Katy Perry's Super Bowl Halftime Show was a success on so many levels. It gave us a nice break from football, an unlimited amount of memes and made us all feel like fireworks. Well done.
But you know who really came out ahead after the performance? Missy Elliott and her not-so-surprise appearance during Perry's 12-minute set.
For the past several years, Elliott has taken a break from the spotlight as she battled Graves disease, and her return at such a big venue was definitely triumphant. Elliott joined Perry on stage to perform three of her biggest hits, "Get Ur Freak On," "Work It" and "Lose Control," as if no time had passed at all. Many even praised Elliott's performance so much they thought she stole the show from Perry.
In fact, the huge jump in Spotify streams of Elliott's music after her Super Bowl performance shows that the public is welcoming her back with open arms. Spotify traffic for Elliott's music saw an increase of 676 percent after her performance last night, according to Spotify data obtained by The Huffington Post. As for the three tracks Elliott performed, traffic for "Lose Control" increased 1,396 percent, "Get Ur Freak On" increased 922 percent and "Work It" increased 896 percent. These numbers are based on Spotify traffic during one hour prior to Elliott's performance compared to its peak from 11 p.m. to midnight.
But don't worry. Perry wasn't completely overshadowed during the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Her Spotify traffic increased 85 percent. Of course, given her current mega-popularity and commercial success, Perry obviously would not have as big of a jump in traffic as Elliott, whose last album, The Cookbook, dropped in 2005. So to compare them based on the increase in their Spotify traffic really wouldn't make that much sense.
Just because Lenny Kravitz was only on screen for like six seconds doesn't mean he didn't get a little bit more Spotify love than usual, too. His Spotify traffic increased 103 percent overall. And he didn't even sing any of his own songs. Now that's pretty impressive.
When Perry's shark back-up dancers release their inevitable new single, I expect their Spotify traffic to be high, too.
