The couple received some criticism after TMZ posted video showing them and their 8-year-old daughter Blue Ivy sitting while Demi Lovato performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" at Super Bowl LIV.
According to the mogul, the whole thing "was not premeditated at all," but was instead a case of him doing his job given that his Roc Nation corporation has a partnership with the NFL which includes producing the Super Bowl halftime show and other major performances.
He said his wife, who was a featured performer at the Super Bowl in 2013 and 2016, was offering him some insight about the experience and they were seated from the time Yolanda Adams sang "America the Beautiful" before Lovato sang the National Anthem.
"So, we get there, and we immediately jump into artist mode," he said. "So, I'm looking at the show. 'Did our mic start? Was it too low to start?' ... 'Is it too many speakers on the floor?'"
"So, the whole time we're sitting there and we're talking about the performance," he added.
He said he would never put his young daughter in the position of being part of a protest.
As the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs battled it out on the field, all eyes were on Jennifer Lopez and Shakira during the Pepsi halftime show for Super Bowl LIV. The Latin sensations wowed crowds with more backup dancers than ever seen before. Their combined 14-minute high energy performance would regularly earn them millions. The surprising part is that neither Shakira nor Lopez received any money for appearing at the biggest concert of 2020.
Super Bowl 2020 had an iconic halftime performance
Known worldwide, the international superstars saluted their Latin heritage while paying homage to their successful careers.
Shakira had everyone at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on their feet as she opened the show with her top hit, “She Wolf.” Fireworks exploded as she belted out an electric guitar solo to her 2014 anthem, “Empire.” Shakira shook her way across the stage, collaborating with rapper Bad Bunny, before bursting into fan-favorite, “Hips Don’t Lie.”
At the end of her dynamic set, Lopez took the stage, much to the delight of the crowd, opening with her smash hit, “Jenny From The Block.” She performed a medley of her top songs, one hit after the other, wearing Vegas-style costuming and even bringing out her Hustlers stripper pole.
Her daughter, Emme, joined her on stage for a rousing rendition of “Let’s Get Loud.” This was the first time two women shared the stage for the Super Bowl Halftime Show, and it was the first all Latin musical performance. Fans in Miami loved every minute of it.
Why the NFL doesn’t pay half-time performers
The NFL has a long-standing policy of not paying a performance fee to artists that appear during halftime of the Super Bowl. They do, however, cover all performance-related production expenses.
According to the Wall Street Journal, previous half-time shows have cost the NFL more than $10 million for a show that lasts less than 15 minutes. This includes elaborate lighting, stage setup, costume changes, pyrotechnics, production crew, union dues, and travel.
The NFL has considered charging acts for the opportunity to perform, but as of yet, that has not come to fruition.
Why performers agree to not getting paid
Shakira and Jennifer Lopez | Kevin Mazur/WireImage
Performers put in extensive rehearsing for the opportunity to appear at the Super Bowl. Forbes reported that the halftime show “is the single biggest promotional vehicle for a music star on the planet.”
Artists forgo payment in exchange for the publicity. The Super Bowl has a televised audience of over 100 million people. There is no other outlet that can attract so many viewers, and the performers know it.
Previous halftime performers have seen huge spikes in their sales following the Super Bowl.
In 2018, Justin Timberlake saw a 214% increase in Spotify streams within one hour of the conclusion of his Super Bowl halftime performance. The previous year, Lady Gaga jumped 60 spots on the Billboard charts to No. 2, within just a week of performing at halftime. After Beyonce performed in 2013, she saw an increase in concert ticket sales and a 100% increase in online searches.
Maroon 5 and Travis Scott performed during the halftime show in 2019. Since then, Maroon 5 has increased its per-city tour income from $200,000 to $1.7 million. Scott doubled his income since performing and is now earning close to $1 million for every stop on his current tour. He tripled his 2018 income, bringing in $58 million last year.
After Katy Perry performed in 2015, her career skyrocketed with countless opportunities for movie, television, and endorsement deals.
Did Jennifer Lopez and Shakira see an increase in sales?
