I sort of understand why some people – Justin Timberlake fans – are saying that Justin’s Super Bowl Half-Time Show wasn’t *that* bad. It reminded me a bit of Katy Perry’s show a few years ago – it’s startling to realize how many radio hits they’ve had, and then when put in a medley-form, you’re like “oh that’s sort of cool.” The thing about Katy Perry’s show was that she added enough bizarre elements AND she brought on the very living Missy Elliott to dance and sing, which was awesome. Justin did what he does about all things: made it into the Justin Timberlake Show, even when he was trying to “honor” Prince. Think about that – Justin couldn’t think of any living performer with whom he could share the spotlight. So against Prince’s family’s wishes, he brought in a projected image (not exactly a hologram) of Prince and they “sang together.” Here’s the entire performance:
Beyond the Prince thing, what pissed me off was the poor selection of which of JT’s songs to properly “honor” in the medley. Like, “Cry Me a River” is my favorite of JT’s songs and he f–ked it up, and yet he, like, ended on a supposedly uplifting and faithful version of “Mirror,” which IMO is one of his worst songs. But he saved the real end for that stupid Pharrell knockoff, “Can’t Stop the Feeling.” When he launched into “Suit & Tie” I thought for a second the mystery guest was Jay-Z (who has never performed at the Super Bowl) but nope.
As for the Prince “tribute” – apparently, there really was a planned Hologram Prince but it got scrapped at the last minute when the backlash started over the weekend. I’m still not sure that Projected On A Screen Prince was much better. I was thinking about this a lot – would we have felt differently about Projected On A Screen Prince if a different artist had done a tribute? Like, if Eric Clapton had done that, I probably would have appreciated it, because Clapton and Prince respected each other and liked each other. Same with Beyonce. I’m just saying, the “backlash” is very JT-specific, isn’t it? Here’s another criticism: his outfit SUCKED. The bandana says “I’m white again, y’all” but the f–ked up outfit says “I was in a ‘90s boy band.”
Also: Justin Timberlake was there for the birth of the new meme, Selfie Kid.
When your friend go dancing with strangers at the club and u just don’t know what to do #selfiekid pic.twitter.com/MzH4237Z1y
— Triyoncé (@tribranchvo) February 5, 2018
Oh, that’s what he was looking at! #selfiekid pic.twitter.com/4qJEUOBFWT
— Whitley Bailey (@whitleybree) February 5, 2018
#SelfieKid I LOVE THE INTERNET 😂 pic.twitter.com/B99aUX5Tt2
— dee. (@harrymoonchild) February 5, 2018
Photos courtesy of Getty.
I couldn’t really get into his performance – the sound mixing was soooo off!!! It just totally fell flat for me.
And his lipsyncing was SO OBVIOUS. I would have given him a pass if his dancing was better but like…mediocre dancing AND you’re not even singing live? Why did he get the job again?
He got it and turned it into an “aha gotcha” when the music came to those infamous lyrics- gonna have you naked by the end of this song- when he LITERALLY pointed right at us in the camera and laughed.
That turned me off so much. The fkng ego.
And yes, I have to agree that the Prince tribute outrage is very JT specific because of the many instances of disrespect while he was still alive. He has a RECORD dissing Prince and Janet that will live on forever- in addition to mocking him at award shows. He does not deserve to share anything with Prince in his death.
I honestly don’t think he even sang that much? It sounded to me like 90% backup singers and 10% JT throwing in a “uh huh,” “c’mon” every once in a while. My husband and I were looking at each other like, when is he actually gonna sing?
The sound mixing was awful but I like that he didn’t try to sing? I know it’s a big halftime thing to pretend you’re singing, but JT’s strength isn’t in singing live, it’s 100% the dancing and production value. I’d hate to listen to his pitchy ass try to sing while panting in the microphone because he’s dancing.
JT is trash but I’m not gonna drag him for that.
My husband turned it on. I was happy watching The Hunger Games marathon, but he likes to see the half time show… it was soooo HORRIBLE! He sang/lip-synced only about 5% of the entire act. I mean, my god, man! At least pretend to sing the entire time. He’d say 3 words, followed by several minutes of pre-recorded singing. It was ridiculous, and I can only imagine how much he was paid for that “performance.” I’ve never really had any feelings about him one way or the other, but lord that was terrible.
It was obvious. He wasn’t even lip syncing half the time. Mid note he’d shut his mouth.
