The Madonna Superbowl Halftime Show

Yeah well I am offended that the stage show (the stage/effects) was offshored to Canada. Sacrilege (yes that was sarcasm).

Actually the stage show itself blew me away, EXTREMELY well done.

It isn't about music anymore though. It is about the entire performance. If I just want to listen to music, then I just flip on iTunes and listen.

She sounded good but her dancing was off.

JMHO there....

MJL-3

#2- How do we know that wasn't taped as opposed to live singing, you really can't tell these days....

PoliticoMan

Because they said it was LIVE, don't you think it would have gotten out that it was not?

She also did a short interview and she was very nervous, she hasn't been out like this for quite some time. If you don't sing , you can lose your voice/pitch/tone

Nervousness can affect the voice.

I think she did great.

MJL-3

#2.7- I'm just being devil's advocate, just joking.. It was a pretty good show...

She sounded good but her dancing was off.

Not too bad though considering she was performing with a pulled hamstring she got during a rehearsal.

I didn't watch the show.. or the game..

Years ago, I enjoyed the half-time shows with the marching bands. Now, I wouldn't watch it if I was paid and given front row seating. Seems to me that the more dancers, the more outragious minimal costuming, the more laser lights, the more "noise", the less talent of the "super star".

I always enjoyed going to a concert or stage show where the artist performed on their own merits, not the elaborate background dancers/etc., that draw attention away from the "star" that probably doesn't have the talent needed to occupy the stage alone.

Think of great and talented artists of the past.. Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, Ray Charles, Janis Joplin, Elvis, Patsy Cline, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin and on and on and on.. Gosh, those artists put on such a show by themselves, with maybe a few back-up singers and a small band.. but they were such powerful artists, that there was no space on the stage for half dressed dancers, a light show, all the huge props, and all extra junk that helps to fill "the space" that a performer can't fill. The big stars of "yesterday" OWNED the stage..

Amen to all that!!!!!!

just pieces of an old woman

In the last decade, we've had Prince, Paul McCartney, Tom Petty, the Who, the Rolling Stones--all of whom are older or the same age as Madonna. Where is your disdain for men who can't act their age, or is it the continued impression that women ought to dry up and blow away the minute they pass 35?

I think Madonna is about my age or maybe a little younger. I am 58. I have always liked Madonna.

She puts a lot of money into the performance for the lights and music. I thought she did very well.

To be truthful, when C-lo and the choir were singing the last song, tears came to my eyes.

YES, it made me cry, and I don't know why. I have gotten teary-eyed before when I hear

a choral group. Go figure! Maybe it was a longing for the good old days when Madonna

was younger and I was too. LOL.

it's not just madonna, this is the same all around........these people have made their mark, they don't have the WOW anymore. it's like watching an old race horse.........the men look worse

Well at least there were no wardrobe malfunctions. I kind of get what you mean. I can

remember thinking how dreadful Wayne Newton was when he got on in years. Yuck!

hell i don't even like football but if i had to choose i would choose football over madonna's performance...............my friends wanted to see her show, so that's how i saw it, peer pressure at my age, go figure...............

hehehe, that's funny Viva but yeah know, if I was back in the city I would have felt the pressure to be at one of those parties. I'm glad to be stuck one the farm.

nothing wrong with the farm...........not all complicated with people games

Vlad's dog wrote:

I am happy that I spent my day reading a good book.

Hubby and I did some much-needed errand-running. The stores and the roads were pleasantly empty.

yeah they all have it.....but even hugh hefner wants it younger

The music may have been prerecorded and lipsynced, but it wasn't a 25 year old recording.

has-beens don't get superbowl halftime shows. They get ignored. People pray for the kind of success that Madonna has. Just sayin'

The music may have been prerecorded and lipsynced, but it wasn't a 25 year old recording.

Um, yeah it was.

really? she did a show with the same songs in the same order for a 15 minute concert that was intermixed with songs that hadn't been recorded yet, like Nicky Minaj or MIA, and Cee Lo and LMFAO. WOW!!! that is very forward thinking of her.

(I wonder how many of those that I mentioned were even alive 25 years ago).

Harsh. true, but harsh.

the acoustics wouldn't allow for it to be sung live. It really isn't about the singing though, it is about the entire show.

Well.. as a musician I totally disagree, but music today isn't about talent... It is totally about show, so in that regard you are certainly right.

Again... Prince came out and did a fully completely live show a few years ago. But again... he is a musician... Most of your Top 40 people today are not musicians. They are pretty people who can dance, and stay thin, or have some other feature to sell them to teenagers.

the halftime show isn't about music though. That is the problem that people don't seem to get. The entire superbowl is about the show (It usually certainly isn't about football, though this year was a nailbiter but normally it is fairly lopsided).

Besides, if I am going to go for music, a stadium is probably the least pleasurable place to listen to it.

I agree with your on all points. I was just pointing out that it can be about music if someone wanted to showcase that.

I would rather go to a small pub with a live band to make it about music, or a small concert hall.

peapod.

it is all about money, the network that spends the most money, wins.

If an entity offered a billion dollars to the NFL to just not broadcast the superbowl, they just might bite on that one. It has nothing to do with quality.

I'm just taking solace that it will be three more years till another NBC superbowl. Money certainly plays the largest part, but qualitative measures are also factored in. My point is that the qualitative measures should play a larger role and the abortion known as NBC football coverage should be stamped out.

Fox does an excellent job, ABC does a great job, CBS does a great job... and then there's NBC, simply aweful.

gary,

most concerts by the 'marketable' bands are lip synced and have been for more than 20 years. It's done for many reasons. Madonna isn't a band, she is a brand, but you don't hear 'madonna and the dancetones', you just have madonna. She is selling a stage show, and it is that stage show.

That is just the industry right now. It has some good points to it, and it has some bad points to it, but quite honestly, I am not going to watch the superbowl halftime show for purity in music performance.

Oh, and Madonna has been lip syncing her shows for decades, she doesn't need to be talked into the safe route because that is how it is done.

Jonathan....sadly, what you say is true. But I must say, that as a musician , it makes me mad ! I feel that there is no honor in it.

When I play somewhere, I PLAY. I don't put a soundtrack on and PRETEND to play.Musicians who do such things, in my opinion, are no more than thieves. Michael Jackson PLAYED. So did Prince, Paul McCartney, and ZZ Top. But Madonna is SOOOOO good and talented that she can just pretend to perform ? WTF ?

gary,

there is just as much art in putting on the show as there is in the singing. Nat King Cole never wrote a song in his life, but does that detract from the music that he recorded, hell now.

Is it the same, no, but the objective is entertainment, and as long as the audience is entertained, it is all good.

Besides, there is NO way that someone can dance like she does in her shows and sing at the same time. It just isn't possible.

And yet everyone laughs at the choregraphed moves of a professional wrestler.............yes the talent WAS at the halftime show....just weren't any camera's on it !

The problem with 'professional wrestling' is that it is a stage show being presented as a competition. It ends up becoming more of a parity of itself. At least with the Harlem Globetrotters, we know it is an act, wrestling is an act presenting itself as sport.

Good luck on your extended vacation sambonner (and friends).

Madonna can play you off.