It looks like Lopez and Shakira made a good decision to perform at the Super Bowl. According to Nielsen Music, sales of the songs performed during the halftime performance experienced an astonishing 1,013% increase. There was a reported 16,000 digital downloads on Sunday, with Shakira receiving the biggest surge on Spotify, with more than a 2,135% jump for her hit single: “Empire.”
In Lopez’s case, she also jumpstarted her daughter’s career by introducing her to the world on a very public platform.
Peter Weber’s season of The Bachelor has been quite the ride — pun intended. Every week, the ABC reality series shows up with a new villain, giving viewers whiplash in regards to which castmates are worth rooting for. But then in the fifth episode, fans re-discovered Kelley Flanagan, the contestant in Weber’s season who called out the bachelor for “rewarding the drama” during their one-on-one date in Costa Rica. And although some fans thought Weber didn’t appreciate Kelley’s honesty, it seems he loved what the attorney had to say after re-watching the episode.
What happened between Kelley Flanagan and Peter Weber during their one-on-one in ‘The Bachelor’?
Sandwiched between the drama with other contestants, The Bachelor highlighted a one-on-one date between Kelley and Pilot Pete. First, the couple get in touch with their spiritual side. Then at the dinner portion of the date, Weber and Kelley discuss their current relationship.
At the start of their conversation, Weber expresses his excitement over their meeting and initial spark. However, Weber wonders why they went from a “high” that was “constantly climbing” to a “lull.” Kelley agrees and she gets real with the bachelor.
“I kept wanting to say, yes I want to progress this,” Kelley says. “But I’ve had zero opportunity to progress it.”
Weber refutes Kelley’s experience. “I feel like you’ve have a complacency because you feel like we have a strong connection from the beginning,” he says. “This is a unique situation.”
Nevertheless, Kelley remains firm. The 27-year-old shares she “had a hard time figuring it out from the get-go.” However, she finally found her way and is trying to open up. This doesn’t seem to satisfy Weber and he presses her on what changed.
Kelley Flanagan and Peter Weber on ‘The Bachelor’ | ABC/Francisco Roman
“Literally, I was just sitting in Cleveland and I said to myself, ‘What am I doing? You could be having so much fun with Peter and this situation. Just be you and have fun with it,’” Kelley says.
Weber then wants to confirm Kelley is there for him. “It can be fun, but I’m not looking for fun,” he says. “I’m looking for someone to spend the rest of my life with. I need to know that you are on the same level, on the same page.”
In response, Kelley reveals she wonders whether Weber is on the same level. She confirms she is ready for the next step — marriage. However, she questions whether Weber is “ready for a wife.” And when Weber asks why, Kelley lays it out.
“Rewarding the drama,” she says. “That just kind of irked me. I was like, ‘Why is he rewarding this drama?’ No person who should be in that stage [of life] would want to even put up with that. So I was just like, ‘Why does he keep rewarding this? He should just cut it in the butt and be done with it.’”
Madison Prewett, Sydney Hightower, Kelley Flanagan, Natasha Parker, Peter Weber, Kelsey Weier, Mykenna Dorn, Tammy Ly, and Victoria Paul on ‘The Bachelor’ | ABC/Francisco Roman
Meanwhile, Weber explains himself, revealing he wanted to feel 100 percent confident in his decisions. He also asks Kelley what she wants out of The Bachelor.
“At the end of it — if our relationship is strong enough — I could for sure be like engaged,” Kelley says. “The reason I say ‘like engaged’ is because right now, I clearly know our relationship isn’t in the place where I would be comfortable with that right now. I don’t necessarily know how the process goes from here.”
She continues: “I want someone to be my other half. I want to be with someone and we’re a power couple. I want someone to challenge me on a day-to-day basis, and me challenge them, learn from them, and vice versa.”
Peter gives her a smile. Reassured, he gives her the one-on-one date rose.
Peter Weber explains his one-on-one date with Kelley Flanagan on ‘The Bachelor’
On Feb. 4, Weber stopped by BUILD Series and opened up about his season of The Bachelor. Midway through the interview, the Delta pilot was asked why he doubted Kelley’s intentions during their one-on-one date.
