Pink Reveals Why She Turned Down Super Bowl Halftime Show

Considering how theatrical Pink‘s tours have been, she sounds like the perfect singer to lead a Super Bowl Halftime Show. While she performed the National Anthem at Super Bowl LII last year, she revealed she was offered to perform during Super Bowl LIII earlier this year. Pink turned down the gig for the same reason Rihanna and Cardi B did, citing the treatment of former quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

In a new interview with Billboard, Pink suggested she would “probably take a knee and get carried out,” referring to Kaepernick’s 2016 protests of police brutality and racial inequality. She also suggested the social media criticism a performance like the Super Bowl would attract could be too much.

“Everybody that does it gets so persecuted,” the “Beautiful Trauma” singer told Billboard.

During Super Bowl LIII in February, Maroon 5 headlined the halftime show in Atlanta, along with rappers Travis Scott and Big Boi.

Later, Pink suggested Janet Jackson should be asked back. Jackson’s career was hurt in the immediate aftermath of the Super Bowl XXXVIII incident in 2004, when Justin Timberlake exposed one of her breasts.

“They should give it to Janet Jackson,” she said. “That’s who should be doing the Super Bowl. There’s rumblings around J. Lo, Rihanna — they all deserve it. They should only give it, because of the controversy, to African-American or Latina women for a while.”

A few days after sitting down with Billboard, the NFL named Jennifer Lopez and Shakira as the Super Bowl LIV performers. The two will take the stage at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida on Feb. 2, 2020.

Earlier this month, Shakira reflected on how important her performance will be for the Latino community in the U.S. and around the world.

“I feel that’s gonna be great because she also represents a really important part of the Latino community who lives in the U.S. — who’s being born and raised in the U.S. — and in a way, I feel that I’m representing another part of the Latin world, which is all those people around the globe who barely speak English and a huge portion of the demographic that also arrived in the U.S. with the American dream,” the “Hips Don’t Lie” singer told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “I think this is gonna be an event to celebrate Latin culture and the importance of women also in the industry.”

Pink recently wrapped her Beautiful Trauma world tour, which was the longest of her career. It reportedly grossed $397.3 million and included 157 dates. According to Billboard, she still has two more albums to make for RCA under her current contract and is already working on a follow-up to her April 2019 album, Hurts 2B Human.

“I always said I was going to go out on top, so maybe this it,” Pink said. “But then you look at Bette Midler, and you’re like, ‘She’s having so much fun, maybe I’ll never quit!’”

Photo credit: Mauricio Santana/Getty Images