Last week, The Sun reported that the NFL had approached Adele for the 2017 Super Bowl Half Time show. Some of you brushed off the story because it came from The Sun and because Adele isn’t really known as a fireworks-and-football kind of performer. While Adele would be unusual for the Super Bowl, I could also sort of see why the NFL would want her, simply for a straight-up performance with no dancing or anything. Well, funny story. Adele told an audience during a concert that she was approached… and she turned the gig down.
Adele won’t be saying “Hello” to the Super Bowl after all. Shutting down speculation in the past week that she was in talks to perform at 2017’s Big Game, Adele said she was offered the opportunity, but declined. She told a crowd at her Los Angeles concert Saturday night that “that show is not about music,” in remarks captured by fans and posted on social media.
“First of all, I’m not doing the Super Bowl,” she said. “I mean, come on, that show is not about music. And I don’t really — I can’t dance or anything like that. They were very kind, they did ask me, but I said no.”
Adele is currently on her North American leg of her Adele Live 2016 world tour. Last year’s Super Bowl performance — headlined by Coldplay, with Beyonce and Bruno Mars joining in for a mash-up of sorts — was widely criticized, with Variety‘s Andrew Barker summing up the entire spectacle as “a mess.” So, it’s little surprise that Super Bowl would try to court Adele, with her international and age-spanning appeal. Now it looks like the Super Bowl will just have to find “Someone Like You,” Adele.
Well, well. Looks like the Sun got it right – the NFL did want her and she did get approached. Good for her for turning it down, although I do think she could have found a way to make it work. As for “I mean, come on, that show is not about music.” Is this shade? Because I think it’s shade. Like, #NoDisrespectToKatyPerry shade. But Adele is also setting the next up for criticism: whoever does perform at next year’s Super Bowl isn’t getting the job because of the music. Sounds like Taylor Swift will finally get that gig after all.
Oh, and the NFL and Pepsi (Pepsi sponsors the Half Time Show) released this statement:
“The NFL and Pepsi are big fans of Adele. We have had conversations with several artists about the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show. However, we have not at this point extended a formal offer to Adele or anyone else. We are focused on putting together a fantastic show for Houston and we look forward to revealing that in good time.”
Which is basically just semantics about the “formal offer.” They approached Adele and asked her if she would be interested in it and she shut them down.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
It’s so wrong that I can’t hug Adele.
Fair enough.
The Super Bowl is not a big thing in Europe so I can think see her not being interested or flattered.
She makes valid points re the show and her music.
I love her so much and I’m a big fan of her music, so it pains me to say “not very classy” to this story. Just as it’s gauche for an actor to talk about turning down a role (remember Gwyneth infamously saying she was offered the role of Rose in Titanic?), I find it also low classy for her to talk about the Super Bowl turn down. Just say no and move on.
I mean she’s not wrong its about performance most years not singing
Adeles always been one to turn things like this down. She hates the idea of sponsorships using/selling her music. The superbowl is too corporate for her.
The halftime show usually incorporates lots of dancing and pyrotechnics. I don’t see it as a good fit for Adele.
Me neither. The half-time show isn’t about music, it’s about entertainment. It’s nice to hear someone of Adele’s fame actually admit their limitations, In the same way that Katy Perry and Beyonce wouldn’t really suit an intimate little jazz club, Adele doesn’t suit the Super-Bowl show. Good on ‘er for recognising that.
Good, I can not stand her anyway. Lovely voice but her songs are all awful.
Oh and that dress she has on would look better on someone 30 years older.
Well, she’s not wrong. She knows people have come to expect dancing (look at how boring everybody thought Coldplay was until Bruno Mars and Beyonce showed up).
Agreed, I do not see the shade at all.
She hit the jackpot at 23 years old and is acting accordingly.
And please don’t tell me because of her great music and voice because there is a whole lot of music and so many voices that are just as good. She hit the jackpot, she knows she can do and say anything and is doing just that.
I guess now all there is to wonder is who’s going to do it? I personally want to see Rihanna more than anyone but she’s too good for the Super Bowl. I’ll put my money on Britney Spears, featuring someone else who’s had a bunch of other hits too. She’s been massively successful with her show in Vegas and if she brought in a rock or hip hop artist to balance the pop in her music, I think it would go over really well. I’d watch that.
I will be thrown to the wolves for saying this here, but whatever:
Adele would be booed off the field, her kind of music and her kind of Singing would not get her any fans at Superbowl.
Too Liveless
Not funny
Not Exciting
I don’t believe her when she said that she was asked, i believe Pepsi and Nfl that they didnt asked her, and normaly don’t believe what they say.
They should ask Gaga or Kanye West. Kendrick would totally shut it down. or Imagine Dragons. No Rihanna tho, she can neither sing nor dance at the same time nor even sing and dance at all.
or maybe they should just ask Taylor Swift. or Destiny’s Child
Heck just bring back Beyoncé and Bruno
I am puzzled why the NFL would even have a conversation with her about the Super Bowl.What songs would she sing ?
Perhaps that’s what Adele thought too?
I don’t think she was a good fit for the headliner of Glasto Saturday night on the Pyramid stage, which is basically the headline act for the whole festival so she sure as s–t isn’t right for the Super Bowl
The super bowl half time show has been more about the show and the dancing than the music. Offering the jig to Adele is pointless. That aside Adele doesn’t have any “happy” songs, they are all pretty depressing at the end of the day.