Two weeks ago, when we initially reported that Shakira was possibly headlining the 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show, an eager Twitter commenter wrote, “Denle ese halftime a J.Lo.” Reader, they called it into existence. And while we know this will raise many’s eyebrows, we will celebrate that we were right.
In an interesting turn of events, likely a part of mission Let’s Try and Save Both Our Asses and This Show on behalf of the NFL (which as you might remember has been dealing with quite a bit of backlash), Shakira and Jennifer Lopez have both been tapped to take center stage. This will be the first time two Latinas headline the halftime show. Gloria Estefan, Arturo Sandoval and Christina Aguilera are amongst the other Latinxs who have performed.
It’s also our first hint at the direction the National Football League is going in after a tumultuous (to say the least) last two years of being on the wrong side of the fence, bringing on Jay Z as a partner and a continued decline in viewership. Just last year, they boasted their lowest ratings, with an assist from Maroon 5 who (bless their hearts) gave a rather lackluster performance. So far, the most-watched halftime show is Katy Perry’s 2015 show, followed by Lady Gaga’s 2017 show.
The news was announced as most things are nowadays when you have a far-reaching online presence. First, J.Lo and Shakira both shared cropped images of the other featuring an armlet with a glistening Pepsi symbol accompanied by cryptic captions that read, “This is happening.” It took a moment to connect the dots, and by the time you figured it out, they’d already sought to make the whole thing official.
Shakira said, “It doesn’t get any bigger than this!” And Ramona said, “Going to set the world on [fire].” Though, I fully intend on skipping out – not trying to see grown men possibly cause permanent damage to their brains or supporting a league that turned its back on Colin Kaepernick for protesting police brutality and racial injustice – this is certainly one way to get our attention.