The layout was bad. His interactions were not fluid. Dancing was great. The Prince sheet made me cringe. He didn’t carry it wrll on his own.
He got the job because Jay-Z turned it down – or so I’ve heard!
Yeah, the sound was weird. The show wasn’t “bad,” but it was underwhelming. My friend said it best: I feel like there’s a lot going on, but I don’t even care. I think he thought thT people wanted to just sit there and see him sing and dance. Nope. Where’s your bag of tricks?
He’s just such a massively narcissistic,ego-driven douche…it’s hard to see *anything* past that. I was actually pissed off that they projected Prince, PRINCE!!, onto a frigging sheet, like a backyard movie night show! We all were stunned, in a true WTF??? moment!
As for the game, I was SO happy to see the Pats, and Brady in particular, go down!
I can’t tell if he thought that he was above “crazy stage tricks’ or honestly had no clue how to put a Super Bowl show together. This isn’t some musical awards show where if you’re being honored, you just do a medley of hits. This is the superbowl. Go big or “stay” home.
Also, his outfits…WHAT? Who told him? I used to really like JT, so I’m just upset that his Superbowl performance has come during a time when he’s trying to be artsy and above it all. No! Give me dancers, fireworks, confetti, zoo animals, and anything else you got. Lol.
Yes, it was underwhelming. I think his vocals should have been louder (even pre-recorded vocals should have been louder).
I HATED what he was wearing and his backup dancers. It was so ugly and the visuals didn’t match the sound.
More Prince would have saved this, but it’s true…you couldn’t hear him through the whole thing until he REPEATED his Oscars opening with “Can’t Stop the FEELIN. ” I was so hoping for MORE Prince…MORE PURPLE. I felt ripped off. As far as Princes beliefs while alive, I did not always like some of his ideals and based on those ideals it would be nearly impossible to pay homage without stepping on some of them, but he changed a lot of them over the years and would have changed more had he lived. He finally got a cell phone etc. after all, he doesn’t know the difference and for those of us who still burst into tears over the loss of this person and the way he left us…I’ll take what I can get.
Savasana, I kept thinking he might just sing Purple Rain to close the show. But no. As for singing – he wasn’t even holding the “mic” to his mouth 90% of the time. No effort to even pretend.
JT dissed Prince in a song.
I doubt it was his idea to do a Prince tribute but since it was in Minneapolis, it was fitting.
So they should have had someone else, anyone else do the show.
#1 don’t ever diss Prince
#2 don’t ever diss Prince then do a tribute to Prince
When did he diss Prince? (I don’t doubt it happened, I’m just unaware).
A reporter asked Prince what he thought of JT’s Sexy Back. And Prince said “sexy never left”
Then a year later in JT’s song, Give it to Me…
“We missed you on the charts last week/ Damn, that’s right you wasn’t there/ Now if se-sexy never left, then why is everybody on my s**t/ Don’t hate on me just because you didn’t come up with it.”
JT is such a pompous ass
and don’t forget the Golden Globes 2007. Prince had won an award for the movie “Happy Feet”, but wasn’t there to receive his award. So instead of doing the standard “This person isn’t here …..”, Justin decided to squat down under the mic to make fun of Prince’s height.
Plus, people are pissed about Justin serving alcohol at Paisley Park.
It;s not just the sound – J.T. was boring A.F. And I hate his using a dead celebrity to promote himself. You don’t get a “pass” on a crappy performance just because you wrap yourself up in nostalgia for Prince.
Wouldn’t Pink have done an awesome half-time show? And she has more hits, too..
Pink would have been amazing! I agree. Plus she would have had enough cardio to sing upside down on a scarf in a twirling circle (or something like it)!!! One thing I noticed right away was he was dancing and NOT singing. Think of how many SuperBowl Halftime performers (mostly women) sang while dancing complicated choreography and had on some crazy costumes? Beyoncé, Madonna, and Janet Jackson. Prince danced, sang and played the guitar all while singing! Bye JT and your bad vocals and worse attire.
JT’s superbowl performance was completely flat and boring. It was horrible – don’t know why so many in the biz are pretending it was great. I was so looking forward to his performance too. What a HUGE disapointment! And my feelings have zero to do with Prince. JT’s performance was completely lackluster, the vocals and arrangements were bad and JT looked like he was just going through the motions and pushing through so he could be done. He should be embarrassed.
