When a rumor came out that Pink had been offered the Superbowl Halftime Show, many of her fans were hugely disappointed to find out that the singer had turned down the offer.
In an interview with Billboard she has now explained why.
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In the interview, Pink explains that it used to be a bucket-list show for her.
But now, Pink says that “everybody that does it gets so persecuted,” likely referring to the intense criticism from the press and from fans online.
Pink also said the show had lost its appeal to her for a controversial reason.
She cited the NFL’s treatment of Colin Kaepernick after his high profile protest of police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem.
“I’d probably take a knee and get carried out,” Pink explained.
Pink did have some suggestions for the show, though, given that the interview happened before the announcement of J.Lo and Shakira’s performance. “They should give it to Janet Jackson.”
“That’s who should be doing the Super Bowl.”
“There’s rumblings around J. Lo, Rihanna — they all deserve it,” she continued.
“They should only give it, because of the controversy, to African-American or Latina women for a while.”
We might have missed out on an epic Superbowl Halftime Show with Pink at the helm, but we love when people stand up for what they believe in!
Pink was right about who eventually took the gig, but she was also right about someone else who was offered it.
It was recently revealed that Rihanna had also been offered the job.
Her reasoning was extremely similar to Pink’s. When asked by Vogue if she had turned down the job because of the NFL’s treatment of Colin Kaepernick, she said, “Absolutely.”
“I couldn’t dare do that. For what?”
“Who gains from that? Not my people,” Rihanna continued. “I just couldn’t be a sellout. I couldn’t be an enabler.”
Rihanna echoed Pink’s justification.
“There’s things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way,” she said.
Rapper Cardi B also stated she declined the job offer with “mixed feelings.”
“You have to sacrifice that,” she said . “I got to sacrifice a lot of money to perform. But there’s a man who sacrificed his job for us, so we got to stand behind him.”
