Halftime Show Performers Upset With Crazy Work Schedule

• The Super Bowl 56 halftime show will be headlined by some hip-hop legends, but they won’t be the only ones on stage.
• The backup dancers, singers and actors all allegedly go unpaid for all of their practice.

LOS ANGELES - Everyone knows there’s a lot of work behind the scenes to make the Super Bowl halftime show work, but now the details are coming out and people are unhappy.

Is 72 Unpaid Hours Too Much?

It may be news to many that backup dancers and singers at the Super Bowl go unpaid for their work as the unit is largely pulled from local drill teams and the theatrical community. Considering they are more or less volunteers, it seems natural they would not get paid, but people believe that should change.

The Super Bowl is one of the biggest events of the year and brings a huge money-making opportunity for many, NFL betting sites included. The halftime show is a large part of the event.

The workers apparently work 72 hours over a nine-day span, good for an average of eight hours a day, and do unpaid rehearsals, practice and walkthroughs. Whether or not they should be paid for their work has sparked a debate.

The Arguments For Both Sides

There are two schools of thought, one comes from dance artist and activist Taja Riley who said, “every single person working the most profitable event of the year should be paid,” the other comes from the halftime show choreographer Fatima Robinson who said “the same way people volunteer for Coachella and the Olympics - to have the experience, to be in the place, to be in the event. Super Bowl has been doing it every year; this year has been no different.”

The Super Bowl halftime show follows every other rule of life with supply and demand. If the entire crew walked out in protest of not getting paid, there would surely be a long line of people willing to do the work for free for the exposure and experience it would bring.

Whether or not it’s fair or ethical is up for debate but the reality of the situation is likely nothing will change until there is a lack of dancers and singers willing to do the work for free.