It wasn’t good…. we changed over to a NCIS repeat after a few minutes because it was obvious it wasn’t going to get better.
It wasn’t good. The light show was distracting, headache-inducing and underwhelming at the same time. The sound was a joke and reminded me of how music sounds through headphones that you’ve left on the counter. JT was trying to do the most and ended up not making a singular, distinct impression at all. During the Prince tribute I got up to get some apple crisp. I burned off the calories rolling my eyes.
I bet Woody Allen liked it.
Hated it. He threw Janet Jackson under the bus from the Nipple-gate Super Bowl and the first song he did was the one where he ripped Janet’s top and exposed her. He was a jerk for letting her burn and came up with that wardrobe malfunction mess.
And the “ honor” was a joke. Prince once gave an interview and talked about it.
Prince: “Certainly not. That’s the most demonic thing imaginable. Everything is as it is, and it should be. If I was meant to jam with Duke Ellington, we would have lived in the same age. That whole virtual reality thing… it really is demonic. And I am not a demon. Also, what they did with that Beatles song [“Free As a Bird”], manipulating John Lennon’s voice to have him singing from across the grave… that’ll never happen to me. To prevent that kind of thing from happening is another reason why I want artistic control.”
Yea, well, even with his own words and his family’s refusal it happened. It was not to honor. It was all for Justin. And it was horrific. I was at a SB party. We all couldn’t watch.
@C I never heard about that interview. It makes me even more sad about that projection to know Prince’s feelings on it.
JT didn’t deserve to share a song with Prince when he was alive, and certainly not now that Prince can’t defend himself. It was sickening.
To be fair, I think he was specifically asked about holograms which led to hat response.
couldn’t stand him after that and also how he did kiss and tell interviews about Britney Spears. For his first two releases he spoke about his romance with Brit because nobody is interested in him. I didn’t watch.
No way Jay Z would’ve performed when Kaep is still banned. Many black artists turned down the halftime spot before they picked Justin.
So pissed that this guy once again uses a black artist (one that hated him while alive) for his own gain. And I heard he sang Rock your Body as well so he’s also a tool.
My friend said it wasn’t a good show so I feel validated by that.
This whole thing was super distasteful. Justin is distasteful.
Prince called being made into a hologram demonic. He was soundly against this. And they were going to use him, and his image, against his wishes, for profit.
…. that didn’t remind them of anything? They had to wait until backlash happened to mildly rethink, and it still makes me uncomfortable. How did that ever get greenlit in the first place?
We all know by now his ego allows him to do what he wants all the time. Esp if he can step on someone in the process
To be fair. Prince hated a lot. It was part of his charm. Right to the end.
I didn’t see it, but the clips of the Prince “tribute” looked lame. Every review I’ve heard of it was bad, although the family gave it a thumbs up.
What was annoying to me (again) was watching him afterwards on Jimmy Fallon dressed in his best outdoorsy gear – like, he would have fit right in to 90’s Seattle. So yeah, Justin-tell me again about how you’re “getting back to your roots” and that this isn’t shameless pandering to the 45 demographic.
What a dick.
I thought it was pretty bad. To be fair I really dislike him, but overall it was a boring performance with no surprises, no other performers, and the only memorable moment was the Prince thing, which felt iffy to me.
+1
I’m with you, Lucy2. I can’t stand him (super punchable face) either, but I would’ve respected a really standout performance. This was not one of those.
agree totally!
+2
A high school pep squad rehearsal would have had more energy than this performance.
(Would have loved to seen Janet Jackson charge the stage and rip open his pants.)
No, please, let’s leave his pants on. Yuck. 😀
But I really hate that Janet got blacklisted for that and he gets invited back for a solo show years later. He is awful on so many levels. It does seem like more and more people dislike him though, and last night’s performance didn’t help.
I don’t see the difference between a hologram and projection. The sound was really bad. You couldn’t hear Justin throughout.
I don’t either. It’s semantics. Prince would have hated it either way, and hated Timberlake doing it.
“put two fingers in the air for Prince”
I’d say he was giving you two fingers too Justin….
I don’t dislike JT, like some do on here. But his performance was just so so, nothing amazing. I wish he had added other guests but it was the JT show. He kept the focus on him.
I’m glad he didn’t do the Prince hologram or that thing where the artist sings with the dead artist. Prince himself said he would never do it and didn’t want anyone to do it to him. Prince called it demonic . Maybe that’s why it was strapped from JT’s performance, the family or someone told him what Prince had said.
