Hi, I’m Halle Isaak! I’ve grown up watching football and the Superbowl every year, therefore I’ve seen my fair share of Superbowl performances. After watching the Weeknd this past weekend, we were inspired to rank all of our favorites from the past eleven years. It was very difficult to decide just from these recent shows, but I was able to narrow it down to these top five plus an honorable mention!

Honorable Mention: The Weeknd – Superbowl LV (2021)

Oh, Superbowl LV. The year of COVID, a game that became a major blowout, with the Weeknd headlining the halftime show. Some weren’t fans of this show, but to me, for what he was allowed to do while following COVID guidelines, I thought his performance was very well put together. I will say, the camera work in the gold hallways was not my favorite part of it all, but the end with all the dancers and him dancing on the field to Blinding Lights was spectacular to watch, especially when you could feel all the joy that The Weeknd displayed.

5. Coldplay, Beyoncé, and Bruno Mars – Superbowl 50 (2016)

The start of the show was not my favorite despite knowing all of the songs that Coldplay played. It did lack a bit of energy at the start, but once Bruno Mars came in to perform Uptown Funk, the energy picked up and stayed as Beyonce came in. Let’s just say the most impressive part of the whole show was Beyonce and her dancers managing to dance on a football field. In heels.

4. Lady Gaga – Superbowl LI (2017)

Lady Gaga is one of those performers that you know won’t ever disappoint, and she surely didn’t disappoint in 2017. Probably the most iconic part of this performance was her just jumping off the roof and flying into the stadium. Iconic. This technically advanced performance really added that special effect that made it visually appealing to watch the entire time.

3. Katy Perry – Superbowl XLIX (2015)

Katy Perry is another one of those performers who just always puts on a spectacular show. Coming in on a giant mechanical lion started the show off with a bang. One thing that stuck out to me with Katy is her costume changes. Not many headliners will do a costume change due to how short the performance is, but Katy decided to have four different outfits in a 12 minute set. The entire performance was one to be remembered. Especially left shark.

2. Bruno Mars – Superbowl XLVIII (2014)

Bruno Mars is hands down one of my favorite performers I will ever watch. The start with the children’s choir singing Billionaire and the end with Bruno singing a special rendition of Just the Way You Are was both a perfect start and end to an almost perfect performance. The only reason this isn’t my all time favorite is because of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. To me, it just didn’t seem like they fit together all that well, but Bruno’s solo performance makes up for it.

1. Beyoncé – Superbowl XLVII (2013)

Beyonce is just so hard to compete with. Her dancing with her backup dancers all in sync while still managing to sing all of the songs will forever amaze me. Not to mention the amount of female empowerment that you feel while watching that performance is insane. I think it was even more special that her Destiny’s Child bandmates were able to join her on stage to sing Single Ladies.