“So I met Kelley about a month before filming,” Weber said. “She was very hesitant of even wanting to go on then. She didn’t know if this whole process would work for her, it would be suited for her personality. So I knew the whole time that she was never in her comfort zone.”
He continued: “I guess … there were a lot of moments up to that point — because it took us a while to have our one-on-one — I felt very strongly about her for a while. I’d been waiting a while to have that with her. But there are moments where she could’ve been trying a little harder.”
Weber then noted “trying” doesn’t necessarily mean being involved with the drama. “I know [Kelley’s] not a dramatic person,” Weber said. “She doesn’t want to get involved with all that stuff. But she could have tried to stick out a little bit more. And she acknowledged it.”
Now, Weber’s frustrations with Kelley may make more sense after hearing his take on the drama within The Bachelor mansion. When speaking with Good Morning America on Feb. 4, the 28-year-old seemed to believe all the animosity among the women meant they were more passionate about being with him.
“Obviously, you don’t like to see that as you’re going through the whole experience, but I kept looking back on it. That drama kind of showed that this is working,” Weber said. “And if all the women were getting along super well, they probably wouldn’t have been super into me. If it was too easy, that wouldn’t have been a good thing.”
But the drama aside, Kelley’s honesty is exactly what makes her a frontrunner on Weber’s season of The Bachelor. And in the interview with BUILD Series, Weber noted that he loved Kelley for calling him out on their one-on-one date so directly.
“What I love about Kelley is, like, I watched that back and her calling me out and stuff. That’s actually a quality that I really love about Kelley. She’s so real,” Weber said. “That’s definitely something that I’m looking for in my person one day. So I respect the hell out of her.”
At a Columbia University Q&A as part of a lecture series on Tuesday night, a moderator asked the rapper — who co-produced the entertainment at this year’s Super Bowl — whether sitting when Demi Lovato sang the National Anthem was “meant to convey a signal?”
“It actually wasn’t — sorry,” said the music mogul, 50. He said that if he’d wanted to make a political statement, “I’d tell you … I’d say, ‘Yes, that’s what I’ve done.’ I think people know that about me.”
But he explained, “What happened was, we got there, we were sitting, and now the show’s about to start. My wife was with me and so she says to me, ‘I know this feeling right here.’ Like, she’s super-nervous because she’s performed at Super Bowls before. I haven’t,” he said to laughs from the audience. “So we get there and we immediately jump into artist mode … now I’m really just looking at the show. Did the mic start? Was it too low to start? … I had to explain to them [that] as an artist, if you don’t feel the music, you can’t really reach that level.”
He added that, “So the whole time we’re sitting there, we’re talking about the performance, and then right after that, Demi [Lovato] comes out and we’re talking about how beautiful she looked, and how she sounds and what she’s going through, and her life — for her to be on the stage, we were so proud of her. And then it finished and then my phone rang. And it was like, ‘You know you didn’t …’ I’m like, ‘What?'”
He said that the couple wouldn’t have made such a plan anyway with daughter Blue Ivy, 8, there. “Blue [Ivy] was right next to us, we wouldn’t do that to Blue and put her in that position. And if anyone who knows Blue … If we told her we were going to do something like that, you would have seen her attacking me 100 times. She’s the kid that gets in the car and closes the door and says, ‘Are we there yet, daddy?’ So she would say, ‘What time? Are we doing it? Are we doing it now? It’s 7:05, daddy … It’s 7:06.'”
The rapper said, “I didn’t have to make a silent protest … If you look at the stage and the artists that we chose — Colombian [Shakira] and Puerto Rican J.Lo — we were making the loudest statement … And we had … a commercial running [on] social injustice during the Super Bowl … Given the context, I didn’t have to make a silent protest.”
The NFL ran an ad during the game showing Cardinals player Anquan Boldin talking about a cousin who was killed by a police officer in 2015.
TMZ posted video on Sunday of the celebrity couple sitting along with their daughter at Hard Rock Stadium at the game.
