Maroon 5 and Travis Scott have been billed for the legendary half-time entertainment for the Super Bowl 2019. But there have been calls for the artists to withdraw from the slot amid questions about NFL players’ right to protest. It comes after quarterback Colin Kaepernick instigated a protest movement dubbed “taking the knee” to raise awareness of institutional racism and brutality within the US police.
The Super Bowl is enjoyed by millions around the globe every year.
The world-famous NFL showdown kicks off tonight (Sunday, February 3) at 11.30pm GMT and will see LA Rams take on The New England Patriots.
The sporting event’s half-time entertainment slot draws in a massive audience of up to 100 million people from across the planet.
Previous acts have gone down in the annals of pop music history, with performances from stars such as Prince and Michael Jackson still spoken about years later.
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It therefore comprises one of the most sought-after gigs a performing artist could hope to land.
But pop band Maroon 5 and rapper Travis Scott have come under fire for accepting the half-time slot this year after other prominent artists boycotted the coveted show.
Cardi B and Rihanna are just two performers who reportedly rejected the NFL’s offer to perform in Atlanta tonight.
After they accepted to play the show, Maroon 5 were met with a petition asking them to pull out.
At the time of writing the Change.org petition had garnered 114 thousand signatures.
The controversy surrounding the show is linked to American Football players engaging in a practice known as “taking the knee”.
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The protest movement was first adopted by San Francisco 49ers player Colin Kaepernick who began kneeling during the US national anthem, which is always played before Football games in the US.
The quarterback was protesting against police brutality towards African-Americans.
But many Americans, including US President Donald Trump, were not supportive of the protest, deeming it “unpatriotic”.
Last year, the NFL announced teams would be fined if players knelt during the anthem.
Kaepernick hasn’t played in the NFL since 2016 – no club has signed him and the protests have largely disappeared.
The hostile atmosphere around “taking the knee” has meant some performing artists refused to play during the Super Bowl’s half-time show.
Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine said the band had expected the controversy, and had been doing “a lot of looking inward”.
He said: “I’ve never been more excited in my entire life to present this to the people because I believe that it’s truly a reflection of all of us.”
Ahead of the performance, a planned press conference was cancelled by the NFL, who said they wanted to “let the show do the talking”.
In a statement, they said: “Maroon 5 have been working hard on a Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show that will meet and exceed the standards of this event.
“As it is about music, the artists will let their show do the talking as they prepare to take to the stage this Sunday.”
Rapper Travis Scott also came under fire for choosing to accept the gig.
But industry insiders have made the case for taking the politics out of the music, with Sonny Digital, a producer from Atlanta telling the BBC: “If they want to perform at the Super Bowl, why not?
“That’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”