The Music Man: My Super Bowl 50 halftime vision
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Watching Super Bowl XLIX was quite the experience. The game was well played, interesting and most definitely down to the wire. The commercials, albeit quite sad, were still entertaining. And my favorite part, Katy Perry’s halftime show — with guests Lenny Kravitz, Missy Elliott and, of course, Left Shark — was pretty fantastic.
Fast forward to today. I’m sitting in my Photo Imaging class after completing a project, and I see a poll by Billboard. The poll asked readers who they thought should perform at halftime during Super Bowl 50, and as I scrolled down, I saw one of the choices was Queen. After reading the description of possible fill-ins for late Queen vocalist and pianist Freddie Mercury, my mind went crazy, and I had a vision of the perfect halftime show for Super Bowl 50. Imagine …
Intro
You hear an amazing guitar riff, and, a few seconds later, some very on point drumming. Stage lights go up, and you see Queen guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor on stage, playing Super Bowl 50 like the rock royalty they are. May continues showing off his amazing guitar playing for a few more seconds, then …
May introduces Jessie J, and you see her standing on the other side of the stage. She walks over to begin a rendition of “We Will Rock You,” which she previously sang with the band at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. After Jessie J belts out a verse, she leaves the stage and …
You hear one of the most recognizable bass lines in history. In her usual, showy fashion, Lady Gaga appears on stage. She begins to sing “Another One Bites the Dust,” after having previously sung it with Queen + Adam Lambert in Sydney. This time, though, she sings by herself. Once she’s slayed a verse, chorus and bridge, the song ends and the audience erupts into applause. Lady Gaga exits stage left, but you look right to see that …
By the amazing effects of Super Bowl halftime shows, another stage has appeared next to Queen. On it, you see fun., and hear the beginning of a piano riff by fun. keyboardist Andrew Dost. Vocalist Nate Ruess leads into the first verse of “Somebody to Love” (my personal favorite Queen song), previously performed by Queen and fun. at the “iHeartRadio Music Festival” in Las Vegas. As he works the stage in a Freddie Mercury-esque manner, Ruess sings some more, and then fun. guitarist Jack Antonoff and May share an epic guitar solo. Once Ruess has killed the last note, the stage goes dark and the audience cheers again. A few seconds later, stage lights go up and …
You see Elton John playing a big, red piano in the middle of the stage. He sings the ever-so-popular ballad section of “Bohemian Rhapsody” that he performed with the band before for “The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert” in London. Much of the arena joins in for the song, giving the performance a stadium-rock feel. May then plays a flawless guitar solo, but the opera section doesn’t come next. Instead …
Adam Lambert, Queen’s fill-in Freddie for the past few years as part of Queen + Adam Lambert, struts out onto the stage as John plays the opening notes to “We Are the Champions.” Standing by his mic stand, Lambert offers a perfect rendition of the song, with May and his hard rock riffs by Lambert’s side the whole way. May plays a few more guitar chords to transition into …
Outro
The hard rock section of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” John and Lambert alternate vocals all the way to the end, playing off each other’s stage presence better than ever. With the final “any way the wind blows” of the song’s outro, May adds in a fantastic guitar breakdown and Taylor drums his heart out. After a heartfelt “thank you, Super Bowl,” the lights go off and the audience applauds louder than ever before.
While I know this probably isn’t how the Super Bowl 50 halftime show will go down, I still think it’s an awesome idea. (Super Bowl committee people who probably aren’t reading this — I’m looking at you.) In all reality, though, I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the halftime show for Super Bowl 50. Even though it may not be as perfect as what I just described, it still promises to be a show to remember.
Steven Curto • Feb 4, 2015 at 6:48 pm
I thought the way you incorporated your imagination of what the Super Bowl halftime show could have looked like if Queen and guest stars did the halftime show was really cool!