On Sunday, February 3rd, more than 100 million Americans were expected to watch Super Bowl 53 and its highly anticipated halftime show. That amount of viewership means that most years, the halftime show is a greatly desired performance slot, but this year, it’s covered in controversy. Maroon 5, led by the lead singer Adam Levine, is set to perform, with Travis Scott and Big Boi making guest appearances. But all three acts were added late in the process after multiple stars had turned down the offer to appear during the halftime show. Both Maroon 5 and Travis Scott have received major backlash after proclaiming their performances.

Here’s how this year's Super Bowl halftime show ended up begging for performers in 2019. As the Super Bowl approached with no sign of an added guest performer, rumors came out that the halftime committee was desperate to find someone, ideally an inspirational hype artist of color, to perform with them, and they couldn’t get anyone to say yes.

 In December, Variety reported that the halftime committee had reached out to “more than a half-dozen stars” to join them for the halftime show, including André Benjamin, Mary J. Blige, Usher, Lauryn Hill, and Nicki Minaj. But every single one, Variety reported, declined the offer. There were various reasons why the aforementioned artists denied the proposition. For example, Cardi B declined the offer because she sided with Colin Kaepernick who is an American football quarterback. The obvious choice to fill the featured guest artist slot would have been Cardi B. Cardi collaborated with Maroon 5 on a remix of “Girls Like Us” in 2018, and her star is only rising; her name had been in the mix for featured guest artist starting in September, well before Maroon 5 was even confirmed. But in December, she reportedly declined the offer.

Reports vary as to why Cardi said no. One source told Page Six that she would only do it if the NFL offered her $1 million (halftime performers are typically unpaid). But another said that Cardi, like Rihanna, was standing in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and that she would only consider performing “when they hire Colin Kaepernick back.”

Cardi has long been vocal in her support of Kaepernick. At the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards, she used her acceptance speech for Best New Artist as an opportunity to shout him out, saying, “Colin Kaepernick: As long as you kneel with us, we gonna be standing for you, baby.”

A representative for Cardi B told Page Six that the reports she wanted $1 million are false, and that while “she was not particularly interested in participating because of how she feels about Colin Kaepernick and the whole movement,” she didn’t actually turn down the Super Bowl because “there was never a solid offer for her to say yes or no to.

 Levine and Maroon 5 have faced months of criticism after signing onto the Super Bowl halftime show. More than 100,000 fans signed a Change petition urging the band to drop out of the show well before they even decided they were playing.

 As Levine told Entertainment Tonight Thursday about how he's dealing with the fracas, "I'm not in the right profession if I can't handle a little bit of controversy. It's what it is. We expected it. We'd like to move on from it and speak through the music." Ultimately, Levine said, “The spectacle is the music. The way that we speak is through music. The way that we emote and perform is through the music." This shows that Adam Levine’s main focus isn’t whether or not he can deal with the controversy it’s his music. Adam wants to be able to perform in front of an enthusiastic crowd and have everyone join in singing. In conclusion, performing at the Superbowl was a tough decision for these artists because of the controversies containing Colin Kaepernick and police brutality.