The 2020 Super Bowl witnessed a mesmerizing halftime show by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira that left the viewers in awe. It was indeed a historic performance that will be remembered for a long time.
At the recent screening of her upcoming Netflix documentary Halftime at the Tribeca Film Festival, Jennifer surprised viewers by expressing her displeasure about sharing the stage.
Jennifer, in the documentary, instructed her music director Kim Burse that they only have six minutes to perform. She emphasized that they have only 30 seconds for each song, and taking a minute would reduce their time to five minutes. However, Jennifer acknowledged that certain songs must be performed to ensure they have their singing moments.
According to Jeff Kravitz’s statement, the Super Bowl performance should not be just a dance show. Instead, the singers should convey their message through their songs. He believes that having only two performers is a terrible idea and the worst one ever.
To give you an idea, when it comes to solo performances, they usually last around 12-16 minutes. Just to put things into perspective, Prince’s performance was about 12 minutes long, while Beyoncé’s was 13 minutes.
In the documentary, Jennifer and Shakira were seen having a friendly chat about their upcoming Super Bowl performance. They discussed how they would allocate their time on stage, with Jennifer proposing that they split it evenly. While they had initially agreed on 12 minutes, Jennifer was able to negotiate for an extra minute or two, bringing their total time to 13 or 14 minutes. She suggested that they each take half the time, allowing both of them to shine during the highly anticipated halftime show.
Jennifer expressed her frustration, stating that if the event was intended to have two main performers, they should have allocated at least 20 minutes for their performance. She used profanity to emphasize her point.
In a documentary, Jennifer Lopez’s longtime manager, Benny Medina shared his disappointment regarding the NFL’s choice to book two headlining acts at the same time. He described it as an insult and jointly voiced his frustration with the decision along with Jennifer.
According to Benny, it’s common for there to be only one headlining artist at the Super Bowl. That artist creates the show and can choose to bring on other guests if they want to. He finds it insulting to suggest that two Latina artists are necessary to do the work that one artist has previously done alone.
According to sources, Jennifer Lopez’s frustration was mainly targeted at the NFL for not providing ample time to execute her envisioned performance. It appears that there is no bad blood between Jennifer and Shakira, despite sharing the stage.