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Artist News Gigs & Festivals
Maroon 5’s Adam Levine wants to “move on” from Super Bowl controversy
By Andy Malt | Published on Friday 1 February 2019
Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine has spoken about the controversy surrounding his band’s Super Bowl half time show performance that is set to take place this weekend. Earlier this week, the band cancelled a press conference about the gig, Super Bowl organiser the NFL saying in a statement that they would instead “let their show do the talking”.
Since it was first rumoured that they had been booked to play the show, many have called on the band to cancel over the NFL’s treatment of American football player Colin Kaepernick after he protested police brutality. A number of other artists passed on the 2019 Super Bowl set for this reason, including Rihanna and Jay-Z.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Levine says that people just have an “insatiable urge to hate a little bit” when it comes to the Super Bowl half time entertainment. “I’m not in the right profession if I can’t handle a little bit of controversy. It’s what it is. We expected it. We’d like to move on from it”.
He insists that he did give the criticisms due thought before accepting the NFL booking, saying that he consulted “many people” before ignoring them. He explains: “I silenced all the noise and listened to myself, and made my decision based upon how I felt about it all. No one thought about it harder than I did. No one put more thought and love into this than I did”.
Set to make guest appearances with Maroon 5 are rappers Big Boi and Travis Scott. Prior to agreeding, Scott reportedly spoke directly with Kaepernick.
The massive sporting event is set to take place in Atlanta this year and Big Boi will be the sole representative of the city’s strong hip hop scene. A further controversy surrounding this half time show is that an Atlanta native wasn’t booked to headline it. Though, given the other controversy, it’s possible some were asked and declined.
Ahead of the event, Big Boi has released two new songs, ‘Doin It’ featuring Sleepy Brown and ‘Return Of The Dope Boi’ featuring Killer Mike and Backbone.
