Super Bowl LIV: Half-Time Show.

A direct continuation of; https://watchitdie.blogspot.com/2020/02/super-bowl-liv_8.html

Half-Time Show: This year's Half-Time Show was billed as having two headliners; Shakira and Jennifer Lopez (J-Lo).

It turned out though to be the Shakira Show. J-Lo was relegated to the role of the Legacy Act. A Super Bowl tradition where a much older, almost forgotten, artist is brought on for a guest-slot in the main performer's show.

Possibly the most famous Legacy Act was Janet Jackson's appearance during Justin Timberlake's 2004 Half-Time Show. The infamous; "Nipplegate."

In the summer of 2014 US Democrats were desperate to seize control of both houses of the US Congress. At that November's Mid-Term Election.

So they invented a story of an innocent black man, Michael Brown, being murdered by racist police in Ferguson, Missouri. On the back of this myth they built the artificial protest movement Black Lives Matter (BLM).

Through Colin Kaepernick's National Anthem protests this false campaign infected the world of American Football. Since then the Super Bowl has been as politically divided as the rest of America. Possibly more so.

This has made it particularly difficult for the NFL to book performers for the Super Bowl Half-Time Show. Off the top of my head Rihanna and Cardi B are just two of the artists who've turned down the Half-Time Show. Scared off by the potential backlash from BLM.

Although it's worth noting that didn't stop Beyonce, a vocal supporter of BLM, appearing in 2016. Nor has it stopped her husband Jay Z, an equally passionate supporter of BLM, from continuing his role as the Super Bowl's artistic director.

This year the NFL decided to provide leadership to the nation and put the division of BLM behind it. Attempting to end the black versus white conflict by actively reaching out to America's Hispanic community.

So for the first time the Super Bowl was broadcast with both English and Spanish language commentary.

The two Half-Time performers, Shakira and J-Lo, are both Hispanic women. Possibly two of the most famous Hispanic women in the World. Shakira is not just of Latin American heritage she is Latin American. A native of Colombia.

If you came into the Super Bowl supporting the San Francisco 49's you would probably have found yourself struggling to find the words to describe either Shakira or J-Lo.

While I know it hasn't fully taken hold at the grassroots level homosexuality now seems to have become completely normalised within American popular culture. No longer is it taboo to show openly gay characters in movies, TV shows and the TV commercials which are such an important part of the Super Bowl.

Here in Britain tolerance has risen to such a level it has almost gone beyond parody. If you were to judge Britain only by the commercials shown on TV you would inevitably conclude two things;

Firstly that the majority of people in Britain are in homosexual relationships.

Of the small minority of people who are in heterosexual relationships there is a law. Preventing them from being in a relationship with someone who shares their skin colour.

As a general rule; The more inclusive the commercial the scummier the company it's promoting.

If a commercial features peak inclusivity - a mixed race gay couple raising multi-coloured children - then it is probably a commercial for Barclay's Bank. Which traditionally makes its money through slavery and selling Crack Cocaine and assault rifles to children. Amongst other things.

Homosexuality being, I would say rightly, normalised has created huge problems for Progressive Liberals. They now need whole new ways to signal to each other how virtuous and interesting they are.

For a short time the focused in on the Transgenderism.

Unfortunately for them through Castor Semenya and the Olympic movement Transgenderism has already been normalised at the highest levels of the global community. In societies such as India and Thailand it was never considered particularly abnormal.

So Progressive Liberals have been forced to invent whole new elements of the Transgender debate. Making up nonsense terms such as; "Gender Fluidity" and a vast array of new gender pronouns. Each more ridiculous than the last.

This absolute foolishness has created some significant tensions with the traditional Feminist community. Themselves rather liberal they're now being accused of Fascism for daring to claim that men have penises while women have periods.

This issue of Gender Pronouns has been of particular interest to America's Spanish speaking communities. Unlike English, Spanish is a gendered language. So not only do people have genders inanimate objects have genders. So a table has a gender, a car has a gender and so forth. Even abstract concepts like emotions have genders.

