Maroon 5 turned Super Bowl LIII into one big concert! The Adam Levine-fronted pop-rock band headlined the 2019 halftime show with special guests Travis Scott and Big Boi at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday, February 3.
Levine, 39, gave a quick shout-out to the group’s late manager Jordan Feldstein (“This is for you, Jordy”) before launching into a pair of hits from Maroon 5’s debut album, “Harder to Breathe” and “This Love.” Scott, 26, then took the stage after a SpongeBob SquarePants introduction to hype up the crowd with his smash “Sicko Mode.” The rapper’s brief appearance was followed by Levine crooning Maroon 5’s No. 1 single “Girls Like You” alongside a soulful choir and then a sing-along version of “She Will Be Loved” with fans on the field. Throughout the set, Levine continued to strip off his clothes — first his jacket and eventually his tank top. He ended the performance shirtless with a fun take on the fan favorite “Moves Like Jagger” while surrounded by fireworks.
Us Weekly broke the news in October 2018 that Maroon 5 was set to perform at the NFL championship game between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams. A source later revealed that the Grammy-winning group was “having a lot of trouble finding guests” because other artists, including Rihanna and Cardi B, did not want to “associate themselves with the NFL” in the wake of the league’s response to Colin Kaepernick taking a knee during the national anthem in 2016 in protest of racial injustice. Scott agreed to perform after making a $500,000 donation to Dream Corps, a nonprofit social justice organization.
“I am not in the right profession if I can’t handle a bit of controversy. It is what it is,” Levine told Entertainment Tonight on Thursday, January 31, two days after the NFL faced backlash for canceling Maroon 5’s pre-game press conference, which has been a tradition for halftime headliners for years. “We would like to move on from it and speak through the music.”
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