2025 Super Bowl halftime show: Fifteen minutes of fame

The Super Bowl halftime show used to sit on the sidelines; now it’s the main event. We explore the legacy of these live performances and uncover what it takes to make them happen

Words Katie Kasperson

What began as a mindless intermission has grown into the gig of a lifetime. The Super Bowl is the most-watched television broadcast in the United States every year, with its halftime show – which now regularly surpasses 100 million viewers – awarding each lucky performing artist roughly 15 minutes to give it their all on a global stage. Today, everything serves as an entertainment opportunity, and sports are no exception – the Super Bowl being perhaps the best example of this. But what does it take to put on such a show, and a memorable one at that?

My own memory of the Super Bowl halftime show begins in 2009, when Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band brought their biggest hits – Born to Run and Glory Days included – to the big game. Others might recall the Janet Jackson-Justin Timberlake fiasco of 2004, which caused their careers (but mostly Ms Jackson’s) to take a serious hit. Prior to that, her late brother Michael rocked with us in 1993, marking the first time the halftime show recorded more viewers than the game itself.

Many others have come and gone, putting their own stamp on the Super Bowl – whether it be jamming on an electric purple guitar during a downpour (Prince, 2007) or by surprising us with a special guest (Katy Perry, Missy Elliott and Lenny Kravitz, 2015). From Beyoncé to Britney, Madonna to Diana Ross, each show comes with its own flavour.

There are backup dancers, marching bands, flashing lights and fireworks; there are political statements (Bono’s American flag, Eminem taking a knee) and self-promos (Rihanna pausing to fix her Fenty makeup). Each Super Bowl brings something unique to the table, and that’s why we all tune in; so as not to miss a moment that only happens once.

From humble beginnings

When the Super Bowl first began in 1967, a myriad of performers put on the inaugural halftime show. The American football event – which didn’t sell out, though the CBS/NBC simulcast raked in a combined 51 million viewers – seemed incredibly low-key compared to today’s standards, with tickets costing roughly $110 when adjusted for inflation. Now it’s anybody’s guess, but it’s doubtful people were paying to see marching bands, 300 pigeons, 10,000 balloons and a local high-school drill team.

Despite its rocky start, the Super Bowl has sold out from then on, though the halftime shows didn’t immediately improve. For a while, they continued to invite college marching bands and a charity performance group called Up with People.

Themes were introduced for Super Bowl III, which were intended to be universally uplifting or inclusive. Since then, these have spanned Disney’s It’s a Small World, Tapestry of Nations and a tribute to those killed in the September 11 attacks – quite a range.

Eventually, TV producers got the great idea: what if at-home audiences actually wanted to watch the halftime show, instead of leaving the room? What if they in fact tuned in specifically to see it? In 1992, Fox pulled one over on the NFL, stealing 29 million viewers with a live broadcast of In Living Color, which aired during halftime. It was clear then that the Super Bowl needed to step it up, so in 1993 they hired Michael Jackson.

Although the King of Pop’s solo performance wasn’t necessarily on par with his most iconic on-stage moments, it marked a significant milestone for the Super Bowl halftime show. With 133.4 million viewers, it surpassed the football game’s own figures (and held the record for the most-watched halftime show for over two decades). It also proved to be a worthwhile endeavour for Jackson, whose album Dangerous subsequently rose 90 places on the US charts. In other words, it was an obvious win for both parties, and proof that the halftime show, once deemed a snoozefest, had the potential to be something greater.

It took a few years, but the halftime shows eventually brought on more popular headliners and dropped themes altogether. American football fans were even blessed with British rockers like The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and The Who, while others came from across the United States – Atlanta, Minneapolis, Miami, Nashville, New York and more.

For these artists, the Super Bowl offers up the promise of increased exposure and bumped record sales (or streams). It’s an honour to play the Super Bowl halftime show, but it’s also a great business opportunity.

Setting the stage

Advertisers already know this well: more eyes simultaneously watch the Super Bowl than almost anything else. For most artists, the Super Bowl halftime show will likely be the most-watched live concert of their entire career. From a production standpoint, these 12 to 15 minutes must be executed flawlessly, from staging to lighting to sound. There are no do-overs and no time for technical difficulties – not when the whole nation, and much of the world, is watching live.

Kendrick Lamar has always done things his way, and the 2025 edition of the Super Bowl halftime show was no different. Having won a Pulitzer Prize for Music, his talent speaks for itself, but it’s his anti-establishment attitude that really sets him apart. Lamar had plenty to say about politics, recruiting Samuel L Jackson to play along as Uncle Sam and having his backup dancers form an American flag split down the middle. He also performed the Drake-targeting diss track Not Like Us – which had won five Grammys the week prior – amid legal drama with their record label. He also brought out Serena Williams (Drake’s ex), who also grew up in Compton, and SZA, who he’ll be touring with later this year.

On the whole, Lamar’s Super Bowl performance suggested that Black folks have largely created – and dominated – American culture, despite all kinds of governmental efforts to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. And yes, President Donald Trump was in attendance at the show.

