Super bowl: Madonna vs Michael Jackson, who was the best?
Nineteen years separate these two videos and yet the means deployed for the occasion seem similar.
The setting: In 1993, Michael Jackson was in Pasadena. For this 27th edition of the Superbowl, the king of pop is playing at Rose Bowl Stadium which can hold nearly 92,000 people. In 2012, Madonna performed in front of 63,000 people in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Verdict: 29,000 more people to entertain in the stadium, Michael wins.
The setting: Michael Jackson is at the height of his glory that year. Like an icon, it can be admired for almost two minutes under the cheers of Rose Bowl Stadium. Static, Michael gazes at the game’s millions of spectators before fixing his glasses and performing a few dance steps. The year 93 derelict this legendary sporting half-time: explosions of all kinds and appearances at the four corners of the stadium brought announcements in the following year.
In 2012, Madonna, like a Roman empress, arrives on stage in a chariot pulled by more than fifty Roman centurions. For her first appearance at the Superbowl, the singer pulled out all the stops halfway between a peplum and a Dior parade by John Galliano who would return from a three-week vacation in Pompeii. All with a hint of Kamel Ouali choreo. We were waiting for Spartacus, we had the LFMAOs, we were waiting for Cleopatra, we had Cee-Lo Green.
Verdict: At 53 years old, the Madonna still has some under the waders. She can wheelbarrow with one of the LMFAO singers, thus losing a little (if not a lot) of sex appeal. Michael Jackson wins again. His appearance under the explosions at the four corners of the stadium is still remembered. MJ is not the King for nothing.
The show: If Madonna has gone to great lengths for her show with video projections on the ground, lights flashing everywhere, light clothes and hip-hop dancers tightrope walkers, the show and the aura of Michael Jackson's spectacle seem a notch above. Choreographically speaking, Madonna struggles with Michael Jackson. A wheelbarrow with an LMFAO cannot overcome a moonwalk performed by MJ at the top of his game.
Verdict: Michael Jackson dances better, that's a fact, and therefore wins this duel.
Instant Shivers: It’s impossible to miss a monumental goosebumps when Heal The World choral version blasts through the stadium during MJ’s performance. Only downside, too much love kills the show.
Madonna played with our heartstrings when she sang Like a Prayer with Cee-Lo Green, the little man with the barley-sugar voice of duo Gnarls Barkley. His choral gospel duet version with the latter is one of the things that makes Americans always stand before us in this "thrilling" show.
Verdict: Michael's Heal the World conveys too much that our little hearts can't contain. Madonna is counting on a Cee-Lo at the top of her game to send us a good dose of good humor. Result we wriggle on our chairs and we come to clap our hands behind our computers. Draw.
General Verdict: Sorry Madonna, Michael was too strong. Victory of the king of pop!
