Our critic ranks the 5 best and 5 worst Super Bowl halftime shows

From watercoolers to the White House, everyone wants to talk about the Super Bowl halftime shows.

Did Justin Timberlake intentionally expose Janet Jackson’s bosom? Was it safe for Prince to perform in the pouring rain? What was Samuel L. Jackson doing in Pulitzer-winning Kendrick Lamar’s performance? Why did the NFL pick Bad Bunny for this year’s halftime?

Last year, Lamar set a record of 133.5 million people watching a Super Bowl halftime show, and Bad Bunny is likely to break that mark this year.

The global superstar is the most streamed artist in the world, a Puerto Rican who sings exclusively in Spanish, the winner this month of the Grammy for album of the year. His appearance has President Donald Trump and some conservatives voicing complaints.

Whatever you think, you’ll put the chicken fingers down and turn the television sound up, as Bruce Springsteen urged during his 2009 halftime gig, and at intermission on Sunday, Feb. 8.

Where do you think Bad Bunny’s performance will rank among the Super Bowl halftime shows?

Here is a look at the five best and five worst halftimes. We’re not counting any shows from 1967-89 because back then the NFL didn’t invest significantly in midgame entertainment, typically settling for college marching bands, the eternally happy Up with People singing group and on occasional showbiz institution like George Burns or Ella Fitzgerald.

No local bias here. If there is one 12-minute segment that captures the breadth and depth of Prince’s phenomenal stage prowess, this is it. The staging, the moves, the energy, the showmanship, the singing, the band, the arrangements, the ad libs, the guitar heroics, the range as he not only did his own “Let’s Go Crazy,” “Baby, I’m a Star” and “1999” on a glyph-shaped stage, but he did quick authoritative covers of Bob Dylan, John Fogerty, Queen and Foo Fighters. Who can forget the image of Prince closing with a triumphant “Purple Rain” in the pouring rain? Such focus and such fearlessness.

Queen Bey oozed unbridled passion, relentless urgency and fierce soulfulness as she traveled through an array of hits including the knockout “Crazy in Love” and “Baby Boy” before bringing out — surprise — Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams for a Destiny’s Child medley of “Bootylicious” and “Independent Women Part 1” as well as a hair-shaking “Single Ladies.” Beyoncé finally dialed it down for the beginning of the climactic “Halo” before she let her voice soar again. Whew! Beyoncé runs the world.

Leave it to Bono and the boys to deliver far and away the most emotional halftime ever. How would the NFL deal with the post-9/11 hangover still enveloping the world? U2 unfurled a scrim with the names of all the people who died on 9/11 as Bono sang “Where the Streets Have No Name.” Get out the hankies. At the end, the Irish singer, long an outspoken activist, pulled open his leather jacket to reveal a stars-and-stripes lining. Has there ever been a more powerful and moving segment at the Super Bowl halftime?

This is how you stage a multi-artist revue in broad daylight at halftime in an open-air L.A. stadium. The set was a long, multiroom white house, with Snoop Dog dancing on top to kick things off. Then Dr. Dre, the producer to the hip-hop stars, wandered through various rooms, with 50 Cent (singing upside down), Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige each performing. Eminem took to the rooftop to bark the aptly intense Super Bowl anthem “Lose Yourself” before he took a knee to protest in solidarity with ostracized quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Right on!

We expected an over-the-top spectacle from Gaga, but did we expect a show of patriotism with a taste of “God Bless America,” “My Country, ’Tis of Thee” and the Declaration of Independence? She went full-on Gaga, starting atop the domed stadium in Houston. Then she entered the field by descending from the rafters. Eventually she levitated and flew over the field. Gaga danced with newfound abandon, and we danced along at home as she partied with “Poker Face,” “Born This Way,” “Just Dance,” then inserted the piano ballad “Million Reasons” because, well, she’s Lady Gaga, and eventually flamed out with “Bad Romance.” Gaga, ooh, la-la, indeed.

I knew we were in for trouble when Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine asked, “Can I play guitar for you, ladies?” Cameos from rappers Travis Scott (who was bleeped half the time) and Big Boi (arriving in a fur coat) added even less than SpongeBob SquarePants (an animated segment). When Levine tossed off his tank top during “Moves Like Jagger,” I thought he will be loved … by his tattoo artist.

The role-playing comedic introductory bit with Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler and Chris Rock was a cute setup. Pairing N’ Sync with Britney Spears made sense. Mix in Aerosmith, Mary J. Blige and Nelly and, well, you do wanna miss everything. The hot mess bottomed out with a group rendition of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.” It all ended with Aerosmith’s frontman Steven Tyler kissing 19-year-old Spears, 32 years his junior. Cringe.

This was an attempt to introduce the joys of Minnesota’s cold months by presenting a winter wonderland inside the dreaded Metrodome. Imagine an Ice Capades-meets-Disney World show, with dancers, gymnasts, the University of Minnesota marching band, Frosty the Snowman, snowmobilers and skaters on three snowflake-shaped sheets of ice. Olympians Dorothy Hamill and Brian Boitano hit the ice, members of the U.S. 1980 gold medal hockey team limped across the football field, children performed a Frosty rap, and Miami’s Gloria Estefan sang a 2½-minute medley. At the end of it all, a disembodied voice declared: “Come feel the cold.” Not exactly enticing to “Explore Minnesota.”