At the Super Bowl, Green Day is anything but an “American Idiot.”
The Grammy-winning pop punk band brought its signature rock ‘n’ roll swagger to Super Bowl LX on Sunday, Feb. 8, with a lively performance at the game’s opening ceremony.
What was the television viewership rating for Super Bowl LX opening ceremony?
The commemorative segment celebrated the Super Bowl’s 60th anniversary and featured various MVPs from the football championship’s last six decades.
Green Day delivered a rousing medley from its politically charged seventh album “American Idiot.” The band kicked things off with a performance of “Holiday,” followed by “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “American Idiot.”
Ahead of their performance, lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong shared the Berkeley, California band’s excitement to be performing “right in our backyard” (Berkeley is just across the San Francisco Bay from Levi’s Stadium).
“We are honored to welcome the MVPs who’ve shaped the game and open the night for fans all over the world,” Armstrong said in a January statement. “Let’s have fun! Let’s get loud!”
This isn’t the first time Green Day has gotten political on the mic.
The band’s now-classic 2004 album “American Idiot,” inspired by the post-9/11 era and the social unrest following the Iraq War, featured the titular protest song, which criticized U.S. media coverage of the yearslong Middle Eastern conflict.
In recent years, the politically outspoken group has also taken on the Trump administration. During a 2016 performance at the American Music Awards, the band altered the lyrics to its song “Bang Bang” to criticize then newly-elected President Donald Trump: “No Trump. No KKK. No fascist USA.”
And while playing at a pre-game party in San Francisco on Friday, Armstrong called out Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers amid the Trump administration’s controversial crackdown on illegal immigration.
“To all the ICE agents out there, wherever you are, quit your … job,” Armstrong said at the time. “Quit that … job you have.”
Who else is performing during the Super Bowl?
Green Day isn’t the only musical heavyweight act hitting the Super Bowl stage.
The band joins a star-studded roster that includes pop star Charlie Puth, Americana powerhouse Brandi Carlile, R&B songstress Coco Jones and halftime show headliner Bad Bunny.
What time is the Super Bowl halftime show with Bad Bunny?
The Super Bowl game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET.
The halftime show starts after the second quarter. Expect Benito to hit the stage roughly at 8-8:30 p.m. ET. There’s no official start time, and the time Bad Bunny takes the stage depends on clock stoppages, penalties, timeouts and injuries during the first half of the game.
Contributing: Ayrton Ostly, Erin Jensen and Mary Walrath-Holdridge, USA TODAY