Amongst the most commonly used examples is that a Hispanic man is a; "Latino" while a Hispanic woman is a; "Latina."

Spanish speaking Progressive Liberals have recently been on something of a mad quest to invent and introduce gender neutral pronouns. Some suggestions including; "LatinX" and the even more comical; "Latin@".

The gender neutral pronoun for someone of Latin heritage is, of course, just; "Latin."

Suggesting that if Progressive Liberals wish to appear more interesting they should probably stop talking and read a book.

The Half-Time Show found Shakira in a subversive mood.

The NFL may have booked her in an effort to get Hispanic soccer fans interested in American Football. I doubt though they counted on the risk of Shakira introducing NFL fans to her common-law husband. The incredibly famous Spanish soccer player Gerard Pique.

I'm sure every soccer fan in the World, particularly Hispanic ones, know how Shakira and Gerard Pique came to meet.

Shakira's involvement means that I do have to declare something of a personal interest;

Recently people seem to have developed an unhealthy interest in my sex life.

The 2019 Eurovision Song Contest was held in Israel. Which prompted interest in a Menage a Trios (House of Three) I was involved in. With a bisexual Jewish, Israeli woman and her black British lesbian girlfriend.

Having been forced to check the dates I've recently discovered that did slightly overlap with a much more famous Menage a Trios I was involved. Featuring myself, a white British bisexual woman and her white British lesbian girlfriend. This is practically a World famous "Thrupple."

It does perhaps say something about Britain's position in the World. That they've only succeeded in kidnapping not even the most interesting bisexual woman I've dated.

That biting comment aside I think I've already made clear that I won't be posting the intimate details of either of those relationships simply to win arguments on the Internet. That, surely, would be the emotional equivalent of Revenge Porn.

However I think there is one thing that is already well known;

When we first met the white, British, bisexual woman had returned from travelling to various countries in South America.

She couldn't stop talking about this exciting new singer she'd discovered there. From the way she talked about her you'd think that Shakira was some ubercool, avant garde folk artist.

When Shakira broke through in the English speaking pop world it merely confirmed the one thing we'd all suspected. She simply had an absolutely massive crush on Shakira.

Actually, thinking about it in this light, 2019nCoV is a redhead. So may well have been modelled on Shakira. Not that you'd immediately notice from meeting her.

So, for a long time, it has been rather unavoidable that my antics impact somewhat on Shakira.

Much like other aspects in her seemingly perfect life Shakira seems to have been more than able to take it all in her stride. She even teamed up with me on Rihanna back in 2014. For; "Can't Remember to Forget You."

I don't think Ariana Grande should be defined by the 2017 MENA bombing. Nor do I think Demi Lovato should be defined by her overdose.

So I don't think Rihanna should be eternally defined by that period of her life. However still in love with Chris Brown it was a period where we could all see that Rihanna really needed to sort her life out.

The main theme of the Can't Remember to Forget You video was one of binary contrast.

So you had the empowered, successful and together musician Shakira playing guitar and playing drums. In contrast to the slight disaster area Rihanna who simply lay about smoking cigars (Marijuana blunts).

In light of the Trump Impeachment those cigars suddenly take on a whole new significance. Given Demi Lovato's Balkan heritage.

The theme of contrast in the Can't Remember to Forget You was particularly highlighted by the use of a two-tone, contrasting black & white colour scheme.

There is a very famous British record label called; "2-Tone." One of their most famous artists are; "The Specials." Until they split up and some members relaunched themselves as; "The Special AKA."

My Twitter handle - @Sovereignaka - is, in part a reference to the band. Although mainly it's a play on my many pseudonyms. Even if that might overstate the level of thought that went into it.

So through Can't Remember to Forget You Shakira was very firmly shoving Rihanna in my direction.

This theme of binary contrast also played a significant role in the Half-Time Show.

So you had the successful, together musician Shakira playing guitar and playing drums. While J-Lo pranced about with no obvious musical talent to show for herself.

