Saturday Night Live's season premiere this past weekend saw Megan Thee Stallion use the platform as a call to action. During the performance of her hit single "Savage,'' the Houston rapper briefly veered from the song's braggadocious energy to bring attention to a real issue.
Through no fault of her own, Megan has indirectly become the face of violence against Black Women. She was the victim of gunshot wounds to both feet after attending Kylie Jenner's pool party in July. In August, she revealed that it was Tory Lanez who shot her allegedly. Her accusations on Instagram Live were a cause for speculation. There had been rumblings on social media that Tory was the shooter, but now Megan's credibility suddenly came into question.
Adam Levine is no stranger to the conversation surrounding his alleged douchery and is now in over his head now that Instagram influencer Sumner Stroh posted receipts to TikTok detailing an alleged affair with The Voice coach.
He's often even embraced it and, like many jerks before him, repeatedly tried to gaslight the public into loving him anyway. "You're a lead singer of a hot band," Cosmopolitan frankly asked the Maroon 5 frontman in 2009. "Does that automatically make you cocky?" "A little," the singer responded. "But in a playful, not arrogant way."
In an interview with Zane Lowe this morning, the singer — who has said in previous interviews that "no one knows how planes actually work" and that he "spends most of his life naked " — told the legendary radio host, among other things, that "there aren't any bands anymore."
"That's the thing that makes me kind of sad, is that there were just bands," he said, apparently yearning for the days of skinny jeans and Club Penguin. "There's no [sic] bands anymore, and I feel like they're a dying breed. And so I kind of, in a weird way, as far as...I mean, there are still plenty of bands, and maybe they're not in the limelight quite as much, or in the pop limelight, but I wish there could be more of those around." Is he right? Does the expansive success of Haim or The Foo Fighters' not count?
While even an entire article can't possibly cover every single vapid statement Levine has ever made, there are a few highlights that stand above the rest. Here are the douchiest things Adam Levine has ever said, as we add this latest Zane Lowe interview to the mix.
The Obnoxious Concert
Image by: Larry Marano/Shutterstock
Sporting an insufferable mohawk, Levine was heavily criticized for sporting low energy and a bratty attitude at a show last year at Chile's Vina del Mar International Song Festival. "Well, if you want to do my job, go ahead" he said at one point, heckling the audience as they sang along to "She Will Be Loved." "That was a TV show. Not a concert," Levine was heard saying backstage after the lackluster 15-song performance.
Fully aware of the civil unrest in the country, Levine and his band were late to the show, and Levine had asked that "no one look him in the face" prior to the performance. The blowback forced Levine to release a 2-minute statement, in which he claimed technical difficulties were responsible for his insipid and detached demeanor. "Performing I take so seriously," he said with a slight smirk. "There were some things holding me back sonically last night."
In one of Levine's most legendary interviews, the singer really leaned into his obnoxiousness during a 2009 profile with Cosmpolitan. "Why do guys cheat?" the interviewer asks at one point. "Instinctively, monogamy is not in our genetic makeup," Levine replied.
"People cheat. I have cheated. And you know what? There is nothing worse than the feeling of doing it." Elsewhere, Levine said his best feature was that he was able to "detach himself." "It's also my worst feature," he said. "I let myself off the hook to the point where it's a bad thing. People are hard on themselves. I'm not."
Back in 2012, Levine offered a plethora of callous and obnoxious quotes to choose from:
"I was the music dude that was naked all the time with the girls, and that's fine, no problem with that," he said at one point.
But the most inflammatory quote came when Levine spoke on Yoga.
The article read: "'You know what yoga's good for?' Adam Levine asks, pausing in mid-thought as he discusses his healthful lifestyle. He draws to his feet, balances in the private jet's narrow aisle, points to his crotch and thrusts his pelvis like a porn star. 'I'll tell you what yoga is good for: f****ing.'"