Just curious, who actually decides what’s going to happen at the halftime show? Because people here make it sound like JT made all the decisions and is responsible for everything from near-holograms to technical sound problems.
The team around the artist are. They do the staging for the show in collaboration with the people from the stadium. But yea its up to each artist for what they want to do
The artist has to find corporate sponsorship to fund the show, since the NFL does not pay for it. So it’s up to the artist unless their sponsors would object.
He did do a fake duet. It was wretched. He also pretended to be able to play the piano!
Ok I only clicked on that meme kid. Who is Justin Timberlake! Wahahahhah
The kid was the best part! 😂
Proudly didn’t watch the super bowl because of #takeaknee and even if I did, wouldn’t have watched the half-time show because #neverforget! I actually cleaned the kitchen, logged this week’s meals in myfitnesspal to see how much exercise I need to do daily and waited for #thisisus, which we watched in bed and planned an escape from the house in case a fire broke out. I still had more fun than anyone who watched this idiot’s self-satisfaction tour.
so brave
The sound was awful. It was the very definition of “meh” overall. Nothing exciting about it at all. His massive ego wouldn’t allow anyone else to be on stage with him and it lacked as a result.
Didn’t Prince, not really like Timberlake? Hologram or not, I don’t think he’d have been thrilled with his “tribute”.
Also a big FU to him for doing Rock Your Body.
What is his obsession with Prince? He mocked him on “Give it to me” and mocked his height at some awards show, between that and the crap with both Janet and Britney I am glad that JT is getting crapped on today after that dud of a performance.
Inferiority complex I’m guessing.
Prince did sing about how sexy never left in retort to Sexy/Back and that seemed to get his heckles up.
I hadn’t realised how truly petty and shit he’d been about Britney until Buzzfeed did a full compilation of everything.
When he dedicated Rehab by Amy Winehouse to Britney at a concert when she was in the midst of her breakdown that should have been him canceled for good. he is a jackass..
Zapp, oh, did he? Well, then I’m not surprised that he chose a clip where Prince was singing I Would Die For You. It’s a good song, but not the first one you’d think of for a Prince tribute. Tacky AF.
WORD.
FU for doing the same song as the controversy.
And the Prince business was uncalled for.
#NeverForget
I liked Justin back in the days. But this was really lame. And his new album is just aweful. I would have rather watched Katie Perry’s left shark for 13 minutes than this snoozefest.
If he had Britney come out during Cry Me a River…he could’ve saved it, but his ego is way too big to give her any credit.
Gah no, I don’t want Britney to share a stage with this douche.
As I just stumbled over this tweet: https://twitter.com/ByeAshy/status/960198024252321792
I recommend to read the whole thread and keep a barf bag at your side.
This was basically what I saw on Buzzfeed yesterday. I knew some of it but not all. There was also a section on why he was the worst person to do a Prince tribute.
The amount of people this weekend saying he’s not that bad and why does everyone hate him….
I knew he was horrible but I had no idea the depths of his horribleness. If he is not riding on the coattails of a woman, a POC, or both he is nothing.
Shocked but not surprised. What a vile human being he is.
It was terrible. Terrible. He ran around the stage and barely sang. The whole “performance” felt chaotic and really not fun at all. People may say they like it but it will go down as one of the worst halftime performances ever.
I didn’t watch the Superbowl. I don’t like how the NFL has treated Colin Kaepernick. I also find the NFL’s response to CTE to be horrible. And Timberlake is mediocre.
I actually thought the opposite – that the medley showed how weak his catalogue is. No one was clamoring for Mirrors.
It was very underwhelming. You couldn’t really hear his voice – not sure if that was a mic problem. The dancing was half-assed And with his sort of camouflage outfit, you couldn’t really see him in the stage with all those dancers. I feel like I’ve seen him perform better in some shows than his Super bowl performance last night.
I am enjoying the fact that this vile, cultural appropriating, slut shaming, hypocrite is having a terrible time with his comeback.
His movie with Pervy Allen bombed.
His performance (at best) is getting mixed to out right horrible reviews.
His new album is being trashed.
And people are finally seeing him for the boring trash that he is.
Janet Jackson is finally get her revenge on this loser. Nice job America.