This year’s tremendous Super Bowl halftime show featuring Jennifer Lopez and Shakira has barely cooled off and Twitter is already talking about who they want – and don’t want – for next year’s show.
Pepsi Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show | Kevin Winter/Getty Images
The results are pretty surprising.
The tweets have spoken, and here’s what they had to say.
This year’s Super Bowl halftime show was historic
Shakira spoke with The Guardian in November explaining why her halftime show with Jennifer Lopez was so meaningful for the country at this time.
“Well, you know, I think it’s the right thing to do for the Latino community because we’ve also been through so much . . . It’s an opportunity to celebrate our culture, you know?”
“Latinos are our people … They come seeking an opportunity to build a better life for themselves and for their children, which is what the U.S. has always prided itself on representing: opportunities.”
“I’m so honored to be taking on one of the world’s biggest stages in the company of a fellow female artist to represent Latinos and Latinas from the U.S. and all over the world . . .!”
The top-ranked halftime show of all time
Of course, this one is entirely dependent on who is being asked. For some, the best is Prince’s performance in 2007, complemented by a driving rain that would have been perfect if it had been purple.
U2 just months after 9/11/01 at 2002 Super Bowl XXXVI displaying names of victims | Al Bello/Getty Images
For Rolling Stone magazine, the best show was U2’s performance in 2002. They wrote at that time, “Just a few months after 9/11, U2 made this a tribute to the victims. After kicking off with Beautiful Day, they played the elegiac MLK while scrolling the names of the dead on a giant screen, an unforgettable sight, building up to Where the Streets Have No Name. . . . “
“Only U2 could have made this so grandiose, yet so emotionally direct. Grown men wept buckets.”
Tweeters say they kind of do – and don’t – want this headliner at the Super Bowl
Billboard asked Twitter, “Who would you like to see perform at next year’s #SuperBowl?” As we all know, if you’re going to ask Twitter that kind of a question, don’t be surprised at the answers.
The tweets came fast and furious.
“Billie [Eilish] should do the anthem. And ari [Ariana Grande] must perform,” “Rihanna,” “Britney Spears,” “GOT7,” “I would love to see Beyonce, Shakira, and Bruno Mars all together on one stage they would rock it!”
But . . . they also don’t! Endearingly, out of a sense of protection for their favorite band, BTS fans don’t want the band at the Super Bowl to spare them from negativity.
One person said, “I will do BTS a huge favor and NOT vote for them . . . A massive crowd of drunk, xenophobic bigots who aren’t afraid to vocalize their prejudices is not something I want to subject my faves to.”
Another echoed that sentiment saying, “I don’t know if I want my men in this kind of show… @BTS_twt deserves better actually.”
Finally, a fan said it all, “I would love to see all eyes on BTS but I doubt sports-minded people would see what #BTSARMY see in the amazing talents of 7 men who dance and sing while looking like they just stepped out of a GQ magazine.”
We’ll just have to wait about 360 days to find out who ends up on the next Super Bowl halftime show stage!
Iowa Democratic Party says delayed caucus results expected 'later today'
After a long and wild day, the results of the Iowa Democratic caucuses were delayed Monday night, with the state party citing "inconsistencies" in the results being reported from precincts. It also blamed the delay on the party reporting three sets of data for the first time. Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) Chair Troy Price told reporters early Tuesday that the IDP was manually verifying all precinct results and that, "We expect to have numbers to report later today." Price repeated the party's early assertion that the technical glitch with the system "is a reporting issue not a hack or an intrusion." Nonetheless, the glitch led to a strange evening which included candidates giving late speeches before jetting off to New Hampshire, unsure where they finished in the state's race. President Donald Trump weighed in, calling it the "sloppiest train wreck in history." Price's comments followed criticism from some campaigns, notably former Vice President Joe Biden's who called the reporting problems "acute failures."
From the Des Moines Register: Reporting delays, app glitches push back Democratic results in Iowa
Recent election history: When have past Iowa caucus results come out?
