By Prince Hakeem
Shakira and Jennifer Lopez absolutely killed during their Pepsi Halftime show at SuperBowl 54. There was great music, awesome dance numbers, and subtle, yet provocative political messages. One of the messages was a commentary on the ongoing border crisis dividing the country.
An idea created by J-Lo, one part of her segment featured her 11-year-old daughter, Emme, singing a slow version of her song, “Let’s Get Loud”, as she and other Latina children crawled out of illuminated steel cages all over the football field. This led to the widely loved moment when J-Lo sang Bruce Springsteen’s “Born In The USA” while wearing a large Puerto Rican flag.
According sources close to the Roc Nation production team, this moment almost didn’t happen. Jay-Z and his Roc Nation management team pressured Lopez to cut it from her set. HOV’s current partnership with the NFL is supposedly the reason why he chose to press Jennifer. If that’s the case, then that’s definitely not a good look on Jay’s part. In any case, Lopez stood her ground and kept the segment in her act. Even when Jay tried to personally sway J-Lo not to do, she instead opted out of joining Shakira for the opening number of the performance. They instead performed together on stage towards the end of the halftime show.
