Shakira and Jennifer Lopez dazzled during their performance at the Super Bowl LIV halftime show, singing and dancing their way through their greatest hits.
With surprise performances from J Balvin and Bad Bunny, Lopez bringing her 11-year old daughter onstage, and dizzying dance numbers, there were probably a few things you didn’t catch in the commotion.
Here are the 7 moments you may have missed during the Super Bowl 2020 halftime show with Shakira and Jennifer Lopez.
Shakira Pays Tribute to her Rock Roots
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Shakira broke into the Spanish-language music scene with the album “Pies Descalzos,” which incorporated rock elements into her music. While she’s now known for her mastery of pop, Shak paid tribute to her days as a chica rockera by showing off her guitar skills on “Empire,” quickly followed by a strings version of Led Zeppelin’s "Kashmir" that lead into “Ojos Así” from her 1998 album “Dónde Están los Ladrones.”
Later on in the night, Shakira surprised the audience when she appeared behind a drum set while JLo and her daughter performed “Let’s Get Loud” and “Born in the USA.”
JLo Revamps the ‘It’s My Party’ Set
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Jennifer Lopez celebrated her 50th birthday in style with her “It’s My Party" Tour where, every night, the stage would rise up in the form of a layer cake. While she made some updates for the halftime show, her fans may have recognized the set design, though this time it was the Empire State building instead of a giant gateau. In another nod to the tour, JLo brought back a mini version of her cane dance routine during “Get Right.”
Tribute to Kobe Bryant
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Only one week after the tragic death of Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna, and seven other people in a helicopter crash, it was only fitting that the star athlete would be honored at the Super Bowl.
During a more muted moment of JLo’s set there was an overhead shot that showed a giant purple and gold cross on the field. It was subtle, but the stage was also lit up in Lakers colors during the finale, with lights flashing purple and gold as Shakira performed her 2010 World Cup anthem “Waka Waka.”
In a press conference prior to the big game, Shakira said that they would all “be remembering Kobe on Sunday and celebrating life and diversity in this country. I’m sure he’d be very proud to see the message we are trying to convey on stage.”
JLo Gets Political
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Though the majority of Lopez’s performance was focused on her medley of greatest hits, she didn’t shy away from making a political statement on football’s biggest night. First there were child performers in “cages” who sang a slowed-down version of “Let’s Get Loud,” followed by a powerful moment in which her daughter Emme sang the iconic Bruce Springsteen anthem “Born in the USA” as Lopez walked out with an enormous American flag, which she flipped over to reveal the Puerto Rican flag.
After Hurricane Maria struck the Caribbean in 2017, Lopez was one of the most vocal celebrity advocates for getting aid to Puerto Rico. Critics allege that federal aid was too slow in being dispatched to the US territory, with some parts of the island not having their electricity restored for almost a year after the storm.
The Artists Flip Genres
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Her die-hard fans already know that Shakira is the queen of jumping from genre to genre. She started her career singing Spanish rock in Colombia, moved into English-language pop, regularly incorporates middle eastern influences into her music, and has collaborated with the world’s biggest reggaeton and bachata stars.
During the Super Bowl halftime show she stuck to her greatest hits but updated their rhythms, giving her reggaeton duet with Maluma, “Chantaje,” a salsa makeover. Bad Bunny also updated one of his biggest songs of the past year, “Callaita,” a smooth reggaeton anthem, giving it a tropical flair.
Not one to be outdone, JLo added a literal twist to her set, bringing out dancers to salsa with her during "Let's Get Loud" in the finale.
J Balvin Shows Off Sneaker Collab
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He’s one of the biggest stars in reggaeton, but J Balvin is also known for his sartorial taste, rocking colorful outfits onstage and regularly attending the world’s hottest fashion shows. The Colombian artist debuted his Air Jordan 1 collaboration onstage, sharing the news on Instagram by saying that he’s “Latino and proud but Don’t put us in a box, we are Global.”
Hometown Love
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Shakira swapped out the lyrics to “I Like It” from “a ti te quiero mi amor” (I love you, my love) to “en Barranquilla me quedo yo” (I’ll stay in Barranquilla), a wink to her hometown. This isn’t the first time she’s mentioned her love of the Colombian city in her music- in 2016’s “Bicicleta” with Carlos Vives, she sang of trying to convince her partner, Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué, of moving to the South American country.
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