Today In Rock: January 13th, 2019 – Maroon 5 Set Up For Epic Fail
On this day…The National Football League (NFL) officially announce that Maroon 5, a three-time Grammy Award-winning multi-platinum band, would headline the Pepsi Super Bowl LIII Halftime Show on 02/03 in Atlanta.
A handful of pop performers passed on the show in solidarity with former quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who while with the San Francisco 49ers, started kneeling during the national anthem in ‘16 to protest racial inequality in the U.S.
Maroon 5 was intended to be “safe” and uncontroversial in the wake of the Kaepernick controversy.
When the show happened on February 3rd it was universally panned by critics and audiences and was widely considered to be one of the worst Super Bowl halftime shows of all time – considered “boring” and “underwhelming.”
The portion of the show where Maroon 5’s Adam Levine was shirtless received audience backlash in comparisons to Janet Jackson’s “wardrobe malfunction/exposed nipple” appearance in ’04.
The Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show was the most-watched musical event of the year.
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