Historically, the Super Bowl halftime show has been a highly desirable gig, but that hasn’t been the case this year. Cardi B was invited to join Maroon 5 on stage, but she turned the performance down in support of Colin Kaepernick. Regardless of the controversy, the show must go on, so, with Travis Scott and Big Boi in tow, Maroon 5 just secured their place in history by performing during halftime of the big game.
Before the performance, the band canceled their pre-Super Bowl press conference, but nobody really believed their reason why. They did, however, make a $500K charitable donation to to Big Brothers Big Sisters Of America in conjunction with their performance. A few days before the performance, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters implored the band to take a knee on stage “in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, to do it for every child shot to death on these mean streets, to do it for every bereaved mother and father and brother and sister.’
Maroon 5’s PJ Morton previously admitted that he had mixed feelings about the performance, saying, “I guess I had to come to the conclusion that you can be employed by a corporation and still support the things that are being fought against. […] I think we can perform for the NFL and the players can play for the NFL and we can support Kaep at the same time.”
But the band made the best of it, honoring SpongeBob Squarepants, incorporating Travis Scott into the show, and giving ATL the hometown look it deserved with a Big Boi appearance. Plus all the classic Maroon 5 pop hits that made the band enormous stars. Watch Maroon 5’s Super Bowl halftime show performance in the clips below. Oh, and look out for that shirtless Adam Levine moment while you’re at it
