HALFTIME SHOW
NFL showcases diversity that drives South Florida culture with two popular Hispanic women: Jennifer Lopez, Shakira.
Jennifer Lopez and Shakira set fire to a chilly Hard Rock Stadium on Sunday night with a spectacular halftime show at Super Bowl 2020, and Demi Lovato shook the house with a powerful rendition of the national anthem, as three Latina stars put an exclamation point on the NFL’s weeklong love affair with the cultural diversity that defines South Florida.
The bilingual performances by Lopez and Shakira, which included help from Latin rap stars Bad Bunny and J. Balvin, added a new flavor to the NFL’s frequent reliance on mostly male pop, rock and R&B performers on the highprofile halftime stage at its signature event. Attendance at Hard Rock Stadium was just over 62,000, and the NFL estimated the 2020 Super Bowl would reach more than 100 million people worldwide.
In a video statement before the performance, Lopez called the Hispanic-flavored Pepsi Halftime Show “a marker for a new time” for the NFL and the nation.
Against a sea of red-clad followers of the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, with temperatures dipping into the 50s, Colombian crossover star Shakira arrived in a leggy red dress and matching boots, opening a brisk 8-minute set with “She Wolf.”
Never shy about shaking what her madre gave her, Shakira was a blur of navel-baring, hip-shaking movement, even dropping into the crowd for a well-choreographed surf across the audience. Her set included snippets of careerchanging hits “Whenever, Wherever” and “Hips Don’t Lie,” as well as a red-hot rendition of “I Like It Like That” with mega star Bad Bunny. Taking place on a circular stage set up in the middle of the field, the Pepsi Halftime Show was a visual explosion aided by a fusillade of fireworks and lighted wristbands handed out to fans that were synchronized with the music.
As energetic and entertaining as Shakira was, Lopez was a revelation in a wildly theatrical set that began with her descent on a pole (perhaps a sly wink at her Oscar snub for “Hustlers”) in a leathery black outfit that offered an unsubtle peek-a-boo at one of her famous assets.
Running through a physically demanding, dance-centric set (she returned a second time to prove her expertise on the pole), Lopez offered snippets from “Jenny From the Block,” “Waiting for Tonight” and “Mi Gente” (with J. Balvin), “Waka Waka” and a showstopping rendition of “Let’s Get Loud,” which included the unfurling of a Puerto Rican flag.
On the latter, Shakira joined Lopez onstage to close the halftime show with a rump-shaking duel (it was a tie) and a “Muchos gracias!”
The solo performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in the searing Super Bowl spotlight by Lovato, a second-generation Mexican-American, was particularly impressive. Stepping onto a small, football-shaped stage on the 50-yard line, between a stirring version of “American the Beautiful” by gospel star Yolanda Adams and the game NFL fans have anticipated for weeks, Lovato’s national anthem rendition was a model of humility and respect.
Possessing a four-octave range, Lovato eschewed the strident vocal pyrotechnics that have marred many a performance. Cruising like a fine-tuned Ferrari, Lovato’s performance rose gradually, deliberately, until a full-throated “... home of the brave” was enveloped in the roar of a military flyover.
The night punctuated a triumphant week for the 27-year-old singer, a onetime Disney TV star, beginning with an emotional return to the stage for the first time in two years at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Jan. 26. Her tearful rendition of a new song, “Anyone,” a deeply personal chronicle of loneliness written just before an apparent drug overdose in 2018, was a highlight of the Grammys telecast and earned Lovato wide praise.