During a press conference hosted by halftime show sponsor Apple Music, Lamar promised ‘storytelling’ within his performance, and – thanks to his creative and technical partners – that’s exactly what he brought.

Audio obstacles

There are certain limitations unique to the Super Bowl halftime show that production teams would not ordinarily face. The main difficulty is that the stage must be built and disassembled in seven and six minutes respectively, without damaging the playing field before the second half of the game. This can be especially tough depending on the venue’s access points, as well as each particular artist’s creative requirements, which have only increased in complexity. This year, Kendrick Lamar pushed that lever even further, commissioning four mini stages – each shaped like one of the buttons on a Playstation control – and a black Buick GNX.

Fresh off an Emmy for her work on Rihanna’s halftime show, art director Shelley Rodgers and her husband Bruce Rodgers of Tribe Inc handled Lamar’s aesthetic vision. Erik Eastland, president of manufacturing and design at All Access Staging and Productions, and his team created the stages and sourced the vintage muscle car. The company also built custom-made streetlights to adorn the spaces in between the stages. In total, it took over 15,000 man-hours to turn all of Lamar’s ideas into reality.

Tribe and All Access have been collaborating on Super Bowl halftime shows since 1991, with Kirk Powell, senior design engineer at ATK Audiotek, joining the ranks in 2003. “We’ve been around for a while,” admits Powell. “It’s about making it as simple as we can – simple being a relative term because there’s nothing simple about it.”

From wrestling with the arena’s acoustics and existing in-house technology to considering how the halftime shows will fit into the wider Super Bowl puzzle (ATK handles the pre-game and in-game audio as well), Powell has been faced with his fair share of obstacles over 23 years.

For Super Bowl LIX, “the venue was the biggest challenge,” he shares. Home to the New Orleans Saints, the Caesars Superdome opened in 1975 and has since hosted eight Super Bowls, which includes the one just completed. “It’s very reverberant, so keeping that under control was a challenge. Newer stadiums have fibre infrastructure we can share and use, so we don’t have to run as much cable. This building doesn’t have that. It’s an old-school stadium, which makes it a little more challenging.”

The sonic set-up ultimately featured an L-Acoustics PA system, designed by systems engineer Johnny Keirle, Digico consoles (Quantum 338s at FOH and a pair of SD5s for monitors) and Focusrite Rednet components. “It’s a hard show because it’s very fast. There’s obviously no time for any wobbles,” he stresses. “Having a flying PA has made the set-up going into halftime a lot easier. Not having to roll out carts and getting set up and aimed correctly in just a couple minutes – at that point it’s just a concert.”

Yet, unlike a concert, the Super Bowl halftime show is also a live television broadcast. “That’s the big conundrum; you can’t just turn it up as loud as you want,” Powell explains. “You have to make sure it’s not spilling back into the mics and coming out on the air. It will always happen a little bit, but you don’t want it to be overwhelming.” Ultimately, Powell’s job is to keep the producers, sponsors and audiences happy – an almost impossible task. But he’s able to do it each year thanks to a little thing called teamwork.

It takes a village

Collaborators for more than two decades, Powell, Rodgers, Eastland and the others have nearly perfected the Super Bowl halftime show.

“We’ve been doing this for a very long time, and I think that’s one of the reasons why we continue to be successful. It’s because we all work so well together, and this is truly a team effort. It’s a big, choreographed dance to make this all happen,” shares Powell. Each department – audio, lighting, rigging and so on – relies on the other to make the show the spectacle it is today.

“It’s a collaborative deal; none of us work in a vacuum,” says Powell. “That’s pretty much true from the beginning.” Each year, Powell begins planning in May for the following February, getting a head start on audio as soon as possible. “Bruce doesn’t come in until they name the artist or artists; I am already looking at the venues and weighing the options up for what I can and cannot do from a systems point of view.

“By the time the artist is announced and Bruce gets more heavily involved, I’m already ready to present him with my solutions, then he can guide me on what works with his vision.” Each year, that vision changes depending on what the performer has in mind.

“People keep reaching further and further. It’s almost like there’s a contest every year to upstage the last performer,” Powell laughs. “We’ve done crazy things, like the flying platforms for Rihanna. The on-field scenery was minimal, but those moving platforms were so sophisticated.” Rihanna’s 2023 halftime show saw her perform a 13-minute medley of greatest hits, much of which she did from atop a levitating stage.

Besides the creative considerations, there were also technical limitations. For instance, Rihanna’s platforms could only safely support a certain weight. “We work closely to make sure that we’re not on top of each other and not exceeding those limits,” reveals Powell. “Most of the time, it’s just making minor adjustments here and there, if at all.”

For Powell and his colleagues, the past 23 years – starting with Shania Twain, No Doubt and Sting in 2003 – often blur together. “There are certain aspects that stay the same from year to year,” he begins, “but then there are those distinct moments when you go, ‘oh, okay, that’s a step up’. For me, from an audio point of view, switching to the flown PA was a huge step. That was our big technology jump of late; it sounds so much better.”