I don’t know if he is doing this simply to be petty or if he truly liked Prince. Prince did not like him and it is a noted fact that Justin made fun of Prince on two separate occasions. He could have easily done this because Prince would not have liked it.
So smug. So bland. So boring.
Meanwhile, Aretha Franklin is about to go out on her final concert tour. The Queen of Soul still rocks. The Queen of Soul still gets people up on their feet and moving. The Queen of Soul SHOULD have been the halftime show. Sign her up for next year as her final performance.
OMG, yes.
RESPECT is too good for the Superbowl. The NFL don’t deserve her or that song. They are unworthy.
That was basically a hologram. So sad because obviously you can do a tribute without using a concert video of the artist. Example, lady gag doing the Bowie tribute. Jt is a loser, and he needs to stop. No one likes him anymore. Does he just not read bad press about himself? He worked with pedo Woody and won’t talk about it, he won’t let his wife have her moment in the spotlight without taking a piece of the pie, I’m just over this clown.
I don’t mind JT. I think he can be very entertaining.
This halftime show was BORING.
Coldplay’s halftime show was more exciting.
Coldplay knows their strength and weaknesses and knew that having Bey and Bruno join them was the smart thing to do. They seem to have a healthy enough ego to know that.
Well. I’m in the minority here but I thought it was great. Fun, dynamic, loved the kid and was surprised at how much I did like the tribute after reading the previous article. More of a projection than a hologram, they lit up the whole area outside, and Prince was surprisingly huge compared to JT. I was happy!
I thought he did great too! He played all of my favorite songs of his (although an *NSYNC reunion would have been epic).
Even though Prince made it very clear he never wanted anything like this monstrosity, ever? It was a slap in the face to Prince (and Janet) and an incredibly petty and childish maneuver. Why do you think, with all the artists we’ve lost in the last year, he chose Prince? Dude just has to have the last word.
He chose Prince because Minneapolis is Prince’s home town. JT had his new album listening party at Paisley Park. To perform the halftime show in Prince’s home town and not even have any reference to Prince at all would have been insulting and/or disrespectful. When I heard about the hologram, I was very upset. I know what Prince’s feelings were on that. What he did was not a hologram, it was a projected image and yes, imo, there is a big difference. What JT did was fine with me, and I am the biggest Prince fan you will ever find. I enjoy some of Timberlake’s songs, he’s a good performer I suppose, but his halftime performance was shit. Again, just my opinion. The Prince tribute was the highlight. I was ok w/ the projected image, the purple lights in the shape of the symbol was cool. As far as any beef between the 2 when Prince was still with us, I do not think Prince lost one wink of sleep over anything JT did or said, nor do I know for fact that Prince didn’t like him.
@Lynn, Prince deserves respect. If there needed to be a tribute in his home state, at least have more appropriate guest singers do the job. (e.g. people with whom he had mutual respect, rather than petty squabbles.)
@Jay ffs, it was Timberlake’s half time show, why would he bring in other “more appropriate” singers to do a 30 second tribute? It doesn’t make sense. He was trying to show respect, and if he did indeed intend to use a hologram but listened to reason and scrapped it, then he did show respect. I think everybody is making a mountain out of a molehill as far as the beef between them, there are pictures of Timberlake at Prince’s home, while Prince was still with us, spinning records, having a good time. You think he’d be allowed through the front door if Prince didn’t want him there?! Come on. And really, as far as I am concerned Prince is the most talented man who ever lived, and I don’t really give 2 shits about JT but sometimes I think shit gets over analyzed. Btw, there were tributes all week long by Prince associated artists.
I didn’t watch but I am surprised he didn’t bring out any guest performers.He could have done a song with NSYNC.
The other members couldn’t get their shifts covered at the various pizza places and gas stations they’re working at these days🤷🏻♀️
Wow. Was that necessary?
Wow.
Really? Of all the comments THAT is the one that offends you?
It’s a joke, dude.
Hahaha!! Okay, that was funny.
ETA: this was meant to be a response to your pizza/gas joke. 🙂
I didn’t like it at all. What a waste.
IRL I don’t care about JT one way or the other, but am I missing something? He SLAYED at that halftime show! IT was the first one in years where I wasn’t completely bored!
Jessica don’t you have a husband to trample on your success somewhere?
Boom. Mic drop.
