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Dresses that made history
Nipplegate at the Super Bowl: When a leather look swept across America
Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake at their Super Bowl performance in February 2004
© Donald Miralle / Getty Images
It was intended as a trick and ended in scandal: Justin Timberlake accidentally exposed Janet Jackson’s right breast at the 2004 Super Bowl. The incident went down in history as Nipplegate.
The Super Bowl, the final of the American professional football league, is one of the biggest sporting events in the world and attracts around 100 million viewers in front of the television sets in the USA alone every year. The half-time show is awaited with as much excitement as the game. Since the early 1990s, it has been customary for the hottest pop stars to perform there. The New Kids on the Block were one of the first bands, followed by performances by Michael Jackson, the Rolling Stones and Madonna.
The fact that Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake made the most headline-grabbing Super Bowl performance to date was not due to their singing, but to a breakdown in their clothes. In 2004, the two performed together in Houston, Texas, presenting Timberlake’s song “Rock Your Body” as a duet.
The 41-year-old came in a green T-shirt, black shirt and beige pants. Jackson’s outfit was far more spectacular: a kind of scaled leather coat with a laced bodice and pants underneath. The creation was designed by designer Alexander McQueen, who died in 2010.
Justin Timberlake ripped Janet Jackson’s bra
The idea for the performance was as follows: to Timberlake’s line “I’m gonna have you naked by the end of this song”, he should pull Jackson’s bustier away and reveal a red bra underneath. But the fabric tore and Timberlake revealed Jackson’s right breast, which was decorated with a piece of silver jewelry. The scandal was perfect.
The 55-year-old had to apologize publicly after the mishap, but defended fashion designer McQueen. “I don’t blame him. He didn’t tear it up,” Jackson said of the outfit. She was portrayed as the culprit in the scandal, although MTV, which organized the halftime show, was also responsible for the choreography.
No one intended Jackson to bare her chest, least of all herself. Years later, a stylist involved claimed it was Timberlake’s idea. He wanted to attract as much attention as possible. To this day, Jackson himself calls the matter an accident that was “exaggerated far too much.”
Nevertheless, the outfit breakdown still haunts her to this day and the term Nipplegate is inextricably linked to Janet Jackson. Everything passed without a trace on Justin Timberlake, the actual cause of the super meltdown. He also commented, but only described the faux pas as “regrettable”. He publicly apologized to Janet Jackson last year.
The Grammy Awards took place a week after the 2004 Super Bowl. Janet Jackson was uninvited, Justin Timberlake was allowed to perform and won two of the coveted music prizes. And not only that: In 2018 he was allowed to play the halftime show of the Super Bowl again.
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