Too close to call: Coin toss gives Klobuchar the edge over Warren at one caucus site
More from Iowa: The caucus site where a burger costs less than a tin of chewing tobacco
Prefer to listen? Check out the 5 things podcast below and subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts:
President Trump's State of the Union: An agenda for 2020
Sure, the Senate is holding an impeachment trial, but White House officials say President Donald Trump will seek to strike an upbeat tone when he delivers his State of the Union before a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night (9 p.m. EST). Trump has dubbed the annual address speech, "the Great American Comeback." "We’re going to talk about the achievements that we’ve made," he told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a Super Bowl Sunday interview. Trump plans to renew a call for tax breaks designed to provide more scholarships for students to attend private schools, two sources familiar with the address told USA TODAY. The president's emphasis on school choice – a popular issue with his core supporters – will be part of a speech in which the president is also likely to discuss the economy and trade, working families, health care, immigration and national security.
Impeachment trial updates: GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she 'cannot vote to convict' Trump
New poll: Voters who 'strongly' approve of Trump at new high as impeachment nears end
The president talks to Hannity: In Super Bowl interview, the president predicts re-election
Winter weather returns: Storm wallops West, heads to Central, Eastern US
A potent winter storm that dumped heavy snow on the Rockies Monday will crawl toward the central and eastern U.S. the rest of the week, forecasters say. After moving away from the Rockies on Tuesday, the storm will produce a band of snow and ice from the southern Plains to the interior Northeast over the next few days, the National Weather Service said. In the South, heavy rainfall, localized flooding and severe thunderstorms are forecast Tuesday through Thursday. "Rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches are forecast in a swath through Arkansas, the boot heel of Missouri, and into Kentucky and the Tennessee Valley through Wednesday evening," the weather service said. "There is some potential for flash flooding where heavy rainfall occurs in these areas." Also, due to 2020's wet start, rainfall rates will not need to be exceptionally high to produce a flash flood risk, AccuWeather warned.
More extreme weather: Strong California winds lead to plane running into trash bin, blowing out two tires at LAX
Groundhog Day 2020 results: No shadow! Phil predicts early spring is coming
Heat goes on: New global temperature record is 'likely' within the next five years, report says
Weinstein accuser expected to return to stand after sobbing in court
Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's sex-crimes trial will continue Tuesday as defense lawyers will resume their cross-examination of accuser Jessica Mann after she left the courtroom sobbing inconsolably Monday afternoon. Mann, 34, is a key accuser in the case as Weinstein, 67, is charged with raping her in a New York City hotel room in 2013, along with sexually assaulting another woman, Miriam "Mimi" Haleyi, in 2006. On Monday, one of Weinstein's lawyers, Donna Rotunno, repeatedly asked Mann, a former actress, why she continued sending friendly, seemingly loving emails to the ex-producer, even after he allegedly raped her. Her testimony took an emotional turn, when Rotunno asked Mann to read a spring 2014 email to her boyfriend at the time. In the email, she described a "controlling" relationship with Weinstein, calling him a father figure to her. She also wrote that Weinstein "validated me in ways my parents never did."
More from the trial: Roommate backs Haleyi's accusation, says 'it sounded like rape'
Rosie Perez testifies at Weinstein's trial: Annabella Sciorra said 'I think it was rape'
The Backstory: The Harvey Weinstein story is about more than Harvey Weinstein
Jessica Simpson's life is an 'Open Book' in new memoir
Jessica Simpson reveals she was sexually abused as a child and later overcame alcohol and drug addictions in "Open Book," her new memoir out Tuesday. The pop-star-turned entrepreneur, 39, writes that the abuse began at a family friend's house when she was 6. She didn't tell her parents until she was 12. "I was the victim but somehow I felt in the wrong," she writes. The abuse coupled with stress over her career led her to become dependent on alcohol and drugs. She got sober in 2017 with the help of therapy. "Giving up the alcohol was easy," she wrote. "I was mad at that bottle. At how it allowed me to stay complacent and numb."
Simpson on 'Today': 'I didn't recognize myself'
Diane Keaton gets candid about mental illness in memoir 'Brother & Sister'
