Super Bowl History: NFL Football History Super Bowl Results & Winners Super Bowl Halftime Shows Super Bowl Commercials

2006 Super Bowl Halftime Shows & NFL Football Entertainment

Super Bowl fans come in all kinds. Generally, they all live to see the games. That aside, there are those who live for the home team, or one and one NFL team alone; those who live for football betting, armed with odds to win or betting propositions via sportsbooks; and then those who live for America’s most over-indulgent TV moments every year, the Super Bowl commercials and Super Bowl halftime shows. In 2004, a record 144.4 million US viewers were glued on to the Super Bowl, each with his own personal reason for not doing anything else.

The yearly anticipated Super Bowl halftime shows give every other entertainment production a run for its money. Each season, colossal stars and eye-popping special effects are expected to rock the Super Bowl halftime shows and leave audiences floored with ecstatic wowing. Stars the likes of Sting, U2, Aerosmith, and Paul McCartney have been there, done that, some, more times than others. Every year, the expectations get higher.

What is widely considered to be the best of the Super Bowl halftime shows is in 2002 with legendary rock artists U2 at the helm. It was the first Super Bowl following the events of September 11. U2 dominated the stage with a heartfelt tribute to the 9/11 victims. Even Sir Paul McCartney said the show was "fantastic." A "Beautiful Day" indeed. In 2003, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Sting collaborated with No Doubt on a Police classic. A dominatrix-dressed Shania Twain came onstage and cast doubt on whether her vocals were live or lip-synched. At Super Bowl 2001, Aerosmith brought Nelly, Mary J. Blige, NSYNC, and Britney Spears to chip in with "Walk This Way". Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, and Adam Sandler starred in the halftime mini-movie, to boot.

Sir Paul McCartney performed during the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005, considered to be a "safe" choice following the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy in 2004, involving Janet Jackson. It was McCartney's second Super Bowl appearance, having provided a memorable pre-game performance at SuperBowl XXXVI in New Orleans in 2002. As the climax to the pre-game show and immediately prior to the singing of the two traditional anthems, "America The Beautiful" and "The Star-Spangled Banner," McCartney performed "Freedom". It was Alicia Keys' turn to sing "America the Beautiful", paying tribute to Ray Charles, at Super Bowl XXXIX.

The Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show in 2004 featured Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake appearing onstage to do a song-and-dance routine to the song, "Rock Your Body." By the close of the routine, as the two sang, "Gonna have you naked by the end of this song", Timberlake would snatch off part of Jackson's bustier on stage, revealing a breast clad only in a sun-shaped "nipple shield" before a record-breaking number of Super Bowl viewers in the US. It was the second Super Bowl halftime show produced by MTV. The halftime incident also made the all-time Internet record for “most searched event over one day”.

Super Bowl Halftime History

When the first NFL football championship game dubbed as the "Super Bowl" took place on January 15, 1967, its halftime show featured the University of Michigan and University of Arizona marching bands, an entirely different scenario than the Super Bowl halftime we know today. Both NBC and CBS decided to air the event, splitting the audience, and making it the lowest rated Super Bowl ever. The early years of Super Bowl halftime history were dominated by marching bands; the last had been the US Air Force Band performing "Tops in Blue" at the halftime show of Super Bowl XIX in 1985.

Super Bowl X in 1976 marked the halftime debut of Up With People, who would go on to perform in a total of four Super Bowl events during the next decade, holding the record for most halftime performances. Their last Super Bowl halftime performance were at Super Bowl XX in 1986. Tied for second place are Justin Timberlake (who first performed with NSYNC) and The Jacksons (Janet and Michael), with two appearances each.

It was in the 1980s, the advent of MTV, that the Super Bowl halftime shows really started to evolve with the times, opting for MTV stars over marching bands, drill teams, dance troupes, and Up With People, who had once been familiar sights at halftime. At Super Bowl XXVI in 1992, a Winter Olympics theme prevailed in Minneapolis as Dorothy Hamill and Brian Boitano performed at halftime. Super Bowl XXVII in 1993 featured a “Heal The World” halftime performance by Michael Jackson accompanied on the field by 3,500 local children.

MTV produced their first halftime in 2001 for Super Bowl XXXV, featuring Aerosmith and NSYNC, giving way to Justin Timberlake's first halftime appearance. On February 1, 2004, Super Bowl XXXVIII made possible the second MTV-produced halftime show, and with Janet Jackson's breast-baring at the fore, made another kind of Super Bowl halftime history.