7:00 am PST 2/6/2021
in
Seth Abramovitch
Before the King of Pop took the stage at the Rose Bowl for Super Bowl XXVII, the break show was mostly an afterthought, where disappearing celebrities and Up With People tended to be the main entertainment.
The modern communal pop extravaganza known as the Super Bowl halftime show can trace its roots back to January 31, 1993, when Michael Jackson took the stage at the Rose Bowl for Super Bowl XXVII, where the Dallas Cowboys would run over the Buffalo Bills, 52- 17
Before that, the intermission show was more of an afterthought, occupied by university bands, Up With People and endangered artists like Mickey Rooney (XXI) and Chubby Checker (XXII).
In 1992, Fox attracted 22 percent of the NBC audience by countering a special episode of In vivid colors during the break, and the NFL realized it needed to improve its game. He resorted to Radio City Productions to put together something spectacular, which in turn offered Jackson the slot. He asked for $ 1 million, an apparent bargain, but the NFL did not pay its players for the break, a policy that remains. (Still, Justin Timberlake saw a 534 percent jump in music sales after performing for a 100 million audience at the 2018 Super Bowl LII; Lady Gaga’s sales increased ten-fold in the previous year.)
In the end, the league partnered with Frito-Lay to offer a $ 100,000 donation plus a 30-second TV commercial to Jackson’s Heal the World Foundation, founded a year earlier to “improve conditions for children across the world”.
On a dramatic start to his set, Jackson was ejected onto the stage from below and was frozen for 90 seconds. He then launched into a medley of “Jam”, “Billie Jean” (complete with moonwalk) and “Black or White” before concluding with the mushy “We Are the World” and the single “Heal the World”, surrounded by 3,500 LA – children area. With 133 million tuning in, it remains the most watched intermission program and one of the most watched programs of all time.
Seven months later, Jackson would face his first charges of child sexual abuse.
This story first appeared in the February 3 issue of The Hollywood Reporter. Click here to subscribe.