Back in 2018, when Levine was a regular judge on the hit NBC show The Voice, Levine faced some serious blowback after he threw a member of his team under the bus. Two of his contestants, 22-year-old DeAndre Nico and 14-year-old Reagan Strange, were in the bottom two leading into the show's season finale. Both had been given the opportunity to perform one more song and stave off elimination, but Strange was too sick to perform. "This sucks, man," Levine said on live TV. "DeAndre, you're an exquisite singer. I'm a little confused as to why you're in the bottom. That perplexes me. But I want to say this." At this moment, he paused, making DeAndre visibly uncomfortable.
"There is an unbelievably talented little girl right now who is not able to fight for her position on this show. And you were fortunate enough tonight to be able to sing. And man, you sang like a champ." He went on to actively encourage viewers to vote for Strange and said he had "a very special relationship with her."
Well, the audience heard Levine's cries loud and clear and ended up voting Reagan forward and eliminating DeAndre. Fans were furious. It didn't help, either, that DeAndre was Black and Reagan was white. Levine was eventually forced to release a statement, and in it called DeAndre "his boy" and said that they talked and that it was "all good." Whether DeAndre actually agreed has yet to be seen.
Adam Levine Thinks You Should Get Off Tinder - GQ Celebrity Life Advice
Levine had been accused of being a douchebag so many times that in 2014 he encouraged GQ to dedicate an entire profile to exploring the idea. "Okay. Let's get into this: What are the characteristics of a douchebag?" he said in the article's opening line while eating an egg white omelet and sipping a green smoothie. From there, the article traverses Adam Levine's off-putting behavior with relative bias. The interviewer pointed towards a few instances of Levine's past transgressions, like when he said he slept with a lot of women because "he loved them so much."
"There was a time in my life when I lived probably a bit more on the primal level. And it was amazing," Levine rebutted. "I didn't say it like that, I didn't say it like Fabio." He went on to explain that men are dumber than women and that he asked himself the hard questions on his 35th birthday. "Am I gonna be a kid for twenty more years? Or am I gonna be a grown up?" he said. In the end, it remained unclear whether Levine was actually aware of his toxic affectations.
Image by: Esteban Felix/AP/Shutterstock
We all can vividly recall how horrendous the 2019 Super Bowl Halftime show was. Maroon 5's nomination controversy was well-placed, with Levine and co. accused of blatantly ignoring the racial undertones that hovered over the performance slot. Rihanna, Jay-Z, and Cardi B had all previously refused the invitation and instead stood in solidarity with quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who had been removed from the NFL as a result of kneeling during the national anthem.
The Super Bowl was set to take place in Atlanta, no less, a booming musical and culture hub for Black art. Levine, on the other hand, accepted the invitation without hesitation. "We're gonna keep doing what we're doing, hopefully without becoming politicians," he told Entertainment Tonight. Kaepernick's attorney went on Good Morning America and called the response cowardly.
What resulted was what everyone expected, a tasteless spectacle brimming with toxic braggadocio and white male machismo. Big Boi and Travis Scott's fleeting appearances couldn't save the milquetoast performance from being utterly devoid of political awareness or even the slightest bit of mutual respect. Then, Levine decided to take his shirt off.
If you watch the Super Bowl for the football, then we don't have much to talk about.
But if you watch the Super Bowl for the spectacle of the half time show and the commercials? We could get along. There are few performances in a musician's career with stakes as high as the Super Bowl half time show. It's live, the whole thing needs to be assembled in the length of a commercial break, and the whole country is watching and judging your performance.
Only the best of the best musical artists are invited to take the stage on football's big day, but not all of them nail it. Here are the 10 best Super Bowl halftime shows in history.
10.The Rolling Stones (2006)
Nobody can get a crowd going like Mick Jagger. The notorious showman was aided by a stage shaped like the band's iconic symbol and, of course, the blood pumping power of songs like "Start Me Up" and "Satisfaction." We could have done without the addition of the mediocre "Rough Justice," and it would have been nice if the band had performed a few more songs. Still, this performance makes our list because of the simple power of good rock n' roll.
