The music icon, 53, branded the decision the ‘worst idea in the world’ in her new Netflix documentary, Halftime, which premiered Wednesday (8 June) at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.
In the one-off, viewers watch as the ‘Ain’t It Funny’ hitmaker comes to verbal blows with NFL executives over why they wanted two women to do a job that usually goes to a single artist.
Speaking to her musical director at one point, Lopez fumes: “We have six f**king minutes. We have 30 seconds of a song, and if we take a minute, that’s it, we’ve got five left.
“But, there’s got to be certain songs that we sing, though. We have to have our singing moments. It’s not going to be a dance f**king revue. We have to sing our message.
“This is the worst idea in the world to have two people do the Super Bowl. It was the worst idea in the world,” she added. “This is something I have been working for and hoping for years.”
Lopez’s long-time manager Benny Medina branded the NFL’s decision to choose two Latin women to carry out the show that typically has one artist an ‘insult’.
He says: “Typically, you have one headliner at a Super Bowl. That headliner constructs a show, and, should they choose to have other guests, that’s their choice.
“It was an insult to say you needed two Latinas to do the job that one artist historically has done.”At one point in the doc, Lopez is seen discussing the show’s running order with Shakira before insisting that if they were going to have a double headliner, they should have given them 20 minutes rather than the standard 12.
Colombian superstar Shakira says to Lopez: “I know that the Super Bowl people want us to be weaved throughout the show. I haven’t had a confirmation about how many minutes I’m going to have.”
To which the ‘I’m Real’ singer responds: “Let me address that really quick. They said 12 minutes. I got kind of a good confirmation that we could have an extra minute or two, so now we’re at, like, 13, 14 minutes.
“I think, Shakira, what we should have is you should have half the time and I should [have half].”If it was going to be a double-headliner, they should have given us 20 minutes. That’s what they should’ve f**king done.”
UNILAD has contacted NFL for a comment.
Halftime is available to stream on Netflix from Tuesday, 14 June.