I really didn’t like his performance. I’m not a huge JT fan in general, although I do like a few songs. But his backing track carried the songs, he didn’t sing much at all which I attributed to his dancing, but his dancing is just ok. Prince has said publicly that he does not believe in singing with artists that have passed. He found holograms to be demonic. While the projection wasn’t a hologram technically, I doubt he would have approved. As he said, if he were meant to perform with Duke Ellington, he would have been alive at that time. I think a more tasteful approach would have been for JT to cover Prince songs.
I enjoyed it. And to whomever complained about lip syncing, the NFL doesn’t allow live sound during the halftime show. The Red Hot Chili Peppers played with an unplugged guitar a few years ago.
That’s not entirely correct. They don’t allow live instrumentation but lead vocals, are allowed. There was an article about it after the unplugged ChiliPepper guitar performance.
I was going to say, wasn’t Lady Gaga out of breath during Million Reasons last year? She had to breathe during the word “highway”, she was clearly singing that part live at the very least.
Prince was all the way live! But he probably required that as a condition, and they knew he could show up and bring it and end on a dime. Which he did! It’s findable on youtube.
But, yeah, most performers either lip sync or the vocals are live over backing tracks.
Why was the projection screen so wrinkly? That didn’t help with the presentation at all.
He really needed to share the stage with another artist. Guess that ego wouldn’t let him.
Even though he didn’t use a hologram, he still sang with Prince’s likeness, which Prince was clearly against. The only part I liked was the city lighting up purple.
Best part of the show was watching Minneapolis turn purple. It was touching.
Also, those First Responder commercials were making me cry. “You might not remember me, but my kids sure remember you”
Everyone who comes to Minneapolis thinks we are dying for them to do a Prince tribute for us. We are not. No one can do him justice anyway.
True fans know that he would never have signed off on this or shared a stage with JT, dead or alive.
Thank you! I’ve been to about 10 concerts since Prince died and each of them has included a tribute of some kind. Believe it or not, we really don’t care. The only one that I didn’t mind was Stevie Nicks dedicating a song to him but they were actually friends and had worked together so it was appropriate.
Hated it. I just don’t get Justin Timberlake and I really do appreciate a variety of artists. Best quote of the evening regarding JT’s performance came from my 72 year old mother when she shook her head and said “that didn’t leave me wanting more”.
Ha! My 71 year old dad felt the same way. I said those are probably professional dancers in the “crowd” or extras, maybe, and my dad said, “Well this guy singing sure isn’t a professional dancer.”
Hee.
I know the people who are on the ground are probably hand picked (for security reasons if nothing else) but never was it more obvious they were all dancers as it was this year. They literally did a routine from start to finish, even their cheering was on key.
Those were not professional dancers making up the dancing audience in JTs show. They were kids from about 10 different Twin Cities high school dance teams.
I wish people would respect the dead. Prince would’ve hated JT for this. He disrespected his home, where he passed and made it all about him. Then to do the projection and horrible remix to I Would Die 4 U…seriously?
SAD!
Of all the Prince songs to choose, Timberlake chose I Would Die 4 U.
Did no one on his team tell him that that’s the last song to “sing” with a dead man? Was there no one with sense? Or is he just so freaking egotistical that he didn’t care?
OMG, yes. I couldn’t believe that. How the hell is it that people aren’t making a bigger deal of that?!
The outfit killed me. Playing dress-up in what some stylist considers Man of the Woods clothes. It wasn’t country or cowboy or manly. It was so inauthentic and silly. Camo suit, fringed jacket, elk printed pearl-snap shirt and a decorative bandana.
That description pretty much sums up the outfit.
Before the halftime show, a brief teaser commercial mentioned it would feature “your local superstar” (I guess because he’s from our state). I was momentarily puzzled, because I don’t think of JT as a superstar. Now, Dolly or Elvis meet that description.
YES! Those pants were KNIT JERSEY. And the sagging thing? Please, JT. Stop.
That bandana couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. Some people saw faux-country, some people saw ‘I’m just a friendly crip.’
Right! I left out another incongruous element- the white, white sneakers.
I couldn’t even tell what he was wearing, but I knew it wasn’t good.
Was it a shirt with a picture of a mountain across it?
It was shirt with sort of bushy grasses and a silhouette of moose or elk or something. It looks like something you could find in Bass Pro shop.
It was a “dress” shirt with elk and mountains on it. What can I say? Not a T shirt.
Lol his shirt was redic. I think he wore it to represent his new CD- man of the woods? I think it’s called. Lame.
