J.Lo Says Sharing The Super Bowl Show With Shakira Was 'The Worst Idea'
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Jennifer Lopez’s documentary Halftime aired today on Netflix.
The film chronicles the star’s career, focusing heavily on her 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show performance and her thoughts on sharing the stage with Shakira.
She shares the social justice initiative present within her work, alluding to unjust migration policies in her powerful Super Bowl Halftime show performance.
There are few people more iconic in the entertainment world than Jennifer Lopez.
Jennifer, 52, has graced the stage and the screen, wowing audiences with her unique voice, signature dance moves, and powerful acting. But the fame and success didn’t come without her fair share of criticism and scrutiny. In her new Netflix documentary Halftime, she chronicles the stages of her career—the good, the bad, and the ugly—focusing heavily on her 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Performance and her President Biden Inauguration performance.
The documentary, which aired on June 14th on Netflix, touches on the star’s thoughts on splitting the big stage with Shakira during the halftime show. “It was the worst idea in the world,” Jennifer says in her doc, per reporting by Entertainment Weekly. But that's not all! It also delves into her politics, Oscars snub, and even has some sneak peeks at her new boo Ben Affleck.
When did Jennifer Lopez perform at the Super Bowl?
In the doc, the Marry Me star is seen mapping out the 2020 Super Bowl show with her music director Kim Burse.
"We have six f-cking minutes," Jennifer says. "We have 30 seconds of a song, and if we take a minute, that's it, we've got five left. But, there's got to be certain songs that we sing, though. We have to have our singing moments. It's not going to be a dance f---ing revue. We have to sing our message."
Jennifer was angry, not at Shakira, but at the timing of the show: “I think, Shakira, what we should have is you should have half the time and I should [have half]. If it was going to be a double headliner, they should have given us 20 minutes. That’s what they should’ve f—king done” she says in the doc, per UsWeekly.
“We have to sing our message,” Jennifer continues, explaining her irritation. The short time slot made this task more difficult for the star hoping to make a powerful statement. “This is the worst idea in the world to have two people do the Super Bowl.”
Jennifer’s manager Benny Medina also revealed further frustration.
"Typically, you have one headliner at a Super Bowl," he said in an interview for Halftime. "It was an insult to say you needed two Latinas to do the job that one artist historically has done."
What songs did Jennifer Lopez sing at halftime?
Following Shakira's performance at the Super Bowl halftime show, Jennifer equalled the heat. In her six minute set, she sang snippets from:
"Jenny From The Block"
"Ain't It Funny"
"Get Right"
"Waiting For Tonight"
"On The Floor"
"Booty / Que Calor," with J Balvin
"Love Don't Cost A Thing / Mi Gente," with J Balvin
"Born in the USA," with Emme Maribel Muñiz
"Let's Get Loud," with Shakira
“Born in the USA," with Emme Maribel Muñiz (aka her daughter!)
Originally, Jennifer thought about bringing Bruce Springsteen on stage for “Born in the USA” instead of her daughter, Emme Maribel Muñiz, UsWeekly reported.
“I’ve been trying to get Bruce Springsteen to do a cameo,” she says in the documentary, per UsWeekly. “But then I thought that it’s so much more powerful if Emme sings ‘Born in the USA’ as a little young Latina girl.”
She clashed with the NFL over her vision for the halftime show.
The Wedding Planner actress’s documentary sheds light on her artistic inspiration and deeper life purpose. Her recent performances prove that she is here, not to please everybody, but to make meaningful art. In her documentary’s trailer, she says “I’m trying to give you something with substance—not just us out there shaking our f**king asses—I want something real.”
Her halftime show exemplifies this, touching on social issues such as migration and border control policies. The decision to have her daughter Emme sing “Let’s Get Loud” inside a cage at the show was meant to convey this.
However, the NFL higher-ups were not a fan of this powerful statement. After watching the show’s rehearsal, manager Benny Medina contacted her with a message from the football league: “They want to pull the cages,” she recalls Benny saying in her documentary.
"The NFL had a real concern about making a political statement about immigration," Benny says in Halftime. "They did not want those cages in the show. That had come down from the highest authority."
But the “Marry Me” actress wouldn’t budge. "For me, this isn't about politics. This is about human rights,” she says in her documentary. “I'm facing the biggest crossroads of my life, to be able to perform on the world's biggest stage, but to take out the cages and sacrifice what I believe in would be like never being there at all."
Jennifer Lopez admits that she’s not “into politics.”
In the documentary, Jennifer says that she's not a political person: "I’m not that person," she says, per NBC.
However, the climate of her country in 2020 seemed to change her mind: "...I was living in a United States I didn't recognize. I was afraid for my kids, for their future."
"It made me realize that I had a responsibility to not be quiet," she adds. She decided "to not just leave the politics to everybody else,” and to deny the narrative that "everybody's an immigrant trying to sneak into the country and who is a criminal," NBC reported.
She expected to be nominated for an Oscar in 2020.
It becomes evident in the documentary that Jennifer was hoping for (and what’s more, expecting) a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role at the 2020 Oscars for her Hustlers performance, NBC reported. When that wasn’t the case, her disappointment is heartbreaking.
“The truth is, I really started to think I was gonna get nominated,” she admits. “I got my hopes up because so many people were telling me I would be. And then it didn’t happen.
But, as she always does, Jennifer picked herself up and focused on what was most important to her. “I do this to … tell stories and to effect change and connect with people and make them feel things because I wanna feel something,” she says, per NBC.
Her new fiancé, Ben Affleck, makes a short cameo, while her ex-fiancé, Alex Rodriguez, did not.
After they ended their first engagement back in 2004, Bennifer was reborn in 2021, and by April 2022, the couple announced that they'll be attempting to tie the knot a second time.
Ben, a constant love interest in Jennifer’s life, makes a cameo in her doc. He apparently comments on the unjust treatment and challenges she’s faced throughout her career: “I said to her once, ‘Doesn’t this bother you?’” he recalls in the doc, per UsWeekly. “And she said, ‘I’m Latina. I’m a woman. I expected this. You just don’t expect it. You expect to be treated fairly.'"
However, her ex-fiance Alex Rodriguez, who she was involved with from 2017 to 2021, does not make an appearance in Halftime. In fact, he’s not mentioned at all.
Today, Jennifer still thanks her haters.
Her recent MTV Movie and TV Awards acceptance speech earlier this month echoes her fierce, persistent attitude. Despite facing adversity throughout her career, she thanked her haters publicly, acknowledging that their doubt only furthered her determination. Jennifer took home the event’s generation award and the best song award for her track “On My Way.”
“I want to thank the people who gave me joy and the ones who broke my heart — the ones who were true and the ones who lied to me," she said in her acceptance speech. “I want to thank all the people who told me, to my face or when I wasn’t in the room, that I couldn’t do this. I really don’t think I could have done it without you.” A.K.A just a very eloquent way of J.Lo saying ‘Take that, haters!’
Jennifer is calling the shots. And Halftime gives audiences a glimpse into the deep thought and care that goes into each move the star makes. The Super Bowl Halftime Show was more than just a performance; it was an opportunity, and "Jenny From the Block" is taking every chance she gets to use her fame for social good.
Find out more about Jennifer Lopez’s story in Halftime, which is now airing on Netflix.
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