Madonna positioned herself as the queen of a new generation of pop stars at the Super Bowl halftime show — complete with throne.
Madonna positioned herself as the queen of a new generation of pop stars at the Super Bowl halftime show — complete with throne.
Madonna had admittedly been nervous about her performance, hoping to position herself as the queen of a new generation of pop stars with an opulent show and a sharp performance that mixed her new release with more familiar songs.
Madonna seemed like Roman royalty when muscle-bound men carried her extravagant throne across the football field to the stage for her opening song, Vogue.
Guests Cee Lo, Nicki Minaj and dance rockers LMFAO also appeared with Madonna.
The singing and dancing on Vogue was smartly choreographed, as Madonna moved more deliberately -- she is 53 -- but still adroitly.
She briefly appeared to stumble at one point while trying to make a step on the stage set, but recovered in time.
She let a tightrope walker make the more acrobatic moves during a performance of "Music."
Madonna carried gold pompons for a performance of her new single. Twitter was alight with questions about the vocals being lip synched or augmented by tapes, particularly during this song.
The best guest was clearly Cee Lo, who joined Madonna for the final song, "Like a Prayer." They were joined by a robed chorus in the show's most soaring performance.
With a puff of white smoke, Madonna disappeared down a trap door in the stage, and lights on the field spelled out "World Peace."
The Super Bowl, shown on NBC this year, is routinely viewed by more than 100 million people, the biggest TV event of the year.
Madonna with Nicki Minaj and M.I.A., who showed middle finger and the gesture, accompanied by a barely disguised expletive, came during a performance of Madonna's new single, "Give Me All Your Luvin.'"
Madonna performs with Redfoo, lead singer of LMFAO, during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl XLVI football game between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. She sang her new track Give Me All Your Luvin.
Madonna's performance got rave reviews.
Ryan Seacrest tweeted: Loved the madonna performance, I think she nailed it. Great job.
Paula Abdul also tweeted: So happy for #Madonna's triumphant half time show :)