LOL that sounds even worse than I thought. I should have put my glasses on to see it more clearly but really didn’t want to. This whole “mountain man” schtick is such a put-on, please buy my crap joke.
It was so bad. I couldn’t stop asking “what is he wearing?”.
Maybe JT should reconsider a Vegas residencey…
Prince didn’t want any sort of projection of himself after his death. He actually referred to it as demonic so I’m not cool with the ‘projection’ and the performance was boring. Prince wouldn’t have played with him anyway (it’s down to musicianship and JT could never keep up) so it was weird. I was glad when it was over. I’m still stoked that Philly won-woohoo!! 🙂
It wasn’t just the sound. JT sucked, AND disrespected Prince with that awful rendition of IWDFU.
Arrogant pr*ck.
His performance was what happens when you have an ego (JT) in control of everything and while Justin thinks he is great, he is not. He simply cannot pull off a superbowl performance on his own. Low energy because no one cared. It wasn’t interesting, which is a cardinal sin for all superbowl performances. And THEN you get to the parts where he smiles when he gets to the part 14 years ago when he ripped off Janet Jackson’s top, the rest of it is filled with hip hop culture appropriation – like I actually thought at one point that he was doing Janet Jackson routine from Rhythm Nation because Janet herself was about to come out. But no. Just JT ripping off moves again. And the Prince thing? It was so low rent and CHEESY. Just like Justin Timberlake.
I cried during the Prince tribute, but that was because I miss him so much. Otherwise, this was just another “look at me” Justin Timberlake appearance. I kept waiting (hoping) for a Janet Jackson appearance or at the very least, a reunion montage of NSync. Nope. JT can’t share the spotlight with anyone. It’s all about JT all the time. I don’t know how Jessica Biel can stand being married to him. Ugh.
You’ve said everything I felt about it. Upsets me he hijacked Prince. He has to have been told a million times about cultural appropriation and he just does not care.
My thoughts:
1) he looked like he was on an episode of Moonshiners with the camouflage and bandana
2) I can’t believe he did Rock Your Body when that is the song he was singing when he ripped off Janet’s costume
3) Gaga didn’t have any guests either but was highly entertaining — singing live & dancing the whole time. This just wasn’t that visually pleasing and it didn’t sound good either
4) all of my friends that love JT thought it was amazing. 🤢
I spent all day yesterday playing Janet on my iTunes Radio. #NeverForget
The worst Super Bowl halftime of all times! I thought I had a hearing problem and turned up the volume.
I was underwhelmed,& call me crazy but I sort of expected Janet to come out at some point or something..SOMETHING…It was just flat!
Does no one remember that JT dissed Prince in that song he did with Timbaland “Give it to Me”??? I mean I know it’s an old song, but it was a fairly big deal years ago. And let us not forget that he made fun of Prince’s height in stage at the Golden globes when Prince won for that happy feet song and failed to show up to the award ceremony. JT is a self-serving douchebag… moving on…
The choreography was great, the sound could have been better but i still enjoyed it. Mirrors is my favourite song of his and i thought he delivered it realy well.
if Prince’s family (who probably knew him better than his fanatics) were fine with the tribute, why are people getting so worked up on their own feelings on the matter?
Criticising him for wearing a bandana is a classic example of how haters look for the most absurd things to criticise.
I’m sick of people like him appropriating black culture and profiting off of it. He’s a low-talent NARCISSIST and he does NOT put on a good show at all. Watch him blame someone or something else when he becomes aware that the overall opinion of his show is “BLEH.”
I don’t even have words for the Prince part. Others said it better than I could. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Especially since his family had a problem with it. How completely disrespectful!
I am definitely not a fan of JT (#NeverForget), but I have to admit I liked this performance better than Katy Perry’s and Coldplay’s. Yes, his outfit looked stupid AF and the lipsinging, the extra mash-up and the Prince projection were terrible. But he still has the dance moves + the entire field looked alive with the setup. Loved the marching band and the dancers!
he is aging terrible. what is up with his eyes?
I don’t know. I was never a big fan but there was a time, not that long ago, where I thought he was sort of cute. But age is not being kind to him.
and that’s after work done! Those eyes used to have discolored Hams underneath that were 10x worse before he had a kid!!!
It was one of the worst Super Bowl half time shows I’ve ever seen.
My work buddies and I thought JT looked stiff ,pale and tired but definitely ILL.
