Super Bowl Sunday excitement began as early as five hours before the game. 800 million people viewed worldwide and 130 million people in the United States tuned in to the television broadcast of the Super Bowl on Sunday Feb. 2.
Unlike many previous years, the entire pregame show was televised to its viewers. The pregame show, which was titled “Tribute to Everyday Heroes,” was the first-ever entire pregame show to be broadcasted in Super Bowl history.
Due to security precautions, fans had to arrive five hours before the game at the Superdome in New Orleans, La. There was plenty of entertainment for them while they tailgated in the parking lot or waited to get into the game. The Barenaked Ladies played to the crowded parking lot followed by No Doubt.
The first musical performance to take place inside the stadium was of the song “Let Freedom Reign.” The performance included Barry Manilow, Yolanda Adams, James Ingram, Wynonna and Patti LaBelle singing the song that Manilow had written long before. During their performance, people dressed as red, white and blue statue of liberties. Towards the end of their performance children dressed as policemen and women, fire fighters, soldiers, doctors and football players paraded onto the field with a prop version of the Liberty Bell. At the end of the song the child dressed as a soldier rang the bell.
Next, the last five presidents of the United States, not counting George W. Bush, spoke the inspirational words of America’s sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln. Nancy Reagan filled in for her husband, Ronald, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. They spoke the words while the Boston Pops played Aaron Copland’s 1942 composition “Lincoln’s Portrait.” Then, the Boston Pops played “America the Beautiful,” while Mary J. Blige and Marc Anthony sang the song as a duet.
The stage was then set for Paul McCartney and his band to perform “Freedom.” During the performance, a banner with a drawing of the Statue of Liberty had messages of hope scrawled on the banner. Mariah Carey, who admitted before the show that she would lip-sync, then took the stage and lip-synced the national anthem. After Mariah’s rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner,” the game was underway.
The E-trade halftime show featured the Irish rock band U2. U2 played with a heart-shaped catwalk that extended from the stage and encased some of the crowd. The first song played was off of their most recent album “All That You Can’t Leave Behind.” The band played “Beautiful Day” as Bono sang and walked to the stage from out of the crowd. After running around the catwalk and jumping around during the upbeat song, Bono revealed that the inner lining of his jacket was an American flag. Then U2 slowed the tempo down. Bono then randomly quoted verses from Psalm 119 with the rest of the band playing behind him. This would be the interlude to the hit song that the group had years before, the 1987 hit, “Where the Streets Have No Name.” Behind the bands, the stage immersed in a large movie screen where the names of the victims of the Sept. 11 tragedy scrolled up the screen.
