Cirque du Soleil, the Montreal-based troupe with the ethereal costumes and eye-popping stunts, will get things started with the pregame show. Given that the Super Bowl is family fare, we won’t be getting any of the erotic displays they put on in Las Vegas (bummer). This will be much more wholesome. Brazilian artist Romero Britto is collaborating on the costumes and visuals, which means lots of stripes and polka dots and blindingly bright colors. DJ Louie Vega is supplying the musical score—a fusion, he says, of “African, Caribbean, Brazilian—even marching bands.”
At the press conference, a Cirque rep handed out a list of performers. There will be six stilt walkers, 29 Cirque du Soleil artists, 48 salsa dancers and—the ones I find most intriguing—54 “extreme cheerleaders.” The set will be populated by 30-foot-long alligators, 15-foot-tall “bikini couples” (no idea what those are) and giant flamingos ridden by guys in referee outfits. A pair of these flamingos actually paraded into the press conference and ambled up on stage. It was all very charming until they began pecking at some of the presenters’ heads and nearly strangling them with their long flamingo necks. “OK, thank you,” said Brian McCarthy, the humorless NFL rep.
Next up was Billy Joel, who will be singing the national anthem. Joel looked like he’d rather have been in a Humvee heading into downtown Baghdad than hanging with us journalists. He clearly found every question asinine and dispatched each one of them with extreme efficiency. A few sample exchanges:
Q: Do you have the same feeling going in to sing the national anthem that the players do going in to Super Sunday?
Billy Joel: I don’t know. I never played on Super Sunday.
Q: Who do you think is going to win?
I have no idea.
Q: [From a British reporter] What do you say to your fans in the U.K.?
I’m not really a message guy.
Q: How does it feel to sing the national anthem twice? (He sang it in 1989, too.)
I don’t know. I haven’t done it yet.
Q: Is there a new album in the works?
There is no new album. If I feel like writing an album, I’ll write an album. Today, I don’t feel like writing one.
Q: [From a Chicago radio reporter] Can I ask you to sing a few bars of a Chicago song?
Yeah.
Q: Will you?
Nah. I’m not here to entertain.
Evidently not.
But the next guy definitely came to entertain. Once Joel marched off, stage hands cleared away the backdrop to reveal a mini-stage set up with drums, keyboards and mikes. In strode Prince, who will be performing at halftime on Sunday, with seven backup singers and musicians. He was wearing a bright orange suit, sporting a small soul patch and showing a lot of chest. “Contrary to rumor,” he said at the mike, “I would like to take a few questions.” There was a long pause. Then the guy next to me yelled out, “How do you feel about performing in the Super B…?” Before the reporter could finish, Prince let out a screech on his guitar and began rocking the house.
He performed “Johnny B Good,” “Anotherloverholenyohead” and “Get on the Boat.” The audience was smitten, swaying and singing along. “Feel free to get up if you want to,” Prince told the audience before playing the last song. Most got up and grooved, if a bit rhythmlessly. At the end, the crowd cheered wildly. “See you at the Super Bowl,” Prince said before strutting off stage. “Peace.”
