Jennifer Lopez and Shakira made history for the Latin national team with their part-time Super Bowl 2020 program, but Lopez initially resisted the National Football League’s decision to hire two headliners for the event.
In a scene from his upcoming Netflix documentary Halftime, which premiered Wednesday at the Tribeca Festival in New York City, the Hustlers star is seen mapping the show with his music director Kim Burse, with the couple highlighting the limited amount of time that López will have to act.
“We have six minutes. We have 30 seconds of a song, and if we take a minute, that’s it, we have five left. But there must be some songs we sing, though. We have to have our singing moments. it will be a dance magazine. We have to sing our message, “López told Burse. “This is the worst idea in the world for two people to make the Super Bowl. It was the worst idea in the world.”
MIAMI, FLORIDA – FEBRUARY 2: (LR) Shakira and Jennifer Lopez perform on stage during the Pepsi Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show at Hard Rock Stadium on February 2, 2020 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic)
Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic Shakira and Jennifer Lopez at the Super Bowl.
In a separate interview for the documentary, Lopez’s longtime coach Benny Medina also expressed frustration with the NFL’s decision to have two global icons occupy the coveted performance space.
“Normally, you have a headliner in a Super Bowl. That headliner builds a show, and if they decide to have other guests, that’s their choice,” says Medina. “It was an insult to say you need two Latinos to do the work that an artist has historically done.”
In comparison, previous artists such as Lady Gaga and Madonna performed solo shows at the Super Bowl for about 14 minutes and 15 minutes, respectively.
At the beginning of the half, it is shown that Lopez has a preliminary discussion with Shakira about the performance and how long each will occupy during the set.
“I know the people in the Super Bowl want us to weave through the whole show. I haven’t had a confirmation of how many minutes I’ll have,” Shakira tells Lopez, who replies, “Let me address it quickly. They said 12 I got a good confirmation that we could have a minute or two more, so now it’s 13, 14 minutes. should do [have half]. “
The story goes on
“If he was going to be a double-headed poster, they should have given us 20 minutes,” Lopez said. “That’s what they should have done.”
Jennifer Lopez performs on stage during the Pepsi Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show at Hard Rock Stadium on February 2, 2020 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Focus on Sport / Getty Images); Emme Maribel Muñiz performs on stage during the Pepsi Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show at Hard Rock Stadium on February 2, 2020 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic)
Focus on Sport / Getty; Jeff Kravitz / FilmMagic Jennifer Lopez and her daughter, Emme, perform at the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
An important part of Haftime also shows the creative process of López for his part of the performance, which was held in Miami during the presidency of Donald Trump, whose focus on immigration, especially the people of Latin ancestry trying to enter the United States, provoked an intense reaction around. the world.
Throughout the film, López breaks his intention to highlight the injustices of immigration by having his daughter, Emme, begin singing her mother’s 2000 single “Let’s Get Loud” from within a cage.
Many interpreted the inclusion of the image as a comment on the U.S. government’s treatment of Mexican children on the country’s southern border, and Lopez and Medina allege to Halftime that when the NFL learned of the plan, they tried to cancel the scene just before. the Super Bowl.
“We came out of the rehearsal and I realized that everyone was freaking out, but I don’t know why,” Lopez recalls. “I get a call from Benny and he says, ‘They want to throw the cages out.’
Medina continues: “The NFL had a real concern about making a political statement on immigration. They looked at the plans and the message was absolute. They didn’t want these cages on the show. That had come from the highest authority.”
Jennifer Lopez in the middle
Netflix Jennifer Lopez is rehearsing for the documentary ‘Halftime’.
Lopez says he finally felt responsible for continuing the program, which was eventually hailed as a “frank and necessary political moment for a league that has been criticized for missing a lot of both,” wrote Alex Suskind of EW then.
“For me, this is not about politics. It’s about human rights. I’m at the biggest crossroads of my life, to be able to act on the biggest stage in the world, but to get the cages out and sacrifice the I think it would be like never being there, “he says. “There was a part of me that got very zen and I said,‘ Benny, I don’t care what you have to do, we won’t change the show. The Super Bowl is tomorrow and we will not change. anything.'”
An NFL representative did not respond to EW’s request for comment. Half-time premieres on Netflix on June 14th.
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