Serena Williams shocked the world when she made an appearance during the Super Bowl LIX halftime show.
Fans already knew the tennis legend would be in attendance after she posted a video running on the Casers Superdome field before the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs 40-22.
But the internet exploded when Williams, 43, was seen performing the cripwalk dance during Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show.
This was not the first time Serena Williams had performed this dance in front of a significantly large audience, and it had a role to play in her surprise appearance in New Orleans.
Serena Williams discloses conversation that led to her Super Bowl halftime show appearance
Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl LIX halftime show featured two big special guests.
One of them was singer Sza, who joined him to perform their hit song ‘All the Stars’, which featured in blockbuster movie Black Panther in 2018.
The other surprise was Williams, who was seen crip walking while Lamar performed the famous diss track ‘They not like us’, which took shots at fellow music superstar Drake.
Williams has since disclosed the conversation she had with Lamar, who approached her to be part of his performance, after seeing her do the dance after she won the Olympic gold medal at the 2012 Games in London.
“When @kendricklamar and team called and was like ‘we’ve been trying to do something forever, what about this? We loved your crip walk at the Olympics after you won the gold medal’”, she posted on Instagram.
“I’m like Super Bowl? Are you serious? When in the world would I ever be able to dance at a Super Bowl? (Never) let’s do it! I knew my winning dance after the @olympics would pay off one day. End of story.”
What happened when Serena Williams won the 2012 Olympic gold medal
Williams entered the 2012 Olympic Games, which was held at Wimbledon’s All-England Club, without a singles gold medal on her long list of achievements.
The American was on a mission to add the one title that had eluded her up to the point, and she went on to produce one of her most dominant runs to a title.
Williams did not drop a set and conceded a combined total of just seven games over the course of her last three matches against three players seeded inside the top 10.
After dispatching Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-0 to become Olympic champion, Williams celebrated by doing the crip walk, which received plenty of criticism in some corners.
Following her Super Bowl half time show performance, Williams posted a video on X and said she would have been ‘fined’ if she performed that dance during the Wimbledon Championships.
Though she did do the dance at Wimbledon, the tournament that was held was the Olympic Games, rather than the annual Grand Slam event.
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