The NFL Super Bowl halftime show is one of the biggest stages in the world for a recording artist. A chance to express themselves to 100 million people at once, to exercise influence and broadcast a message beyond the typically commercial.
There was Will.I.Am addressing a verse of Where is the Love to President Obama in 2011, and Madonna ending her performance with a call for “world peace” in 2012.
After Beyoncé dressed her dancers in Black Panthers regalia last year and attracted criticism for over-politicising her performance, 2017’s halftime star, Lady Gaga, inherited especially cautious event organisers and calls to ‘play it safe’.
But as a staunch Hillary Clinton supporter, as a vocal advocate for victims of sexual assault, as a woman who climbed tearfully on the side of NYC garbage truck outside Trump Tower to raise a sign reading “Love Trumps hate”, as a star who has openly criticised the newly inaugurated President, the 30-year-old wasn’t expected to toe the line.
After all, conformity is just not her style.
