Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show has come and gone… so who’s got next?
Super Bowl LX didn’t bring the world a very competitive football game (the Seattle Seahawks pummeled the New England Patriots). But it did present quite the halftime show spectacle, and I say that because it’s the first time in my memory that there were two halftime shows that happened at the same time.
If you didn’t touch the dial (old phrase, I know), then you watched Bad Bunny’s halftime show. If you decided to change the channel, it was to watch Kid Rock and other country artists in the Turning Point USA “All-American” halftime show.
Will Turning Point USA put on their own halftime show again next year, and make their show an annual event? Only time will tell, but if nothing else, they proved that an alternate broadcast can generate a TON of eyeballs. A ton of eyeballs generally means a ton of money (if you can find sponsors and advertisers to pay), so even if it isn’t Turning Point USA, someone might throw together an alternate show to fit whatever niche they can fill. There might even be multiple alternate shows.
I would imagine that, as long as they are unhappy with who the NFL selects, they’ll do their own. But if the National Football League ever decided to go country again, I’d have a hard time seeing Turning Point USA putting on counter-programming. And on that “going country” note… we here at Whiskey Riff asked country music fans who they’d like to see take center stage at the “Big Game” next year.
We received thousands of responses, comments and ideas after we posted this question:
“Who should headline the Super Bowl halftime show next year?”
Sure, we are only a day or so removed from this year’s Super Bowl… but it never hurts to think ahead, eh?
As you might imagine, many of the answers that poured in were names of country music artists. Though there was the occasional mention of a “Pitbull” or a “Limp Bizkit” (and many jokes about someone that sings in English), the majority belonged to the country music genre.
Here are some of the names that country music fans said they would love to see headline the Super Bowl’s halftime show:
“Lainey Wilson.”
“Zach Top.”
“George Strait.”
“Red Clay Strays.”
“Tyler Childers.”
“Dolly Parton.”
“Cody Johnson.”
“Kenny Chesney.”
“Eric Church.”
“Reba.”
“Chris Stapleton.”
“Sturgill Simpson.”
“Luke Combs.”
All those look good to me.
But what really peaked my interest were the answers that went ahead and put together artists and bands to create a collaborative country music show. Some people argued that one country music artist would be great, but suggested multiple together (with maybe some other genres sprinkled in) would be even better:
“Cross Canadian Ragweed with Turnpike Troubadours.”
“Post Malone, Jelly Roll, and Morgan Wallen. Join with other country artists. It’s time to represent Country music at the Super Bowl! Hasn’t happened since the 90’s.”
“Billy Strings and Metallica.”
“Red Clay Strays, The Black Keys and Sierra Farrell.”
“They did a ’90s rap collab a few years ago so I’m just sitting here waiting for a ’90s country collab.”
“Creed, George Strait, Morgan Wallen and Ella Langley.”
That last one would be a halftime show for the history books. The King of Country, superstar Morgan Wallen, the rising star Ella Langley, and CREED? Sign me up right now.
