Super Bowl XXVII: The 1993 Halftime Show That Changed the Format

For most of its history, the Super Bowl halftime show featured university marching bands, drill teams and themed productions. In 1992 the Fox network counter-programmed the halftime break with a live episode of the sketch show In Living Color, and a noticeable number of viewers switched channels. The NFL wanted a performer big enough to keep the audience watching.

Jackson, in the middle of the Dangerous World Tour, agreed to perform. Accounts of the arrangement say he did not take a performance fee, and that the NFL and its partners supported his Heal the World Foundation as part of the agreement.

The performance began with Jackson appearing to launch up through the stage (body doubles popped up at the edges of the big screens first), then standing motionless for more than a minute while the crowd at the Rose Bowl screamed. Only after that long pause did he turn his head and begin Jam.

The stillness was a deliberate piece of showmanship. On a stage in the middle of a stadium, with a TV audience of tens of millions, the most striking thing a performer can do is nothing at all. It told everyone watching that the rest of the show would be on his terms.

After Jam he performed Billie Jean, including the moonwalk, and Black or White. Then the tone changed. A short film showed Jackson's humanitarian work, and he returned to lead a large children's choir in We Are the World and Heal the World, while audience members in the stands held up cards to form images across the stadium.

The whole performance lasted around 12 to 13 minutes. It combined his two public identities at the time: the dance-driven entertainer of Thriller and Bad, and the message-driven artist of Dangerous.

Super Bowl XXVII was one of the most-watched broadcasts in US television history at the time, and the halftime show kept viewers watching instead of switching away. Dangerous, which had been released more than a year earlier, climbed back up the album chart in the weeks that followed.

The more lasting effect was on the halftime show itself. After 1993 the NFL increasingly booked major stars, and the slot became one of the most prestigious performances in music. Many later headliners have referred back to Jackson's performance, and the long opening pause has been imitated more than once.

The 1993 halftime show is worth watching in full rather than in clips. It is less about individual moves than about control of time and scale: making a stadium feel like a theatre and then making a theatre feel like a church. It is also the best single document of the Dangerous-era Jackson, which is why it features in our Dangerous era guide.