Madonna's Super Bowl Halftime Show Named The Greatest

Rolling Stone ran an online poll to find out what readers thought was the greatest Super Bowl halftime show - and Madonna's 2012 halftime show came first!

The Super Bowl halftime show is a very tough gig. About 160 million people are watching, and the performers have about 14 minutes. Some opt to play three or four of their best songs, while others do a big medley that packs in as many of their hits as possible. No matter what they do, a good chunk of the crowd will hate it, or at least switch over to the Puppy Bowl midway.
If done right, however, it's a great way to revive a career, or at least sell a ton of tickets to the artist's next tour. We asked our readers last week to select their favorite halftime shows of all time.

#1 Madonna had a very ambitious tour plan for 2012, and the single best way to promote it was a Super Bowl halftime show. She went all out for the performance, bringing in Cee Lo Green, LMFAO, Nicki Minaj, M.I.A. and even acrobats. The set was wall-to-wall hits with her pretty flaccid new single 'Give Me All Your Luvin'' in the middle. M.I.A. tried to perk up the song by sticking her middle finger up on camera, which didn't exactly thrill Madonna or the NFL - though next to Nipplegate, it was a pretty tiny scandal. The next day, tickets went on sale for her world tour and sold out everywhere.

To find out who else followed Madonna on the top ten visit www.rollingstone.com

Relive the performance below - madonnalicious remembers being up at a ridiculous time in the UK to watch this live on TV - but it was definitely worth it!

Comments

[jeffrey]

BEST superbowl halftime show EVER!

[Bruna]

Im not too crazy about the songs selections. Like a Prayer is extremely used already. I love the performance though. It just that, her fans are now more mature and sometimes the lyrics are too young for us. I just ask to not compete w Gaga or Rihanna, or Britney. Madonna's generations is between the 30's and 50's now, and we are still your market. For me the 90's was the best Era. And some 2000's. We want substance at all cost, lyrics with meaning, not girls stories. I can't wait for her next album.

[T]

Great performance and Give Me All Your Lovin was perfect for the Super Bowl and landed her a big hit here in the US, adding to her huge top 10 singles.

[Arun]

Fantastic performance - shame about the lip syncing in some of her songs!!!

Bring back a greatest hits tour for all your loyal fans who have supported you from the beginning of your career Madonna!

Peace...

[alzy74]

Such a shame this whole era was orchestrated around the superbowl, it was lost outside of America, as for the single GMAYL, it flopped, it was like a second rate Beautiful Stranger and sounded dated and lacklustre. Such a wasted opportunity. I think her team have a lot to think about for the next era, this one was a huge let down if i am totally honest. Nothing new with the tour, she refused to sing the best songs off the album, useless sound technology, rubbish venues (Hyde Park, Why?!) and totally ridiculous organisation when it came to releasing her singles. ALL of which flopped in the UK failing to get inside the top 30, unbelievable. As for the album, no promo meant no chart impact, ridiculous single choices meant radio forgot about her, and so did we. Such a mess, such a shame.

[The Lion]

Give Me All Your Lovin' should have remained a promo single for the Super Bowl performance (and included as a bonus material on the album), and Masterpiece should have been the first proper single. I think it really was created to fit the Super Bowl and in that context it fits well. It has no other merit, however.

[ngl]

@Barry- My sentiments exactly! I Love Madonna & Egypt, I wondered for years why Madonna didn't adopt an Egyptian theme in performance & Finally she did! I did think Madonna would bring the Egyptian theme into an act of her 'MDNA Tour'- maybe she will use it during a future tour, please Madonna break your rule & repeat yourself!

[Will]

When I heard she was doing GMAYL, I cringed. When I heard it at the Super Bowl, I thought worked well with the performance. Hey, I still can't believe she got away with doing Vogue at a football game. Vogue was amazing!!!

[Kelly]

THE best SuperBowl Half-Time Show ever! I've seen a lot of them and only a few stick out in my mind, especially the Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake "wardrobe malfunction" that nearly ruined Janet's career.

Last year's SB was the perfect halftime show, and Madonna's will never be topped! (Unless she does it again)

I'm glad Beyonce' is doing this years' SBHTS, she'll be fab, but nobody compares to Madonna! EVER!

[Barry]

This is quite simply the performance of 2012 (in addition to Madonna's new rendition of "Vogue" on her MDNA tour). I was literally tearing up at her entrance: on an Egyptian throne flanked by glowing sphinxes, pulled by Roman soldiers, fronted by servant girls carrying amphorae. As someone obsessed with Madonna AND Egypt, I thought at first that I was only hallucinating or dreaming what I was seeing. When I realized that the Queen had indeed come out on an Egyptian throne....I was beside myself. Simply genius. Nothing will ever - EVER - compare.

[ngl]

I Adored Madonna's Superbowl Performance! It was great on so many levels, amazing costumes, a grand enterance & brilliant exit (gone in a puff of smoke!), decent setlist (GMAYL worked here), great staging etc. Deserved it's number 1 ranking- I noticed MJ fans are very upset about this! Tough, Madonna simply did a much better job!

[THE QUEEN!]

Greatest in terms of spectacle; YES! However, her show was more for her than the audience. Now Bruce Springsteen's show, THAT was for a audience, not for him.

[Trish]

@Danni, I agree with you! GMAYL was PERFECT for the Superbowl Halftime Show!! And the way Madonna changed up the song for her MDNA Tour was awesome!! That segment of thenot WAIT for the DVD of MDNA to be released so I can have antoher MADONNA Party!!

[Danni]

Definitely the best and I still like Give Me All Your love. It went perfect with the Superbowl. It's also back to her roots as cheerleader. Everyone lighten up it blending in well with the show. I give U2 #2 not Springstein. U2 was after 9/11 and it was amazing.