Being a member of the Super Bowl Halftime Show cast is one of the coolest things you can do. From first learning you are in the show, to starting rehearsals, slowly learning the whole show and finally performing it, you experience a rollercoaster of excitement unparalleled by any other performance. I'm a member of the University of Minnesota Marching Band which means I had the opportunity to perform "Suit and Tie" with Justin Timberlake!
When the Super Bowl started getting closer towards the end of our marching band season, the band started it's own little social media campaign to try and grab the attention of not only hundreds of followers but also of Justin Timberlake and his staff. This got pretty interesting with the infamous bottle flipping of Kyle Tsuchiya.
At our end of year band banquet, the last little bit of our director's speech was him letting us know in the most nonchalant way that, "Oh, by the way, you're in the Super Bowl Halftime Show!"
The most interesting developments really came with the beginnings of the rehearsal process. Rehearsals would last anywhere from 3-9 hours depending on when they were scheduled for, and things changed so quickly and frequently. One day you'd think, "Wow, we just learned the whole show!" and then the next day half of it would change and you'd do it all over again. It was crazy!
The hardest part of the whole process was being sworn to secrecy the moment we found out we were in the show. I don't think I ever said "Super Bowl" out loud until halfway through one of our later rehearsals. Even though I was surrounded by band kids who were there for the rehearsal too, it still felt so weird and almost taboo to have said those words out loud.
Meeting Justin Timberlake for the first time and talking with him was amazing. He's totally a normal guy who just sings and dances reallywell. It's also really cool to hear him say, "Wow, I wish I was a Gopher," after hearing the band sing Hail Minnesota at the end of our first rehearsal with him.
The coolest part for me as a music major was recording the track we played along to at the halftime show one night. We got to meet two of the hottest composers and artists in Hollywood, Dontae Winslow and Adam Blackstone. Both compose music for Justin Timberlake and play in his band while still writing for other artists including Maroon 5, Rihanna, and so many more.
After many long hours at US Bank Stadium, rehearsals did start to drag a little. However, it always picked right back up when I thought about the fact that I was getting a personal, Justin Timberlake concert every night of the week. At worst, I was maybe 20 people away from him while at best, I was only a person away from him. It was crazy to think about!
My favorite part of the whole process was walking out of the tunnel into US Bank Stadium at halftime on game day. Looking up to see a filled stadium of 66,000 people and knowing over 100,000,000 people are watching us on TV was surreal. As soon as we were finished, everyone was just ecstatic. When we got back to TCF Bank Stadium (Home of the Pride of Minnesota Marching Band) it felt just amazing to be able to tell people what we had been doing the last few weeks, spending over 60+ hours rehearsing.
In short, performing the Super Bowl halftime show was nothing short of amazing. Even though the entire process was long and crazy, every single moment was worth it the minute we stepped out onto that field.