The main theme of the Half-Time Show though was menstruation and female reproductive health.

So you had the younger Shakira being all flowing reds. While in contrast the older J-Lo suddenly found herself in the barren whites.

This is theme of menstruation and female reproductive health was really begun by Greece's 2019 Eurovision Song Contest entry. Which unapologetically brought heterosexual female issues to an event famous for its very gay male fanbase.

Annoyingly it is a theme that I'm going to have to allow to flow through, uninterrupted to the Oscars on Sunday (9/2/20).

Shakira opened the show with her 2009 song; "She Wolf." One of her biggest English language hits this really celebrates her passionate, wild side.

I don't really like to talk about it, let alone publish it on the Internet. However my childhood was pretty grim. There are of course reasons why I'm so attuned to Demi Lovato's issues with body image and the behavioural tells that expose them. As a deflection I used to joke that I'd been raised by wolves.

I can certainly think of one huge Shakira fan who by 2009 had been consigned to a closet in an abusive effort to domesticate her."Domestication" referring to a process of forced, selective breeding. Similar to the Nazi's Eugenics program.

Mainly though this sequence was used just to establish the flowing, menstrual red theme.

Next Shakira moved onto her 2014 song; "Empire." This allowed to Shakira to show off her obvious musical talent, playing the guitar. Setting up the contrast with J-Lo, who is not able to so obviously show off her musical talents.

Performing in front of a string orchestra this sequence also contained elements of Led Zeppelin's 1975 song; "Kashmir." Which features possibly the most famous guitar riff in all of rock music. It's use here was incredibly intelligent.

The dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region is probably the most famous so-called; "Frozen Conflict" in history. Military types often speculate that if the World is to see a nuclear apocalypse it will start in Kashmir.

Recently the Kashmir dispute dramatically heated up.

In August 2019 India suddenly scrapped the special status afforded to the Indian administered part of Kashmir. Sealing it off from the World and removing many of the most basic rights of the people living there.

India's sealing off of Kashmir stopped its residents from being able to access day-to-day goods. Such as feminine hygiene products.

This sudden change was widely seen as an aggressively anti-Muslim move by India's Hindu Nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Something he went on to make pretty clear in December 2019. With the Amendment to the 1955 Citizenship Act which basically removed Indian citizenship from many of India's Muslims. Simply on the grounds they are Muslims.

This is the sort of heavy, important, global issue that we're not used to seeing raised at Super Bowl Half-Time Shows.

While the dispute between India and Pakistan is famous everyone seems to forget that it is actually a three way dispute over Kashmir. A third of the territory is administered by China. India and China actually fought a war over Kashmir in 1962.

The Kashmir Region is on completely the opposite side of Pakistan to Afghanistan. However the Led Zeppelin song; "Kashmir" is really about Afghan Opium.

So in that, what, two second riff Shakira also managed to link China to Opioids. Picking up neatly from the National Anthem sequence.

The history linking China with Opioids is a long one. Including the 1839-1860 "Opium Wars." A source of trade tension between Britain and China to this day.

The Led Zeppelin song; "Kashmir" also name-checks the mythical place; "Shangri-La." Currently used to designate the area of Syria controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF/QSD).

President Trump, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton might be trying to pretend that war is suddenly won and over. No-one is convinced.

Shakira then moved on to perform her 1998 Spanish language song; "Ojos Asi." This saw her perform a Belly-Dance with a rope that first seemed to bind her hands. Before she was able to charm it like a snake.

This was a reference to Shakira's Arab heritage. "Shakira" is actually an Arabic word meaning; "Grateful." Her father was born in northern Lebanon before emigrating to Colombia.

In talking about my relationship with a Jewish, Israeli woman I joked that I was; "Bombing Beirut" - the Lebanese capital. In reference to the 2008 Israeli movie; "Waltz With Bashir." Which is about Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

I should point out that this relationship happened in 2001. So while it might be the first you've heard of it I knew all about it during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War. I certainly knew all about it during the 2008 Gaza War.

