Super Bowl Novelty Markets Preview

Let’s start with the early resulting props and dig deep into the national anthem and the line of 2:05.5 on the length of Demi Lovato’s performance. 125 seconds is a lengthy anthem, a number that has only gone over four times in the last 14 Super Bowls. Demi Lovato’s form doesn’t suggest it will be a hugely lengthy performance either. She has done four anthems at sporting events coming in at 1:53, 1:49, 1:58 and most recently 2:11 at the McGregor-Mayweather fight in 2017. The main reason we’re taking the under though? This is just her second major public performance as a part of her comeback and nerves are inevitable, so if she’s going acapella there’s a good chance she ups the tempo. Either way, unless she wants to drag out just about every note she can, that’s just way too long to back with any confidence.

It’s one or the other here, a headset microphone would look utterly ridiculous and Lovato’s form gives us an even split of data. In 2008 she went with the microphone stand in Dallas, then went one handheld and one microphone stand in her 2011 and 2015 World Series performances before going hand held at the big fight. It’s a 50-50 choice, so take the value of the hand held.

On to the halftime show which will be shared between Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, the number of songs line seems a bit high considering we usually wind up with around seven but considering this is a shared show, we could wind up with double digit songs in the 12 minute performance. It will be fast paced and high energy with both singers wanting to feature as many of their hits as possible.

Chances are J-Lo will come out first and get things going, after all, her name is first on the list and do you really expect her to play second fiddle on a stage as big as this? She’s going to need to go big early and get the crowd going, it’s meant to be a party on the field after all. Can’t you just picture the crowd streaming onto the field as the first few bars of Let’s Get Loud start coming over the speakers? You can rule out a lot of the other short priced choices on logic, they won’t use On the Floor early since it sets up a Pitbull cameo, Get Right has an ok intro but it doesn’t get the crowd going the way you’d want, same as Play and Jenny From the Block. They literally want the crowd to get loud here, so why not play the song telling them to?

This is a much tougher field to back since Shakira will probably come out second after Lopez has had her initial set and it kind of depends on how she is set up, whether it is a clean intro or a blend into her big reveal. It opens up a few more possibilities since she doesn’t need to do the big opener. With that in mind she’s still going to go for one of her big hits that everyone knows. We’ll play it safe here and go for the obvious Hips Don’t Lie which is the favourite.

Before you jump on whatever your favourite flavour of Gatorade is, you have to look at a few little tidbits. Purple and Red have come into favouritism for some reason despite teams tending to shun those two choices. In the last 20 years we haven’t seen a red Gatorade bath and just because both teams wear red isn’t enough to get me backing that outcome. Clear and Orange have both come through four times in the last 20 seasons (as has “N/A”) and we’re going to back Clear in this one since it offers great value to salute for the first time since Super Bowl 42.

These guys know where their bread is buttered and whoever wins MVP knows they have to thank their teammates for “helping get them here”. Although it would be great to see one of the guys say “screw it, it was all me, I carried these bums all season and they know it, I’m the greatest!” If anyone is going to do that we’re backing Travis Kelce.