ATK also provides site-wide communications during both the football game and the halftime show. This year, the company deployed 140 Riedel Bolero wireless beltpacks, two 1024 frames and Legacy frames in a large ring, creating a comprehensive intercom system. Along with using the stadium infrastructure and a matrix smart panel, ATK brought in an additional 125 smart panels for all positions.

Caught on camera

Delivering its 11th Super Bowl to date, Fox Sports deployed hundreds of cameras. These included 27 super slow-motion, 23 high resolution, 16 robotic, ten wireless and two Skycams, which are cable-suspended, computer-controlled camera systems, each used before, during and after the big game. More than 240 of these cameras came from Sony, ranging from the company’s pro broadcast products to its Alpha interchangeable-lens cameras.

“The Super Bowl is not just the biggest game of the year, it’s also the biggest production,” says Michael Davies, SVP technical and field operations for Fox Sports, in a Sony press release. “Our job is to tell the story of the game, capturing the energy within the stadium and keeping billions of viewers engaged. Sony is a key tool in reaching that goal.”

The halftime show, now an inextricable element of the Super Bowl itself, also requires complete coverage. Technical project management was handled by Funicular Goats, who also oversaw the halftime shows in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The multicam solutions company captured Lamar’s performance on 14 devices: 13 Sony Venice 2s and one Sony Burano for the ASL feed.

This year, Motion Impossible’s modular Agito dolly system also roamed the field during Lamar’s performance. Designed for quick and precise movement and to prevent tyre damage, Agito was rolled out, captured all the action and then disappeared without a trace.

“The Super Bowl halftime show is a challenge unlike any other,” explained James Coker, co-founder and head of engineering and technical management at Funicular Goats, within a Sony press release. “Sony Cinema Line cameras have the perfect combination of full-frame sensor and broadcast compatibility to allow them to work seamlessly within the show’s structure.”

Traditionally, broadcast cameras would cover the halftime show, but this shifted as technology improved and audiences began to display a preference for more ‘cinematic’ content. Then, during the pandemic, The Weeknd performed at Super Bowl LV with almost no one in the stadium. Since it was largely a televised concert, cameras made the difference; there’s no going back now.

Light up the night

One way to get audiences engaged is by making them part of the performance. For the sixth consecutive Super Bowl (and seventh in total), Canadian wireless lighting company Pixmob delivered an LED wristband to every attending fan, illuminating the Superdome stadium in synchronised fashion.

Used to turn live events immersive around the world, including Taylor Swift’s record-breaking The Eras Tour (the LED would change colour depending on the era) and Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres tour, Pixmob’s wristbands have definitely made their mark on the fan experience. Designed to fit every wrist, the LED bands feature ultra-bright infrared light, respond to radio frequencies and are constructed from recycled plastics. It’s a light show like no other and, at this year’s Super Bowl, all 75,000 fans donned a bracelet (as all 133.5 million TV viewers watched from afar).

Previously deployed exclusively during the halftime show, Pixmob’s wristbands lit up all game long this year. The company have developed a ‘human screen’ technology called MVT, which turns dark stadiums into animated visual canvases; Super Bowl LIX marked its North American debut. Like the rest of the AV experience, the wristbands were customised to fit Lamar’s creative vision, with the wearables collectively spelling words such as ‘start’ and ‘game over’ to further Lamar’s concept of playing the ‘great American game’.

Until next time

It won’t be long before planning begins for next year’s Super Bowl halftime show, with lots going on behind the scenes as fans wait for the artist announcement.

Full of seasoned live event veterans, the team behind the annual gig have risen to each new challenge, elevating the halftime show from mediocre commercial break to being – for many viewers – more entertaining than the game itself. At this point, the crew has it down to a science: “We’ve worked together for so long that I know what Bruce expects, and he knows what I expect,” admits Powell. “I love working with him and the wonderful team he’s put together.”

Between building stages and set pieces to setting up audio systems, planning camera positions and more, the whole ordeal is a hugely collaborative effort – and one that ultimately pays off.

This year, Kendrick Lamar broke the record for most-viewed halftime show, and in the three hours immediately after the game, his music saw an average of a 175% increase in streams on Spotify (Not Like Us, the Drake diss track, alone saw a 430% spike).

Whether for the artist or the audience, the Super Bowl halftime show is nothing short of spectacular. While the game itself remains ‘the biggest night in football’, the concert might be even bigger – and we can’t wait to see what else is in store.

Bringing sound to the Super Bowl

This year’s Super Bowl was kitted out with a completely new sound system. Brought in specifically for the halftime show and the game, this was a set-up that’s become a mainstay of high-end concert performances globally.

It was integrated with an L-Acoustics K2-based system, provided by ATK Audiotek/Clair Global, who have managed the halftime event sound for nearly 30 years. The impressive system comprised 16 hangs of K2 arrays as well as eight hangs of KS28 subwoofers.

A dozen of those K2 hangs had K1-SBs above; eight of the K2 hangs had close-coupled K1-SBs, while four of the remaining K2 hangs employed K1-SBs as a line extension.

This feature was first published in the Mar/Apr 2025 issue of LIVE.