Britain's Foreign Intelligence and Diplomatic services spent the later half of 2019 absolutely bombing in everywhere from Santiago, Chile to Hong Kong, China. Via Beirut, Lebanon. After mistakenly thinking they were qualified to go out without adult supervision.

Perhaps not the best preparation for Brexit.

Both Belly-Dancing and Snake Charming are traditionally Ottoman Turkish traditions. They spread throughout the Middle-East, North Africa (MENA) region under the Ottoman Empire of 1299 to 1922.

So once again it seems time to discreetly draw Trump, Pompeo, Bolton et al's attention to those funny road markings. Particularly as the mountains seem to be having a bloody good go at someone at the moment.

I've decided the specific 'snake' Shakira was charming was a Cobra. In reference to the 2005 song; "Cobrastyle" by Swedish popstar Robyn.

This is a useful way to wind up Rihanna.

Rihanna's actual first name is Robyn. However she is forced to use her middle name Rihanna because there is already a popstar called Robyn.

It should particularly wind up Rihanna that I actually possess a copy of Robyn's 2007 self-titled album but do not possess any of Rihanna's music.

Although it must be said that I have absolutely no idea how I came to be in possession of Robyn's album. I've not ruled out someone sneaking into my house to leave it there.

Both Shakira and Rihanna are signed to Jay Z's Roc Nation record label. Robyn is signed to Konichwa Records. The record label she set up.

"Konnichi Wa" is a Japanese greeting. The 2020 Summer Olympics are to be held in Tokyo, Japan.

Let's just say Britain has an opinion as to why it was granted the privilege of hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics. Other people have other opinions.

At the time of my participation in that World Famous Thrupple I briefly shared a house with a guy who worked at the British Government's Cabinet Office Briefing Room A (COBRA).

Similar to the US White House's Situation Room this is the briefing room used to assemble committees to respond to substantial threats to the UK. Although I should point out it refers to literally just the room. There is also a Cabinet Office Briefing Room B (COBRB).

This guy was actually of Hong Kong Chinese heritage. So we used to either refer to him as; "Cobra Jo" in reference to his practice of the Akido martial art. Or; "Jolene" in reference to the Dolly Parton song. Depending on the extent to which we wished to mock him.

Through the case of Reynhard Sinaga Britain is currently trying to present him as the main architect of the 2006 plan. Which saw the She Wolf consigned to the closet and me banished. This is being timed to link up with the Sky TV drama; "COBRA." A "Chernobyl" rip-off about a Britain facing a sudden loss of power.

It must really hurt them then to be reminded that Cobrastyle was already being mocked all the way back in 2005. The 2007 album is a track-by-track, brutal take-down of their efforts.

I gather at the time Robyn was dating a Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter.

Shakira then moved on to perform her 2001 breakthrough English language hit; "Whenever, Wherever."

It was this transition from Ojos Asi to Whenever, Wherever that confirmed what we all already knew. Somebody has got an absolutely massive crush on Shakira.

This sequence ended with Shakira flowing down a red, vaginal canal of backing dancers. Into a cover version of the Cardi B song; "I Like It Like That."

Cardi B being one of the artists who've refused to perform at the Super Bowl in support of Colin Kaepernick. The reference here seemed to suggest that the real reason is that she's not talented enough. She certainly wasn't talented enough to keep one of her songs out of the Super Bowl.

You may remember that in December 2019 the World went through something of a crazy period. With the US House of Representatives voting to recommend the Impeachment of President Trump. the COP25 Climate Change Summit and Britain's Brexit General Election.

During this period Carbi B was being the first major US star to tour West Africa. Nations such as Ghana and Nigeria. You know, the Nigeria at the centre of that whole Boko Haram horror show.

Let's just say I think I've made a new friend. Amongst people who've been forced to endure Ed Sheeran up close. Even if I may have suggested they might lack the type of intelligence that motherhood requires.

The reason why Cardi B was unable to keep I Like It Like That out of the Super Bowl is that it's not actually her song. She didn't write it so doesn't own either the performance rights to it.