Some media is suggesting a little drunk but he just looked ill to me.
I suggested he might have the Flu or something but showed-up anyway.
“Show must go on.”
Pink had the Flu and wasn’t sure she could make it but she showed up and sang;
Not her best but still good and I like her more as she matures.
Did not like the Prince “tribute”.
The sound was terrible, he was boring, but the worst part for me was seeing him and his boyfriend Jimmy Fallon afterwards and their cloying bff nonsense with Fallon callling his performance the “best in Super Bowl history” and Justin taking bows like it was true. If this is the best the NFL can come up with they should just stop it and make it a regular halftime. I would have rather seen Ringo pumping out Beatle songs then this nonsense
Jimmy Fallon ugh.
IMO, FutureSex/LoveSounds was his last really good album. Everything since then has been pretty mediocre to me. In retrospect, I suspect a lot of it’s quality is owed to Timbaland now.
I actually have always likes Justin’s music but I thought his tribute to prince was shameful. It was painful to watch. In that entire performance, he managed to dedicate barely a minute to him and in that time was singing over Prince. I also think it’s shameful that the organisers didn’t step in and demand more of a tribute to Prince.
he showed his age with meh dancing lmao!The playback was ridiculous and he didn’t sing very much. It just wasn’t very good and they promoted the crap outta it.
Ha!
I thought he did a great job!!
He crammed a lot of content into a small performance, not easy.
He’s very talented.
I think Prince is rolling over in his purple grave :-0
He just can’t grow up and his arrogance is astounding. And he has no business being anywhere near Prince, not even in the same league.
The most enjoyable part was Minneapolis turning purple in tribute to Prince.
lmao I yelled, “this is the best part!!” while watching last night at that!!!
it really was too
Hated it. Prince would be turning in his grave knowing he was on JT’s dirty bed sheet. To align himself with Prince was a disgrace. I’m still gagging. I hope Janet Jackson is laughing her tits off and out over the backlash. He sucks, please somebody let Prince open the heavens and let the lightening start striking down on this loser.
And why was he even there?? It was a “look at me, Justin Timberlake show”. If I was Jessica Biel, I’d dump his sorry ass.
It was TERRIBLE. so boring, so flat. We watched a ’93 clip of Michael Jacksons superbowl show and wow people went nuts for him even when he stood FROZEN for 2 mins at the intro. His show gave us goosebumps!
Justin Timberlakes was painful to watch :/
I didn’t like it because I don’t like him as a person. The sound mixing was awful. He should have brought someone else on with him–NSYNC, Britney, Janet, there were so many possibilities! He needed something to elevate his performance. Gaga didn’t have anyone guest either and she should have, IMHO she should have had someone guest perform halfway through, it would have helped her recoup.
Loved it! Loved the Prince tribute! I live in the Twin Cities.
I don’t like Justin as a celeb, but I like a lot of his music, yet I was underwhelmed by his performance to say the least. He rushed through so many songs that I couldn’t even get into it. Plus he sounded bad and looked like he rolled out of bed 5 minutes before the performance. He was aiming for a high energy performance, but it was all over the place. Plus I don’t understand trying to get the crowd involved…you aren’t being paid to have them sing for you Justin.
Black Eyed Peas will always be the worst though.
BORING. Easily the lamest half time “show” I have ever seen. Whoever the sound person is that messed up the sound, you are my new HERO!!
I thought his outfit looked like a pile of dirty laundry after he’d rolled around in a parking lot.
I want to add… The kid is wearing a Sunday River sweatshirt. It’s a local ski resort to me. It’s all in hearing about.
Personal opinion. Don’t bother.
His outfit was soooooo bad and distracting!! I could hardly concentrate on anything else. Well, except that he clearly wasn’t singing. Boo-hiss!!!
I’m just going to pretend that that weasely little coattailer didn’t even perform and that THIS was the halftime show again:
https://youtu.be/-WYYlRArn3g
That show was a mess. The 2 second Prince tribute was tacky AF. Prince had so much more class than that. JT was telling media here how he spent time with Prince and respected him so much. Really? Then why did he disrespect Prince by doing the very thing Prince said he never wanted. JT is just a shameless little puke.
This. Coattailing little weasel who disrespected Prince in life and then did it again after Prince died. Twice. And the money-grubbing family who allowed this should be ASHAMED of themselves. It’s disgusting.