Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 01, 2015, Winnipeg, Manitoba C M Y K PAGE A14 A 14 WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2015 ENTERTAINMENT winnipegfreepress. com T WELVE minutes, 100 million viewers. Not to put undue pressure on Katy Perry and Lenny Kravitz, but Super Bowl halftime performances can carve legacies in stone - or sink them like a rock. It's worth noting the Black Eyed Peas haven't released an album or a real hit single since 2011' s Tron - inspired, glow- in- the- dark halftime debacle. And Janet Jackson's career still hasn't recovered from her breast- baring episode in 2004. These five, on the other hand, got it right. 5. Bruno Mars, Red Hot Chili Peppers ( Super Bowl XLVIII, 2014) Super Bowl producers took a big risk on Bruno Mars, the least- recognizable star entrusted with the halftime slot in many years, so he came out with something to prove. After a children's chorus singing Billionaire raised false expectations he might fall back on flashy schlock, he did the unthinkable - beginning his set with a drum solo, a full 50 seconds of nothing but laying down the beat. When his band took the stage for Locked Out of Heaven , they exploded in a way pyrotechnics never could. Styled and stepping like a young James Brown, Mars wrecked the house with a perfectly paced set that included Treasure , Runaway Baby and then, with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Give it Away , finishing with a rendition of Just the Way You Are that incorporated dedications from overseas members of the U. S. military. 4. ' N Sync, Aerosmith, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, Nelly ( Super Bowl XXXV, 2001) You have to admire the mad genius who thought to pair ' N Sync, the hottest boy band of the day, with old- school, bad- boy rockers Aerosmith, then add Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige and Nelly to the mix. The two groups swapped recent hits, moving from Bye Bye Bye to I Don't Want to Miss a Thing to It's Gonna Be Me to Jaded in a way that presaged the mashup era, before pulling out all the stops for a bizarre, chaotic version of Walk This Way . Spears sang about see- saw swinging with the boys in the school and her feet flying up in the air, then kissed her fingertips and ran them down the cheek of a leering Steven Tyler. By the end, all five acts were line- dancing across the stage. Practically scandalous at the time, it now can be seen for the inspired insanity it truly was. 3. Beyonc�, Destiny's Child ( Super Bowl XLVII, 2013) Working with a band, dancers and a cheerleading troupe, all consisting entirely of women, Beyonc� gave a commanding performance that saw her enter to legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi's famed " Excellence" speech superimposed over Run the World ( Girls) . A stop- time, a cappella chorus of Love on Top led to a ferocious take on Crazy in Love , followed by End of Time and Baby Boy . She then staged a mini- reunion of Destiny's Child with Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, reprising hits Bootylicious and Independent Women ( Part I) , as well as Beyonc�'s Single Ladies ( Put a Ring on It) . Minutes after her show- ending version of Halo , a power outage plunged the Mercedes- Benz Superdome into darkness for 34 minutes, as if to say, ' Might as well shut ' er down; this night's not going to get any better.' 2. Prince ( Super Bowl XLI, 2007) Leave it to the mercurial Prince to come up with the Super Bowl's most unpredictable, polarizing show. Performing in a downpour in Miami, he largely eschewed spectacle, save for his massive stage shaped like Prince's love symbol. The show consisted almost entirely of Prince, flanked by two dancers, wailing on guitar for 12 minutes. He began with a call- and- response version of Let's Go Crazy , then gave a nod to early halftime shows by bringing out the Florida A& M marching band for Baby I'm a Star . From there, he went into rock- cover mode, with Creedence Clearwater Revival's Proud Mary , and paid tribute to Jimi Hendrix with a version of Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower that segued into Foo Fighters' Best of You . Finally, he led the crowd in a singalong of Purple Rain , in the rain. 1. U2 ( Super Bowl XXXVI, 2002) Less than four months after 9/ 11, the biggest band in the world took to the biggest stage and gave a sentimental, cathartic performance that went from celebration to elegy and back. A master of the grandiose symbolic gesture, Bono began in the middle of the on- field audience, striding to the stage to the opening notes of Beautiful Day . As MLK gave way to Where the Streets Have No Name , a towering backdrop listing the names of those who lost their lives in the attacks began to rise and continued to do so for a horribly, heart- wrenchingly long time. At the end, Bono opened his jacket wide, revealing the stars and stripes of the American flag in its lining. By embracing the nation's still- fresh pain, the band transcended the game, making the performance the only one that stands on its own as a cultural event. - USA Today By Brian Mansfield Not HALF bad Super Bowl intermission has hosted some superb shows LIONEL HAHN / MCT FILES Beyonc� ( centre) performs with Kelly Rowland ( left) and Michelle Williams during halftime of Super Bowl XLVII in New Orleans in February 2013. The high- voltage show caused a power outage at the stadium. EVAN VUCCI / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Bruno Mars ( second from left) performs with the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Super Bowl XLVIII last year. AMY SANCETTA / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES Prince's halftime show at Super Bowl XLI was polarizing. A_ 14_ Feb- 01- 15_ FP_ 01. indd A14 1/ 31/ 15 7: 18: 02 PM ;