One-name wonder Madonna — one of the most innovative, provocative and culturally relevant entertainers of our time — dazzled an audience of 111.3 million Sunday night with a visually stunning spectacular at the Super Bowl halftime show.
Probably the most shocking part was that nothing shocking happened. The Material Girl was relatively uncontroversial during a 13-minute set that concluded with a rendition of “Like A Prayer,” backed by Cee Lo Green and a gospel choir. It was certifiably tame compared to the burning crosses of the song’s 1989 music video, which drew ire from the pope himself.
The closest to scandalous the show came was when guest star M.I.A. flipped the bird to the camera. The gesture was quick enough for most viewers to miss it, yet media outlets eager for halftime controversy gave M.I.A. the attention she wanted, prompting a response from the NFL that said the “obscene gesture” was “completely inappropriate [and] very disappointing.”
The split-second snafu served as a reminder of the controversial, press-baiting ways one might have expected from Madonna. The only difference is that Madonna’s outlandish behavior usually comes with at least a hint of a deeper message, while M.I.A. was likely just rebelling against compromising her status as an edgy, challenging musician by becoming a choreographed cheerleader beside the world’s most successful pop star.
But try as M.I.A. might to grab headlines, the focus was undeniably on Madonna in one of the biggest performances of her 29-year career. She wore the spotlight well, delivering one of the most exciting Super Bowl performances in recent memory and adding yet another notch to her bedpost of high-profile pop culture moments.
From the moment she rolled around the stage of the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards in a wedding dress as she sang “Like a Virgin,” Madonna secured a place in our cultural consciousness unrivaled by just about anyone in the last three decades.
And she’s never lost her touch. She sold more than 1.5 million copies of her 1992 coffee table book, “Sex,” which featured nude photos of the singer. She raised questions about censorship when she appeared on “The Late Show with David Letterman” in 1994, smoking a cigar and uttering the F-word 13 times on air. She upstaged pretty much everyone at the 2003 VMAs through the kiss heard ‘round the world with Britney Spears.
And just last month she lit up the blogosphere merely by calling Lady Gaga “reductive” during an interview with “20/20,” sending thousands to look up the word’s definition and landing Madonna on the front page of the Merriam-Webster website.
So it’s understandable that one might expect something scintillating when such a provocateur takes television’s biggest stage. Instead, the controversy-free show was a far cry from the 2004 “wardrobe malfunction” that made Janet Jackson a mortal enemy of the FCC. But we couldn’t have expected as much after her interview with Jay Leno last week.
“For sure no nipples,” Madonna told the late night host. “I don’t like to repeat myself.”
Her Super Bowl performance, which was generally praised by critics and fans (fittingly, considering she did cartwheels in stilettos at age 53), takes Madonna one step further on her path to world domination.
Hitting it out of the park on the biggest TV show of the year is only the most recent milestone for Madge. She’s also sold more than 300 million records worldwide and won seven Grammys and two Golden Globe awards.
Beyond that, she will forever be an icon of sexual liberation, free speech and reinvention. Over-the-top pop starlets of today owe their very existence to Madonna, whose career reads like a how-to guide for an unapologetic rise to international superstardom.
And with a new album, “MDNA,” slated for a March release, 2012 looks like yet another year of Madominance.
 
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Contact Ryan Buxton at [email protected]