Best Super Bowl Halftime Shows

02/03/2011
. (Gibson) The possible lip-syncing. The definite pyrotechnics. The marching bands. The beyond-iconic artists. And 150 millions pairs of eyes watching it all go down. The Super Bowl halftime shows have been a source of delight and (sometimes) disappointment for almost 20 years now. Michael Jackson became the first artist to have the halftime show all to himself in 1993; prior to that, the show consisted largely of marching bands, novelty acts and national anthem renditions. Nowadays it's a half-hour affair with lots of bells, whistles and high stakes. This year The Black Eyed Peas got the gig at Super Bowl XLV, set to air Sunday, February 6 on FOX. Gibson singled out their 10 favorite Super Bowl halftime performances of all time. Here are a couple:

1) Prince � 2007 - Super Bowl XLI - Indianapolis Colts: 29, Chicago Bears: 17: Just three years after Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction," Prince derived some controversy of his own by performing a guitar solo behind a transparent sheet and positioning his oddly shaped guitar in such a way that plenty of critics cried, "Phallic!" Whether it was intentional or accidental � guitars are inherently phallic, after all � we'll never know, but it turns out that Prince's pitch-perfect set list ("We Will Rock You," "Let's Go Crazy," "1999," "Baby I'm a Star," "Proud Mary," "All Along the Watchtower," "Best of You" and "Purple Rain") outshined his on-stage antics anyway.

8) Aerosmith, 'N Sync, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, and Nelly � 2001 - Super Bowl XXXV - Baltimore Ravens: 34, New York Giants: 7: With an oddball collection of artists, this halftime show risked disaster but ended up working perfectly � segueing 'N Sync's "Bye Bye Bye" into Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" before returning to 'N Sync with "It's Gonna Be Me" and then back to Aerosmith with "Jaded." Britney Spears, Nelly and Mary J. Blige got in on the action for the triumphant final track, "Walk this Way." It was a cross-genre, cross-generational hit. more on this story

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