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It's time for the Big Game! |
| Welcome to The Group Chat, where sports and culture meet and mingle. The Super Bowl halftime show is a cultural institution, sometimes defining the day more than the actual football game. People discuss, analyze, and rewatch halftime performances — the good, the bad, and the scandalous — for years or even decades to come.
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 | Super Bowl halftime shows, ranked | |
| ✅ The rubric: We rated shows based on five categories: Overall production, set design, set list, artist performance, and cultural impact. Our findings may be controversial — whether you agree or disagree, reply to this email with your take.
 Source: Getty Images No. 5 Rihanna, 2023. 💪 Strength: Set list, cultural impact. 👎 Weakness: Overall production. Let's start with a hot take: While it's universally beloved, Rihanna's performance didn't have the same "wow" factor as other recent shows. She started and finished on a floating platform that was cool but not unique; she didn't bring out any other celebs (although she did have a surprise special guest); she picked one visual style and set design, and stuck with it for the whole 14-minute show.
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| TOGETHER WITH Adobe Express 💅 Couch commentary, but make it cute Source: Adobe Express Let today's Super Bowl literally be your Super Bowl…with some help from our pals at Adobe Express. From kickoff to confetti, use NFL templates to turn: 🔥 Halftime hot takes into viral moments 🍗 Chicken wings into artistic statements 🫨 Shocked faces into graphic design masterpieces The Big Game isn't just a game: It's a content gold mine. Make sure your social game stays undefeated with a perfect spiral from Adobe Express. |
 Source: Getty Images No. 4 Lady Gaga, 2017. 💪 Strength: Artist performance, overall production. 👎 Weakness: Cultural impact. This halftime show doesn't seem to have the cultural staying power of the others on this list, and that's a damn shame. Did we all collectively forget that Lady Gaga began this performance with a drone show, then jumped off the roof of the stadium and sang live while soaring and flipping through the air?
 Source: Getty Images No. 3 Shakira & Jennifer Lopez featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin, 2020. 💪 Strength: Artist performance, cultural impact. 👎 Weakness: Set design, set list. One word to describe this show: energy. The Zumba class of your dreams was a party from start to finish. A love letter to host city Miami and the U.S.'s Latino community during a politically volatile period (sound familiar?), Shakira and JLo managed to make a political statement joyful, empowering, and unbelievably fun.
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Our dream Bad Bunny set list for today's halftime show | ||
 | 1. | The title track from the Grammy-winning Album of the Year, of course. |
 | 2. | Dance anthem of the decade. |
 | 3. | The soundtrack to Benito's Calvin Klein commercial (you know the one). |
 | 4. | A deeper cut for the die-hard fans. |
 Source: Getty Images No. 2 Katy Perry featuring Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott, 2015. 💪 Strength: Set design, overall production. 👎 Weakness: Artist performance. This show felt like a fever dream set to the radio hits of the 2010s — Perry entered the field on a 16-foot-tall mechanical lion and exited on a shooting star, and everything in between was completely over the top. The set design and overall production value are unmatched, and random-but-delightful appearances from Kravitz and Elliott allowed for not one, not two, but three outfit changes.
 Source: Getty Images No. 1 Beyoncé featuring Destiny's Child, 2013. 💪 Strength: Artist performance, set design, cultural impact. 👎 Weaknesses: None. In Super Bowl halftime shows, as in life, Beyoncé is without parallel. In the aughts, the halftime show was mostly classic rock artists (with a few notable exceptions). Madonna broke the mold in 2012, then Beyoncé set a new standard for the modern halftime as pop music's ultimate spectacle. Every performer since has used this show as the blueprint.
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The GIST's List: Book Rec of the Week | ||
 | Even though Tessa and Scott aren't lacing up their skates this year *sniffs*, immerse yourself in the passion of competitive figure skating with the audiobook of this fan-favorite romance by Layne Fargo, read by a full cast. It's all over your FYP for a reason.* *P.S. This is a sponsored post. | |
 | At The GIST HQ What (Else) We're Loving | |
| 📚 Reading: The OG masterpiece as we await Part II of Bridgerton season 4. 📓 Planning: Our lives using this agenda with the perfect weekly layout. 🔥 Soothing: Our period cramps with this aptly shaped heating pad. 👚 Wearing: A luxe, cloud-like hoodie to help us survive the winter. | ||
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