Tonight is the day, then one of the most commercial, major sporting events in the world will take place. In Super Bowl LVII, American football is played, there is a performance by a big star and we all see expensive commercials with celebrities in them. Read all about Super Bowl LVII here
Super Bowl IVII
There’s a lot of fuss around the Super Bowl, but at the end of the day it’s a sporting event. A sporting event of a sport that is usually not really followed in the Netherlands: American Football. The rules are very different from any other sport, but luckily there are reporters to explain things (and otherwise there’s always the internet). What you do need to know is who’s playing who: it’s the Kansas City Chiefs against the Philadelphia Eagles. In Glendale, Arizona, these two greats have to live up to it. The Chiefs are familiar with this big stage: they have been in the Super Bowl a few times in recent years. The Eagles are the underdog in that regard in the stadium, where 70,000 people are watching them.
The traditions
In America, Super Bowl is all there is to play this week. There are around 111 million people watching this event in America alone. It’s probably around 170 million worldwide. Almost all Americans do. During that period, liquor stores have a daily turnover that they normally collect in a month, because everyone gets together with friends to watch the Super Bowl.
The half time show
Rihanna wakes up from her hiatus from music to perform at the Super Bowl. She follows in the footsteps of Dr. Dre and entourage (last year), Beyonce, J. Lo, Coldplay and The Weeknd. The 34-year-old singer has hardly played anything since her album Anti in 2016, except recently for her beautiful ballad for the film Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.
She got involved with rapper A$AP Rocky, together they gave birth to their first child last year and Rihanna is also very busy with her make-up and underwear brand Fenty. She has not been idle, but is now standing on the biggest stage. Free. It’s not RiRi’s fault: no star gets paid to perform at the halftime show. There is no better advertisement for yourself.
There’s more music, though: the national anthem is sung by country singer Chris Stapleton, along with Troy Kotsur (in sign language). Before that, R&B singer Babyface will perform the song America the Beautiful and it is up to Sheryl Lee Ralph (known from Disney + series Abbott Elementary) to perform Lift Every Voice and Sing.
The commercials
A commercial during the Super Bowl costs about $ 4 million, so you can count on the commercials that are shown to look completely slick. Here’s a selection of what’s on tonight. And pay attention, because there is also a Dutch touch to this year’s Super Bowl. The Dutch company Booking.com has created a whole lineup of commercials, an accumulation of which will be shown during the Super Bowl. Plus: Heineken is also present, with none other than Ant-Man.
How do you watch the Super Bowl in the Netherlands?
One of the best ways to watch the Super Bowl is on the BBC. Although the commentary is not Dutch, there is no advertising and it is explained very well how it works. Prefer Dutch? ESPN has the rights to the 2023 NFL Super Bowl on ESPN’s channel 1. You can purchase ESPN from Ziggo and KPN, but that will cost you some extra money for your monthly subscription.
What time is the Super Bowl on TV?
In the US, the Super Bowl is at a normal time, but not in the Netherlands. We can watch it from 00:30 am and often it continues until 4:30 am, with the halftime show in the middle, of course, a moment after which many viewers from the Netherlands drop out, because the alarm goes off again at 07:30 am for a new working day.
Watch DutchCowboys tomorrow for the movie trailers that launched during Super Bowl LVII.
Laura Jenny
When she’s not tapping, she’s traveling around the wonderful world of entertainment or some cool place in the real world. Mario is the man of her life,…