Katy Perry’s performance at Super Bowl XLIX was the best half-time show I have seen. I say this knowing it puts my gay card at risk for both watching the “sportsbowl” enough years to compare her to prior performers, and because Beyoncé and Madonna were among them. But Perry had a motorized lion, dancing sharks and enough costume changes to be the heir to Cher. It was pitch perfect, right up until she dissed the LGBT community for the NFL audience.
It was subtle, but it caught my attention. Perry did five songs on her own. She did two with Missy Elliott. She did one song with Lenny Kravitz.
It was “I Kissed a Girl.”
For those unfamiliar with Perry’s discography, “I Kissed a Girl” was her first No. 1 hit in the U.S., from her second album One of the Boys. It is unabashedly about the female singer kissing another woman. The song’s release generated considerable controversy as to whether it supported homosexuality, encouraged experimentation or minimized the seriousness of discovering one’s sexual orientation. At this point, though, there is little doubt the LGBT community added to the success of “I Kissed A Girl”, and it’s hailed as an anthem in our dance clubs.
A Super Bowl performance of “I Kissed a Girl” could have felt so right if Perry had sung it with Missy Elliott, who was there anyway. Even Perry singing the song herself would have been a wink of acceptance to LGBT football fans.
Instead, it felt so wrong, particularly if you watch closely. Kravitz and Perry split the androgynous first verse, with choreography that suggests they are quite into each other and ends any argument that the censors were against all sex, not just same-sex. (As does Elliott performing a song entitled “Get Ur Freak On.”) Perry does actually sing “I kissed a girl, and I liked it”, but so does Kravitz, stalwartly there to diffuse any potential homoeroticism. That purpose is underscored by the fact that Kravitz backs away from the microphone for “I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it.”
I don’t know whether Perry or the NFL decided to play the song as straight as possible, but I’m fairly certain they were afraid of offending their conservative audience. Whoever made the call should know it’s not what good friends do, not how they should behave. Better to skip the song altogether and deal with that fallout than to turn what could have been an olive branch to the LGBT community into a switch.
From the league that barely drafted the first openly gay football player, and then couldn’t even keep him employed a year, it is a big deal, and it’s not innocent. I applaud the NFL for trying to start a conversation about domestic violence, but is it too much to ask that they stay in the one about LGBT equality? Then maybe the NFL’s promise to “seek new ways of performing in response to fans interests,” could also apply to the half-time performance and LGBT fans.
