A look back at the wildest and most memorable Super Bowl halftime shows

Bad Bunny is on the verge of taking the stage at the Super Bowl – with viewers so polarized in advance that the controversy will ensure him a spot in the pantheon of the event’s most memorable moments.

Known to be an increasingly elaborate show each year, the halftime performance is for some audiences the main attraction of the game.

For decades halftime was dominated by marching bands, speckled with occasional celebrities like New Kids on the Block, Gloria Estefan or Carol Channing.

In 1993, however, the tenor of the event changed when Michael Jackson brought his superstar stature to the performance and delivered a medley of his hits.

Since then the Super Bowl halftime has become the most hotly anticipated musical event of the year, a place for the top celebrities in the business to showcase their talents at their most streamlined and electric.

Here Daily Mail looks back at some of the most iconic halftimes of yesteryear, including one where a dance move went horribly wrong and set off a national scandal so explosive even the furor around Bad Bunny will be hard-pressed to overtake it.

Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake (2004)

Jackson was initially hired for the gig two years prior, only to be replaced with U2, who were regarded as a more suitable choice for the emotional post-9/11 show.

But once Jackson finally managed to get on the halftime stage, her career imploded.

While whirling through their choreography, Timberlake tore off a piece of Jackson’s top, causing one of her breasts to be momentarily exposed to millions of viewers.

Over half a million complaints flooded into the Federal Communications Commission, 65,000 of them from the Parents Television Council alone.

Jackson was blackballed from the industry, with radio and TV banning her songs and music videos. A planned biopic of Lena Horne, which she was to star in, also fell through as a result of the scandal.

Timberlake refrained from publicly defending Jackson and neglected even to apologize for causing her wardrobe malfunction until 2021, when a documentary about his ex Britney Spears led to his being heaped with public opprobrium over his treatment of women.

Kendrick Lamar (2025)

Last year’s Super Bowl was also wreathed in scandal, as the halftime show’s star Kendrick Lamar was being sued by Drake for the diss track Not Like Us.

Lamar defiantly rapped the number during his NFL gig, although he omitted the most incendiary bit of the song – his referring to Drake as a ‘certified pedophile.’

He made a sly reference to the legal battle between him and Drake, saying: ‘I want to perform their favorite song, but you know they love to sue.’

The 38-year-old also got the audience to rap along to the lines: ‘Say Drake, I hear you like them young’ and: ‘Trying to strike a chord and it’s probably A-minor.’

Although Lamar surrounded himself with star power – he was introduced by Samuel L. Jackson dressed as Uncle Sam and eventually joined onstage by SZA – his performance came in for raillery by viewers on social media.

Complaints poured in like: ‘So far the best part of the halftime show is Samuel L Jackson,’ ‘Somehow Kendrick is worse than the game itself,’ and: ‘This half time show at The Super Bowl by Kendrick Lamar is hot garbage… Worst of all time…’

Prince (2007)

Dressed in his signature color purple, Prince performed on a stage shaped like his ‘love symbol,’ the same one he had temporarily changed his name to in the 1990s.

Although the halftime show traditionally takes place in the open air at the center of the stadium, Prince’s gig marked the first time it rained.

The show went on as Prince shrugged off the dangers of using equipment like electric guitars in a downpour, embracing the challenge with such alacrity that he reportedly wished it would ‘rain harder.’

He treated the crowd to a medley of not just his own numbers but those of other musical icons, including Proud Mary by Creedence Clearwater Revival and All Along the Watchtower by Bob Dylan.

His closer was, aptly, Purple Rain, culminating in a fireworks display.

U2 (2002)

U2 played halftime at the Louisiana Superdome less than five months after September 11th, when the country was still reeling from the shock of the attacks.

Standing on a heart-shaped stage, the band began with a rendition of their hit Beautiful Day before shifting into a more melancholic gear suited to the occasion.

Viewers around the country were left in tears as U2 sang their songs MLK and Where the Streets Have No Name, with the names of the 9/11 victims projected on a screen behind them.

Bono then opened his jacket, revealing its lining was the Stars and Stripes.

Rihanna’s Super Bowl show was preceded by a frenzy of feverish anticipation, particularly since she had previously made a point of rejecting the gig.

The Umbrella singer shared in 2019 that she had ‘absolutely’ turned down the Super Bowl that year in solidarity with NFL players who were ‘taking a knee’ and refusing to stand for the national anthem in protest against the police.

‘I just couldn’t be a sellout. I couldn’t be an enabler,’ she told Vogue, after the show she declined was eventually played by Maroon 5, featuring Big Boi and Travis Scott.

A few years later, however, she underwent a change of heart and performed at the 2023 Super Bowl amid an explosion of fanfare.

The event marked the first time she had sung on television in five years, since she and DJ Khaled delivered a rendition of Wild Thoughts at the 2018 Grammys.

When her comeback show began, fans were initially surprised that her choreography was less strenuous than what they were accustomed to seeing from her.

All their questions were answered, however, when Rihanna revealed her blossoming baby bump, announcing she was expecting her second child by A$AP Rocky and making history as the first singer to play the Super Bowl pregnant.

Lady Gaga (2017)

Lady Gaga kicked off her show with patriotic fervor, singing a medley of the national classics This Land Is Your Land and God Bless America.

She then stunned audiences with an optical illusion that made it appear as if she had jumped from the roof of Houston’s NRG Stadium onto a stage below.

Afterwards, she revealed on the radio show Karson & Kennedy that she performed the stunt after her little sister Natali chirped: ‘I know, let’s suspend you in the air!’