Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny is set to confirm his superstar status when headlining Sunday's Super Bowl half-time show.
Taking place at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, the show comes on the back of the musician's record-breaking residency in Puerto Rico last year that drew more than 500,000 fans. It will also set the scene for what is shaping up to be a blockbuster international tour across Australia and Europe.
The tour has already made Bad Bunny the first Latin artist to sell out stadium shows in Portugal, France, Italy and Poland.
While the contents of the show are being kept under wraps, we can confidently look back at past performances to assume nothing will be left to chance in terms of the scale of production.
Bad Bunny’s set also follows a long line of concerts stretching back over two decades.
Some superstars have managed to triumphantly seize the moment, while others have withered under the spotlight of the occasion.
Here is a timeline of the Super Bowl half-time show’s biggest hits and misses.
1991: New Kids on the Block
Half-time verdict: Hit
The seeds of the Super Bowl half-time show as we know it were laid with this minor, yet important performance.
With the official format of the current show launching two years later, New Kids On The Block were one of the first contemporary pop acts to grace the stage at half-time for a short set featuring their global hit Step by Step and This One's for the Children.
1993: Michael Jackson
Half-time verdict: Hit
The official Super Bowl half-time show began with a bang.
At the peak of his powers, Michael Jackson blitzed and moonwalked his way through a bevy of hits such as Billie Jean and Black or White.
Nearly 300 people were required to erect and disassemble the 10-tonne stage, which was wheeled on to the Rose Bowl pitch in all-terrain tyres.
The show was a rating hit and set the high standards only a few artists reached since.
2001: Aerosmith, *Nsync, Britney Spears, Mary J Blige and Nelly
Half-time verdict: Miss
Dubbed The Kings of Rock and Pop, the show was a misfire due to the incongruous makeup of the acts.
The whole affair was a weird mishmash of styles with *Nsync’s Bye Bye Bye bizarrely segueing into Aerosmith's I Don't Want to Miss a Thing.
The less we say of Walk This Way, featuring out-of-step contributions by Britney Spears and Nelly, the better.
2004: Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake
Half-time verdict: Miss
A performance that generated headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The cross-generational pairing of Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake promised to be a spectacle, only for a sartorial mishap to derail what was a solid show.
Jackson performed a combination of hits, including All for You and Rhythm Nation, before Timberlake joined her for a duet of his solo chart-topper Rock Your Body.
Ending with that infamous “wardrobe malfunction”, the performance caused such an uproar that Jackson’s career was reportedly blackballed for years after by the music industry.
2007: Prince
Half-time verdict: Hit
For all of his unpredictability, Prince always delivered when it comes to big moments.
Backed by his celebrated band New Power Generation, The Purple One wore a turquoise suit as he tore into a set that included Let's Go Crazy, Baby I'm a Star and 1999.
For such a tightly choreographed affair, Prince also added an improvised call and response from the crowd.
Finishing with Purple Rain, featuring a marching band and fireworks, Prince delivered one of the greatest half-time shows to date.
2012: Madonna
Half-time verdict: Hit
The show was plunged into new controversy and, this time, it wasn’t down to the main act.
As part of her set, Madonna invited rappers Nicki Minaj and M.I.A. as guest performers, only for the latter to steal the headlines with an ill-judged hand gesture to the cameras.
The NFL went on to sue M.I.A. for allegedly breaching her performance contract, only to reach a confidential agreement in 2014.
With all the news reports written about the incident, it is easy to forget that Madonna played a stellar set of tracks including Vogue, Music and Like a Prayer.
2013: Beyonce
Half-time verdict: Hit
Beyonce seized the moment when reuniting with former Destiny's Child bandmates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams for a medley of hits.
Complete with killer choreography and matching outfits, it was the perfect tribute to the impact of both Beyonce and Destiny’s Child on pop culture.
2014: Bruno Mars
Half-time verdict: Hit
The diminutive singer brought big smiles from the crowds in a fast moving seven-song set featuring Locked Out of Heaven and Treasure.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers also made an appearance and played Give It Away.
2019: Maroon 5
Half-time verdict: Miss
In hindsight, this show was destined to go down as a big loss.
Held amid the controversy surrounding footballer Colin Kaepernick's shunning by NFL teams for his protest against police brutality, a number of artists turned down the offer of playing the half-time show in solidarity with Kaepernick.
