Performing for 150 million
Justin Timberlake and the Minnesota Golden Gopher marching band perform at Super Bowl LII
“Surreal” and “Crazy,” that’s how Cotter alumnus Sam Young (class of ’17) described his experience at the Super Bowl on Sunday evening.
The University of Minnesota marching band performed at the Super Bowl halftime show with Justin Timberlake at US Bank Stadium.
Young, a freshman at the U of M, plays mellophone in the marching band, and could be seen on the TV right behind Justin Timberlake during the song “Suits and Ties”
Sam and his band mates learned that they would be performing the Super Bowl when director Betsy McCann announced it at the University of Minnesota marching band banquet on December 10.
“We had submitted a Youtube video and got on social media hoping to be included. Everyone went crazy when we heard that we would perform with JT,” Young said.
The band members were all extremely excited, but were not allowed to tell anyone about the news, and a strict social media ban regarding news of the show was issued.
Two weeks before the show, the band practiced at TCF Bank Stadium, the Gophers’ home stadium.
Then, they moved to the Coliseum on the State Fair Grounds for rehearsals, and finally to US Bank, where they practiced for eight hours a day for three days the week prior to the game.
Band members were able to meet Justin Timberlake at the rehearsals.
Two nights before the Super Bowl, Young remembers having a “nervous attack”, knowing that he would be performing in front of millions.
He also remembers being very excited. The US audience for the game was estimated at 111 million viewers, with over 150 million watching worldwide.
When Sunday finally arrived, the marching band waited in the tunnel for the first half of the game, watching the game on monitors, until their moment arrived.
“It was surreal,” Young recalls.
During Timberlake’s show, the University of Minnesota band members can be seen in tuxedos dancing and playing behind Justin Timberlake.
Here is the link to the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z3EUY1aXdY
The marching band can be seen starting at the 6:50 mark, and Sam Young can be seen in the back on the right side of the screen at 7:07.
After the game the band had an after-party at their usual gathering space at TCF Bank stadium, where they were able to watch the performance and they were interviewed by WCCO and KARE 11 news teams.
Here’s the WCCO story:
“Marching Band is the best thing I’ve done this year. We had a ten day camp before freshman arrived on campus in the fall that was a blast.”
“We perform at halftime of home football games and are hoping to go on the road as well, and when the football team goes to a bowl game we will perform there, as well.”
Below is a link to the Crowdfund site that is hoping to raise $200,o00 for travel costs to away games. A donor is matching all gifts up to $100,000.
https://crowdfund.umn.edu/PrideofMN
Young said practices are usually two hours a day during the football season and encourages any current high school students who are considering joining marching band at the university level to give it a shot.
