MINNEAPOLIS -- When you have as many hits as Justin Timberlake, it must be an agonizing process to come up with a 12-minute Super Bowl setlist. So credit Timberlake with a little outside-the-box thinking:
Why pick just a few hits to showcase when you can play all of them instead?
Timberlake's Super Bowl LII setlist featured nine original songs and one cover -- or, well, a duet. We'll get to that in a moment. It was an impressive medley that played out all over U.S. Bank Stadium. Timberlake pulled it off without a single hiccup -- from a technical standpoint it was damn impressive to watch in person.
If you were judging the show solely off whether or not Janet showed up (she did not, as expected) your mind was probably already made up before Timberlake hit the field. But if you could move past that, Timberlake's versatile performance showed off a lot of things that have made him such an enduring star in the first place.
Now, the duet. Prince made his expected cameo on a projection screen during a reworked version of his hit, "I Would Die 4 U". It looked and sounded great, Timberlake took a backseat playing on a white piano, and the visual intentionally summoned memories of Prince's all-time performance in the rain at Super Bowl XLI. If you're looking for the moment people will remember, that was it. Prince stole the show one more time.
As always, I botched my setlist prediction. C'mon though, it'd be easier to win the lottery considering how deep the bench was here. I wonder if more artists with deep catalogues will go this route in the future.
- Filthy
- Rock Your Body
- Senorita
- SexyBack
- My Love
- Cry Me A River
- Suit & Tie
- Until the End of Time
- I Would Die 4 U
- Mirror
- Can't Stop The Feeling!