Maroon 5 were belatedly chosen and joined by rappers Travis Scott and Big Boi.
While an impressive 99 million viewers tuned into the broadcast, the show was panned for its lack of vigour.
Its most animated moment was the guest appearance of television character SpongeBob Square Pants.
2021: The Weeknd
Half-time verdict: Hit
The Weeknd was cool and enigmatic in a dazzling show that reportedly cost more than $7 million to produce.
With a mammoth backdrop of a neon-lit city skyline and a choir of singers donning what looked like Robocop masks.
Featuring various stages, the singer, in a trademark sequinned red jacket, also sang and danced on the grass among a cast of hundreds of masked doppelgangers.
The production was nothing short of impressive, and was lavish, yet still in line with The Weeknd’s dystopian visual style.
2022: Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar
Half-time verdict: Hit
Hip-hop was finally acknowledged as the dominant music genre that it is in this blazing performance.
Headlined by Dr Dre, the set featured a smattering of the hits he produced for others — many of whom repaying the favour by taking the stage to perform them.
These included a roll call of hip-hop superstars such as Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J Blige, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar. Before the show, Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg said that the NFL should have embraced rap years ago and that they hoped to open doors for more hip-hop artists.
Judging by the success of this Grammy Award-winning performance, the future looks bright for the genre.
2023: Rihanna
Half-time verdict: Miss
When Rihanna was announced as the the Super Bowl half-time show performer in 2023, questions swirled regarding what it it meant.
Was she finally, after seven years of no live performances, making a comeback with a new tour, single or album?
As it turned out, her performance was merely a stopgap, as she had bigger things in her calendar. Namely, the arrival of her second baby, which she proudly announced when hitting the stage in a red jumpsuit, clearly showcasing a small baby bump.
Headlines aside, Rihanna's show lacked a basic theme and was essentially a 15-minute mega-mix of her greatest hits. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with that. Hearing them back to back, from the slinky reggae and R&B fusion of Rude Boy to the EDM euphoria of We Found Love and Only Girl (In the World), you realise how ubiquitous her presence was on the charts.
However, the rich material did not translate into the dynamic production expected on such an occasion. Surrounded by a phalanx of white-hooded dancers, Rihanna performed on a series of undulating stages that didn’t quite add anything visually.
The choreography was tight and frenetic, as expected, but there was no method to the mayhem. It was slick and professional, but felt like a performance more suited for an awards show than the Super Bowl.
2024: Usher
Half-time verdict: Hit
Usher turned back the years at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas with a performance reminding fans and the industry of his enduring pulling power.
Using the occasion to celebrate the 20th anniversary of his best-selling album Confessions, the RnB singer’s 15-minute set acted as a virtual mixtape of Usher's prowess, beginning with the blazing Caught Up and U Don’t Have to Call before breaking into a snippet of Superstar and Love in this Club.
Joined by a phalanx of dancers, Usher was front and centre throughout the performance, with his silky croon sounding strong and assured.
The success of the performance helped reboot his career, taking him out of Las Vegas residencies and back to selling out arenas internationally, including headlining last year’s Club Social festival in Abu Dhabi.
2025: Kendrick Lamar
Half-time verdict: Hit
Talk about seizing the moment – the NFL Super Bowl half-time show has rarely captured the zeitgeist as precisely as it did last year with headliner Kendrick Lamar.
Coming on the back of his feud with Drake, resulting in one of the genre's most heated rap battles, Lamar swaggered into the New Orleans Caesars Superdome to showcase an artist completely in command of his craft. What followed was a boisterous 13-minute set that was more forward-thinking than a retread of past hits.
Wearing a varsity sports jacket and gloves, Lamar tore through tracks from his latest album, GNX, including Squabble Up and the live debut of Luther, which won Record of the Year at the Grammy Awards this month.
Performing the Drake-baiting Not Like Us was not only the biggest talking point of the night, but it also arrived towards the end of the show when one of the dancers unfurled a banner combining the flags of Palestine and Sudan during the performance.
Both organisers, the NFL and Roc Nation, went on to issue statements confirming that the dancer was part of the show's cast, that the incident was not part of the production, and that the individual had been removed from the field.
