stars were missing from the lineup? Mansfield explains why: