Justin Timberlake's Superbowl Halftime Show - My Direction

As we all should know, just recently Justin Timberlake headlined the Superbowl Halftime Show. Surprisingly, for one reason or another all of the anticipation for his performance had a pretty mixed expectation. After the performance he proved all expectations right in which all reviews of his performance seemed mixed. Some critics felt that he gave an outstanding showing. Other critics felt it was mediocre at best and some even felt his performance was not Superbowl worthy and it seemed like a performance you'd normally see from him on tour or awards show.

Although he did well, I was personally underwhelmed and a little disappointed. Out of this disappointment I decided to come up with some creative ideas for what I believe would've proved beneficial to for Justin Timberlake’s Superbowl performance. I'll try to summarize a general feel of what I would have pushed for and highlight some details on certain parts of my performance idea. It's time to put on those thinking caps use your imagination to visualize this revamped performance.

Since Justin’s new album is called “Man Of The Woods”, I thought it would be cool to frame his performance in a way that showed him on a journey into the woods i.e. Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, etc. I liked his idea of moving around and having different places to perform throughout the stadium. So I would keep that aspect and use it in a way that reflects levels in a video game, with the final (main) stage being “The Woods”.

I would start with “Filthy” just like they did, but play up the dramatics big time. The opening of this song is VERY dramatic and I'm surprised they didn’t use that to their advantage as the opening of the performance. As the music starts there would be big explosions and Pyro everywhere revealing Justin on one end of the field on a lit and floating platform. As He starts singing and dancing, women will descend around him in the air in various formations and positions. Some women will be upside down and others will be right side up. They will all interact with him as he performs. The women will all have something on their hands and will strategically place them on Justin as he interacts with each woman. His attire will resemble a blank canvas making the things the women place on him artistically symbolic to the song and the rest of his performance (hence the lyrics put your filthy hands all over me). Once he finishes interacting with the women and singing the song, the platform he is on will be lowered onto a long walkway.

As soon as he touches the walkway, the prelude to “My Love/Let Me Talk To You” will begin and the walkway will light up with all kind of colors and lasers flashing. With the lasers and lights, the walkway will almost resemble a tunnel. The walkway would then be raised up over the ground. As Justin dances down the walkway smoke shoots up from the sides with dancers hopping up onto the walkway from the sides via bungee cords and they all join Justin.

When everyone is placed, “My Love” begins and the walkway breaks apart into mini squares, 1 person per square to perform on. As they are performing the squares will act as moving pieces sorting themselves into various formations, which you would ultimately display great visual effects from an aerial point of view. Not only will these pieces of the stage be moving, but it will be transporting Justin and the dancers to the next stage for the rest of their performance.

They then would arrive to the next area and “Cry Me A River” would begin.

I’m stopping there because I don’t want to give away all my ideas, but that’s a small sample of what I think would have been a great Super Bowl performance from Justin Timberlake.

Let me know what you think!