Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show Makes History After Winning Emmy Award

The Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show was a huge hit as it featured Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar. And with the show receiving a ton of praise from fans, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences took notice as the organization awarded the show with two Creative Arts Emmy Awards over the weekend. The halftime show won an Emmy for Outstanding Music Direction as well as Outstanding Variety Special (Live). It’s the first time in Emmy history the Super Bowl Halftime show won the award in the Outstanding Variety Special category, according to Deadline. 

“I am nervous, man. Jay [Z] is watching,” executive producer Jesse Collins said during his speech. “First on behalf of the fellow executive producers and our performers, we would like to thank the television academy for this incredible honor. It’s amazing. This is the first time this show has ever won this award and it’s so incredible to be a part of this moment. It took an incredible team to pull this together and I thank you all.” Collins produced the show with Jay-Z Roc Nation and the NFL Network. It was directed by Hamish Hamilton who has directed all Super Bowl Halftime Shows since 2010. 

“It was one of, if not the greatest Super Bowl halftime shows ever,” Hamilton, 56, told Billboard in August. “That [artist] lineup changed the world – they changed music, they changed politics, they changed the way that we dress, they had a seismic influence in music, culture and beyond and not one of them had been on a Super Bowl bill before, and all of a sudden they’re all on the same Super Bowl bill, and by the way it’s [near] Compton, where some of this started, where Dre started, literally this is his backyard.”

The show was beloved by fans because it was an ode to hip-hip hop in the late 1990s, 2000s and 2010s. And with the Super Bowl being in Los Angeles, it made sense to have Dre and Snoop Dogg perform since LA is their hometown. Recently, PopCulture.com spoke to Ice Cube and asked him why he wasn’t part of the halftime show. 

“Peoples ask me ‘Cube, why wasn’t you there?’ I’m like, ‘Dude, when I do the Super Bowl, it’s going to be Ice Cube.’ You know what I’m saying?” Cube said. “I ain’t going to do the Super Bowl, you know what I mean? It’s part of nobody else show. I mean, it’s going to be my show.”