Super Bowl XLV Halftime Show

The Super Bowl XLV halftime show took place on February 6, 2011 at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas as part of Super Bowl XLV. The performers include the Black Eyed Peas with guest appearances Slash of Guns N' Roses and Usher.

Setlist

 * 1) "I Gotta Feeling" (The Black Eyed Peas)
 * 2) "Boom Boom Pow" (The Black Eyed Peas)
 * 3) "Sweet Child O' Mine" (Slash & Fergie)
 * 4) "Pump It" (The Black Eyed Peas)
 * 5) "Let's Get It Started" (The Black Eyed Peas)
 * 6) "OMG" (Usher & will.i.am)
 * 7) "Where Is The Love?" (The Black Eyed Peas)
 * 8) "The Time (Dirty Bit)" with "I Gotta Feeling" reprise (The Black Eyed Peas)

Why It Sucks

 * 1) The Black Eyed Peas delivered one of the worst live performances ever in their career with overuse of auto-tune and poorly executed dance moves.
 * 2) Fergie's vocals are breathy and irritating. She yet ruined Guns N' Roses's performance of "Sweet Child o' Mine" when she was trying to sound like lead singer Axl Rose but fails miserably.
 * 3) will.i.am's voice is also irritating and is heavily slathered with broken auto-tune to the point where he sounds like a malfunctioning robot.
 * 4) The costumes that they wear are absolutely ridiculous as if it looks like they came from another planet.
 * 5) They sound like they are off-key at times.
 * 6) They performed their recently awful song "The Time (Dirty Bit)" near the end of the performance, and it is lackluster in general.
 * 7) It wasn't a good way to start pop halftime shows after the infamous Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake's wardrobe malfunction incident in 2004.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) "Sweet Child o' Mine" and "Where is the Love" were the only good and decent songs that were played in the halftime show despite Fergie and will.i.am's awful vocals.
 * 2) The set for the halftime show looks pretty cool.

Reception
Vince Cestone of Bleacher Report called the performance "uninspiring," and wrote that "The Black Eyed Peas were pathetic—or mediocre at best." However, he praised the visual effects of the performance as "impressive". JP Starkey of SB Nation Dallas wrote, "It wasn't entertaining, it wasn't fun, the songs were brutally bad and didn't translate to a live setting whatsoever." Paul Cashmere of Undercover.fm called the performance "hideous". Nekesa Mumbi Moody of the Associated Press declared, "The Black Eyed Peas brought the youth, but little else," but praised Usher's part of the performance as a "brief exhilarating moment". Ben Werner of the Orange County Register called the performance a "glittering bore".

A national viewer poll conducted by ESPN found that 35% (a plurality) of respondents graded the performance an "F".

Maeve McDermott of USA Today retrospectively ranked the show as the fifth "most disastrous" Super Bowl halftime show in 2019.

Guns N' Roses and Fergie's performance of "Sweet Child o' Mine" was ranked #10 on WatchMojo's Top 10 Cringiest Halftime Show Moments.

Videos
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