JLo and Shakira Earn Four Emmy Nominations for Super Bowl Halftime Show Performance
It has been six months since Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, two of the most successful Latina icons of all time performed in FOX’s Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show and we still “can’t remember to forget” the show-stopping performance! To keep the rave going, it was announced on July 28th that they had been nominated for not one, but four Emmy awards, including recognition for Outstanding Variety Special (Live). The other three nominations are in the categories of Directing For A Variety Special, Lighting Design/Lighting Direction For a Variety Special, and Music Direction. On the night of February 2nd, the show drew a crowd of 103 million viewers who tuned in to watch the iconic performance. The show, which included some of the artists’ most famous hits along with some more modern tunes accompanied by Bad Bunny and J Balvin, is now on the list of one of the most popular and memorable halftime shows of all time. Although the nominations are well-deserved, not everything was good criticism for these successful Latinas, who had to endure some tough criticism regarding the sensual dance choreography and a controversial number by JLo’s daughter that was done to raise awareness about the children detained in cages at the border.
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The criticism by some non-Latino spectators went as far as having filed over 1,300 FCC complaints that were published in more than 500 pages due to a supposed “inappropriate, “indecent” and “graphic” performance by the two divas.
Regarding the controversial pole dance opening number for Jennifer Lopez’s part of the segment, JLo went on to defend the performance on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon as an act of feminism.
She also included that the performance was a “little nod to Hustlers,” where she starred along with Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, Cardi B, Lizzo, Keke Palmer, Lilli Reinhart and other Hollywood stars. Hustlers was released in 2019.
Being nominated for the Emmy awards is no small feat for either the artists or the Super Bowl franchise, as this is only the sixth time that a Super Bowl halftime show headliner receives an Emmy nomination.
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The past nominees for the Outstanding Variety Special (Live) are Prince (2007), Bruce Springsteen (2009), Beyoncé (2013), Bruno Mars (2014), Katy Perry (2015), Coldplay (2016) and Lady Gaga (2017).
From all six nominees only Prince and Coldplay were not recognized as performers and none of them have obtained the award.
“I wanted it to be like, women are on top of the world,” she told Fallon about the grand opening. “Again, it was a powerful move,” she said, “It was like, ‘Look Ma, no hands!'”
JLo and Shakira are two out of only three Latina performers to have performed in the prestigious Pepsi halftime show, the third one being the iconic Cuban-American singer Gloria Estefan, who performed as the first Latina in the show in 1992 and 1999.
Both artists, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira have reached out to the Emmy awards to thank the organization for the nominations via their various social media platforms.