Maroon 5, Travis Scott and half-time Super Bowl spark controversy

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The half-time show at the Super Bowl attracts an audience of up to 100 million people. As a musician, it's about the biggest stage you can hope for.

Some performances, notably those of Michael Jackson and Prince, are still evoked years later.

So surely no artist would refuse it?

But Cardi B and Rihanna are just two of the people who would have rejected the NFL bid to perform in Atlanta this Sunday.

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Those who accepted, including Maroon 5, Travis Scott and OutKast Big Boi, were greeted by a petition asking them to step down.

So what's the problem this year?

& # 39; Too much is too much & # 39;

It's been almost two and a half years since Colin Kaepernick, a former San Francisco 49ers player, began to kneel during the national anthem played before football matches in the United States.

The quarterback was protesting police brutality against African Americans.

Other players joined his protest.

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Many people, including President Trump, hated his position. Last year, the NFL announced that teams would be fined if players kneeled under the national anthem.

Kaepernick has not played in the NFL since 2016 – no club has signed it and the protests have largely disappeared.

But the player also had tremendous support.

"People think enough, that's enough," said Christina Lee, a reporter who has spent the last ten years covering the Atlanta music scene.

She thinks that the reason there was such a reaction against Maroon 5 is due to the "NFL's refusal to recognize" the situation.

"Why is Colin Kaepernick still free?"

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It's a delicate balance for the artists.

The half-time series has, in recent years, given way to politics – like the performance of Heal The World by Michael Jackson in 1993 or Beyonce channeling the Black Panthers when she made her training debut in 2016.

But Christina Lee says that Maroon 5 is not normally "the type of group to woo the controversy".

In the week leading up to their performance, their press conference was canceled. The NFL has said it wants to "let the show speak".

There followed an interview for Entertainment Tonight, where group leader Adam Levine said the group had expected controversy and had done a lot of "internal research."

"I've never been so enthusiastic in my life to introduce this to people because I believe it's really a reflection of us all."

As for the show addressing the situation of Colin Kaepernick?

"I'm just wondering what statement she's actually going to make because they've never been the kind of group to talk about these issues," Christina said.

But there are those who think you should be able to separate music from politics.

Sonny Digital is a producer from Atlanta, who has collaborated with Future, Young Thug and Travis Scott.

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"If they want to play at the Super Bowl, why not?" said Sonny, who would have an offer to play there.

"It's a unique thing in life," he told Newsbeat in his studio in Atlanta.

We have not all focused on Maroon 5 – Travis Scott and Big Boi have also been criticized.

Meek Mill asked why Travis would choose to perform for the NFL and Jay-Z would have tried to bring back the Texan rapper – even as he reportedly asked the NFL to donate to a social justice charity in the framework of his performance contract.

"What more do you want from him?" Sonny says. "They were not going to do it [donate] before, now it has been added to the transaction.

"Sometimes people are never satisfied, you have to look both ways.

"Why would he have said no? Come on brother he is 26, he is at the top of the world. Why would not I want to have" played at the Super Bowl in Atlanta "to my credit?"

"We control the music"

There was also a dispute over who does not play.

When Atlanta was announced host city, fans – as well as prominent musicians – called for the mid-term show to represent the city's rich musical culture.

Migos, Future, 2 Chainz, Ludacris, T.I, Usher, 21-year-old Savage, Young Jeezy, Gucci Mane, Lil Baby and Jermaine Dupri are just a few of the Atlantins that could have happened.

DJ Holiday, legend of Atlantan, was among those who thought the NFL would pick a local hip-hop actor as a mid-season poster.

"I finally figured out that they would embody the hip-hop culture that we are," he told Newsbeat.

"You have to do that, everyone knows what Atlanta is, what we have done and what we have put on the map, we control the music, not in fashion."

This means that Big Boi is the only Atlanta representative on the bill.

But since he is one of the members of OutKast, who helped put Atlanta on the map in the '90s, the NFL could have done a lot worse.

"I told him you had to do that, you have to make sure it looks like Atlanta," said DJ Holiday.

He said: "I promise that I will do everything in my power to make sure everything is fine."

"I pray that he will do something special."

Travis Scott's representative was contacted for an interview but Newsbeat did not receive a response. The representative of Big Boi refused an interview request.

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