That is in stark contrast to someone like Robyn. Who not only writes her own music but publishes it through her own record labels. So owns the full rights to it. An example I'm betting Taylor Swift wishes she had followed.

I Like It Like That was actually written by Pete Rodriguez back in 1967. However let's all engage in a little bit of artistic license and pretend it was written by Bad Bunny.The Puerto Rican rapper who provided the Spanish language element of the song.

That's because Bad Bunny also appeared here providing a Spanish language rap. However that was from his 2019 song; "Callaita." Which I'm sure gave Spanish speakers a good laugh about whether non-Spanish speakers could tell the difference.

Bad Bunny appeared dressed head-to-toe in what appeared to be Tinfoil. The type of Tinfoil conspiracy theorists are said to wrap their heads in to prevent the government from harvesting their brainwaves. Or something.

So this was a Puerto Rican, and therefore stereotypical Democrat voter, surrounded by the Communist red of Russia.

Wearing a Tinfoil Hat.

Finally in this section Shakira performed her 2005 hit; "Hips Don't Lie." From the album; "Oral Fixation."

Part of the performance saw Shakira fall backwards off the stage and crowd-surf through the audience.

The playing field during the Super Bowl is probably the most secure place in all of America.

So the crowd for the Half-Time show have not simply brought tickets. They've been specially selected, security screened, screened again and screened again. They're as much part of the performance as the on-stage dancers.

Despite this Shakira did not allow herself to be carried by the actual crowd. Instead she fell into the arms of clearly identifiable members of her personal security team.

This invoked the Closing Ceremony of the 2016 Summer Para-Olympic Games.

During Nego do Borel's performance the arena security guards suddenly became a lot more solid. On account of one of Nego do Borel's collaborators, MC Daleste, being shot & killed at a similar free concert in 2013.

Primarily though here Shakira was trying to highlight the issue of sexual harassment and sexual assault. Particularly groping at concerts and live music events.

This has been an issue since I was young and going to concerts. Not that the type of crowds I associated with would ever tolerate that sort of thing.

It sort of grew into a wider issue in 2016 though. When Asylum Seekers carried out a number of rapes and sexual assaults at festivals across Europe. Notably at the 2015/16 New Year's celebrations in Cologne and other German cities. Along with Sweden's "We are Sthlm" festival.

The backlash did lead quite a few people to question why people were only suddenly outraged because it's non-white Asylum Seekers doing something that's been a problem for as long as I can remember. Since then quite a few very high profile music acts have taken public stands on the issue.

Having returned to the stage Shakira stared straight down the lens of the camera. Stuck her tongue out and wiggled it about.

I guarantee what a certain person interpreted this to mean. Particularly during the performance of a song from an album with the word; "Oral" in the title.

However, officially this was an example of; "Ululation." A type of traditional female singing that is common throughout the MENA region. For the likes of Mike Pompeo and John Bolton it is no doubt famous as what Iranian women do as Iranian men chant; "Death To America!"

This was another little reference to Shakira's Lebanese, Arab heritage. Pompeo, Bolton etc will still no doubt be surprised to learn that Iranians are not Arabs.

You may have thought that menstruation and female reproductive health was a rather shocking topic for an event that is typically for conservative, middle-American, white men.

That's probably because you lack the imagination to consider its impact on the wider, global audience.

Particularly in Arab MENA societies such as Lebanon. Where they still indulge in practises such as child marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Those outdated attitudes to woman and their genitals are of course not limited to the Arab or even Muslim world.

Within Hinduism there is the practice of Chhuapadi which declares menstruating women to be impure. Banning them from not just any contact with family members but from their homes themselves. Forcing them into isolation in special menstrual huts.

In places such as India and Nepal it remains alarmingly common for girls and young woman to die of thirst, starvation and exposure during this Chhuapadi seclusion.

With the end of the song Shakira's section gave way to J-Lo's.

I will cover that in Part 2.

(Originally Posted at16:25 on 6/2/20 (UK date).)

18:30 on 8/2/20 (UK date).