9.Diana Ross (1996)
Arguably, the era of half time shows featuring elaborate sets, costume changes, and general over-the-top fanfare began with this iconic performance. Diana Ross appeared in a new costume for every single song, entered the arena via glittering platform, and was backed by a swarm of perfectly in-sync backup dancers.
8.Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (2009)
The only thing more American than football is Bruce Springsteen. He played an absolutely indomitable set during his halftime performance in 2009 that included "10th Avenue Freeze Out," "Born to Run," "Working on a Dream," and "Glory Days." While the performance was simple, Springsteen's enthusiasm was infectious and his stage presence magnetic.
7.Katy Perry, Lenny Kravitz, and Missy Elliott (2015)
With an over the top set and surprise guests Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliott, this was truly an iconic performance. But most importantly, we got the cultural touchstone of "left shark," the shark costume-clad back up dancer who simply, blessedly, didn't know the choreography.
6.Madonna, LMFAO, Nicki Minaj, Cee Lo Green (2012)
Madonna has never been known for her subtlety, and this performance was certainly not a rebranding. She entered the arena on a massive gold throne surrounded by scantily clad back up dancers and proceeded to put on a show that was as ambitious as it was chaotic. The bizarre array of guest performers added additional delightful dissonance that assured this performance was, at the very least, a spectacle worth remembering.
5.Aerosmith, NSYNC, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige, and Nelly (2001)
The sheer amount of star power on the stage for this performance easily earns the 2001 halftime show a place on our list. It was a stroke of genius to open with "Bye Bye Bye" from NSYNC and transition directly into Steven Tyler singing "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," and then to jump straight back into "It's Gonna Be Me." Teenagers and their dads alike were screaming with excitement during this high energy performance. And then, as if it could get any better, surprise guests Nelly, Mary J. Blige, and Britney Spears appear during "Walk This Way," cementing this performance as one of the best in history.
4.Coldplay, Beyoncé, and Bruno Mars (2016)
The song "Uptown Funk" is a national treasure, and if you disagree you're wrong. And for "Uptown Funk" to go straight into a politically charged performance of "Formation"??? We didn't deserve it. Then, Beyonce and Bruno do a call and response on stage with their respective posses, raising the energy in the stadium to a boiling point.
3.Lady Gaga (2017)
After much anticipation for this particular halftime show, Lady Gaga kept it surprisingly simple (at least, by Lady Gaga standards). She began by leaping off the top of the arena and lowering herself onto the stage like a spider. From there, fireworks and costume changes abounded. While the performance wasn't overtly political, her rendition of "Born This Way" was a powerful moment of LGBTQ+ issues being brought into mainstream conversation. Perhaps the highlight of the show was when Gaga took to the piano and—surrounded by lanterns—sang a heartfelt rendition of "Million Reasons."
2.Prince (2007)
If Prince is in any running, it's a good chance he's gonna land somewhere near the top. He had four electric guitars on a stage that was shaped like his infamous symbol, and he proceeded to rock like no one else can rock. He played his own songs, but he also covered other people's, putting on a magnetic performance that was all about the power of music. The pouring rain, which panicked the halftime show producers, only added to the drama of Prince's closing rendition of "Purple Rain." It was so powerful that the second half of the football game came off as an after thought.
1.Beyoncé (2013)
Even if this performance was just 13 minutes of Beyoncé strutting across the stage in a straight line, it would probably still top this list. But as one Youtube commenter said, "Beyonce dances like the universe owes her for her existence." Between the video effects, the choreography, the vocals, and the literal fire on stage, fans were practically beside themselves. And then Destiny's Child made a surprise reunion, and America collectively shrieked with joy. We were all left saying, "Really weird how there's a football game going on at this Beyoncé concert."
