During the 2023 Thanksgiving football game where the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers went head to head, Jack Harlow gave us a halftime performance unlike any before. The home team was losing by a considerable margin by halftime in Ford Field, and Harlow’s show was the cherry on top for many football fans.
The night before his performance, Harlow allegedly left mid-rehearsal, causing almost all of his back-up dancers to not be featured in the performance as they could not practice without Harlow’s placement. Not only did Harlow have a lack of back-up dancers, he also did not care to employ an interpreter either for deaf listeners. The man lurking behind Harlow also did not seem to know the words to “Tyler Herro,” another off-putting component of this show.
Source: TikTok account @sportstvz
While viewers at home had a slightly better view, fans in Ford Field witnessing this performance live noted that Harlow was only performing to the cameras on an inflated igloo set that also gained much backlash. The audio for the artist’s six minute set was badly mixed, causing the instrumentals to be significantly louder than his vocals.
Many NFL and Jack Harlow fans took to the internet to express their disdain. With comments and tweets such as “Jack Harlow’s halftime performance set looked like it was from Frozen” and “the budget for his show was $49.99.” The criticism didn’t stop there: others compared his performance to Dolly Parton’s halftime show, and how even she outperformed him at age 77.
On Jack Harlow’s Twitter account, NFL fans ambushed him by responding to his tweet with comments such as “Next time you get a halftime invite, can you decline?” and “you single handedly ruined my Thanksgiving.”
Others claim that this is an intentional ploy for Harlow to gain more recognition in the music industry, regardless if the exposure is positive or negative.