The worst kept secret in music right now is Madonna's performance at the Super Bowl XLVI halftime show. The NFL still hasn't confirmed the news -- the league customarily waits until the Thanksgiving games to announce the Super Bowl performers -- and the Material Girl herself hasn't commented on the report. Yet, that's not stopping details about Madonna's halftime extravaganza from reaching the public. According to Just Jared, the singer will perform "Give Me All Your Love," a single from her upcoming 12th album, at the February 5th game.
The song is described as "catchy," the most important of adjectives where singles are concerned. Martin Solveig, the French DJ responsible for that unavoidable "Hello" song, produced "Give Me All Your Love." But the best news: M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj will reportedly appear on the track, and they'll also be at the Super Bowl when Madonna performs the song. Minaj and M.I.A., the most prestigious female rappers in music right now, previously collaborated with each other on a remix of M.I.A.'s "Teqkilla." As for the Super Bowl performance, Just Jared writes that it will feature "cheerleading tumbles, dances, and jumps," which is about the vaguest description ever typed. "Cheerleading tumbles" during a football halftime show, and a Madonna performance with "dancing"? No one saw that coming!
The one downside: Instead of performing "Cherish" or "Live to Tell" or "Open Your Heart" or any other vintage Madonna song that fans love, the Material Girl will spend about a quarter of her performance showcasing her new stuff. That's not to say that "Give Me All Your Love" is a weak song -- it could be the next "Into the Groove" for all we know -- but when Bruce Springsteen performed at the Super Bowl in 2009, his then-new track "Working on a Dream" was the low point of the halftime.
It's hard to fight the urge to promote your new music with a record-breaking TV audience watching, but the first rule of Super Bowl performances should be "Play the music that got you to the 50-yard line in the first place," since the masses want stuff they recognize, not new tunes. (Though, compared to last year's Black Eyed Peas debacle, Madonna can sit silently on the 50-yard line for 15 minutes and it would be an improvement.) On the bright side, the performance will introduce hundreds of millions of viewers to the rapping crayon boxes called M.I.A. and Minaj.
[Photo: Jon Furniss/WireImage.com]