Top 5 Super Bowl halftime gaffes
Pop sensation, and award-winning artist Beyoncé will be performing in this year’s Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 3 in New Orleans. After the star recently admitted to lip-synching at the inauguration, many people are left wondering if the superstar will deliver one of the great performances of the Super Bowl or contribute to a growing list of gaffes at the game’s biggest stage. Let’s take a look at some of her predecessors’ miscues and mishaps.
No. 5: 2011 Part 1 – Fergie’s dead mic
The Black Eyed Peas’s live performance at Super Bowl XLV was not without glitches. Some shifted the blame to the audio and equipment crew, but with just minutes to dress up the stage, there was bound to be something that went wrong. Millions only started noticing an issue when Fergie tried to sing into the microphone she was holding and no sound came out.
No. 4: 2011 Part 2 – Christina Aguilera botches national anthem
Christina Aguilera will have at least this one blotch on her Super Bowl performances resume. While singing “The Star Spangled Banner”, Aguilera said she “lost her place in the song.” Aguilera’s mistake was singing “What so proudly we watched at the twilight’s last gleaming,” an early line in the song, instead of “O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming”. The singer was criticized for the blunder, and she responded by saying, “I can only hope that everyone could feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through” in a statement to the Associated Press.
No. 3: 2009 – Bruce Springsteen crashes into camera
Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen groaned along with the millions of viewers when he made a leap of faith, but more of a slide, crotch-first into a TV camera. His thoughts were “too much adrenaline, a late drop, too much speed.” But he did manage to finish the show.
No. 2. 2007 – Prince’s “Purple Rain” turns inappropriate
Prince’s performance of ‘Purple Rain’ drew rave reviews when it actually started raining, except for the part where he looked like he was holding an enlarged frontal male organ in a silhouette of a giant curtain behind him. Many people hated it, and many others loved it. Welcome to America.
The performance seems to be blocked on YouTube, click here to watch it on Veoh.
No. 1. 2004 – Wardrobe malfunction
This was the blooper that set the standard–and ceiling–for later halftime mishaps. With seconds left before the stage lights went out, Justin Timberlake reached across Janet Jackson’s outfit with his left hand and ripped it open, revealing her breast. Jackson seemed momentarily shocked, and Timberlake has been remembered forever for the gaffe of all gaffes.
