On January 31, 1993, at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Michael Jackson performed the halftime show of Super Bowl XXVII between the Dallas Cowboys and the Buffalo Bills. It was the first Super Bowl halftime headlined by a single global pop star. Before 1993, the halftime slot had been reserved for marching bands, drill teams, and light-entertainment revues designed to hold television viewers between quarters.
The NFL had a problem in 1992. Halftime ratings were falling every year as viewers switched to competing programming — Fox had famously counter-programmed the 1992 halftime with a live episode of In Living Color, and roughly 22 million people had changed the channel. The league made a strategic decision to book a pop star large enough to hold the audience in place. There was really only one name on the shortlist.
Michael performed for roughly 13 minutes. He opened with a full 90 seconds of complete stillness on top of the stadium's video-board tower, then jumped to the stage below. The set list was Jam, Billie Jean, Black or White, Heal the World and We Are the World, with a 3,500-child choir joining him on the field for the closing numbers. Estimated global audience: roughly 133 million people.
For the first time in Super Bowl history, halftime ratings went up rather than down. The subsequent broadcast held more viewers into the second half than the first. The NFL and its television partners immediately understood what had happened, and the format changed permanently. Every halftime since — Diana Ross in 1996, U2 in 2002, Prince in 2007, Beyoncé in 2013, Rihanna in 2023 — descends directly from what Michael proved was possible in Pasadena.
Michael did not accept a fee for the performance. In exchange, the NFL made a substantial donation to his Heal the World Foundation and gave him control of the production, the set list, and the choreography. That kind of creative autonomy is now the standard demand of every halftime headliner. It did not exist before January 31, 1993.