Photo Courtesy of Eva Rinaldi, Flickr Creative Commons
Katy Perry brought her signature psychedelic pop style to this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, complete with moving chess pieces, stuffed sharks and shooting stars.
The field at University of Phoenix Stadium was transformed into a brightly colored utopia for Perry’s performance. She began on a giant, gold tiger. The ruby-eyed monster actually moved down the field, as Perry, strapped to its back, belted out “Roar.”
The stage then transformed into a chessboard with human chess pieces. Perry joined the animated board game, singing “Dark Horse.” In her flaming red and orange dress, Perry stood out among the silvery pawns, rooks and bishops.
Flames and fireworks announced the arrival of Lenny Kravitz, who joined Perry in a rendition of “I Kissed a Girl.”
Kravitz’s explosive performance quickly transitioned into perhaps the most memorable portion of Perry’s show: a nautical rendition of “Teenage Dream.” Perry changed costumes with lightning speed, from her flaming get-up to a beach ball-inspired dress. Surrounding the singer were cartoonish dancing sharks, palm trees and beach balls. Perry’s oceanic friends danced and “sang” to the beat of “Teenage Dream” and later “California Gurls,” some with less aplomb than others (I’m looking at you, left shark).
After the beach scene, Missy Elliott, perhaps the biggest surprise of the night, burst onto the stage. The rapper performed a medley of her most known songs: “Get Ur Freak On,” “Work It” and “Lose Control.”
Missy was briefly joined by Perry, in a 49 jersey, for her first two numbers. Perry then handed the stage over to the practiced rapper, only to reappear a few moments later in a silver dress bedazzled with multicolored stars for her final number, “Firework.” Surrounded by luminous, swaying globes, Perry ascended on rocket and flew through the air, belting out one of her most popular songs. Fittingly, the halftime show ended with fireworks.
Perry’s performance sparked an Internet frenzy, as people live tweeted the pop star’s show. Perry’s ex-husband Russell Brand had these words of encouragement to say to her: “Super Bowl may be baffling to Brits but half time show will be amazing. Good luck KP.”
The now infamous “left shark” has become a veritable Internet celebrity with his less than perfect moves. Left shark has become a gif, a meme and, for one very dedicated fan, a tattoo. Perry also honored the occasion with a tattoo of an “XLIX” on her ring finger to commemorate her performance at the XLIX Super Bowl.
"I thought it would be appropriate to draw blood tonight … XLIX," Perry captioned her photo on Instagram.
Perry’s performance was, all together, an entertaining and effervescent half time show. The singer sounded great, despite the fact that her mic volume seemed to be turned down, making her hard to hear above the instrumentals. All other aspects of the performance went off without a hitch, making Katy Perry’s dream world reality, if only for a few minutes.
rking2@ramapo.edu
