It was curiously flat.

I don’t detest the new single and the "Like A Prayer" finale worked but a rock star never wants to risk being upstaged.

And the game walked all over the Material Girl.

I get it, it’s all about awareness, it’s all about selling tickets. And from what I understand, if you’re a fan, you liked this extravaganza, you’ll wanna go to the show. But on a musical level…

It just wasn’t about music.

Great performances are about that little something extra, something indefinable that touches your core. And that’s what was missing here. There was no sense of majesty, no soulfulness, just a middle-aged woman trying too hard to impress.

But I’m not sure she was trying to impress us. Rather she seemed to be playing to a higher tribunal, maybe St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, giving it all she’s got in order to get into heaven.

She’s left us behind.

And when the stage was dismantled and the game resumed her performance was forgotten, not execrable like the Black Eyed Peas, but not mindblowingly fantastic like Prince.

Then again, as well as the diminutive icon moves, he’s all about the music. He can play, he can sing, video only made us aware of his greatness, it did not define it.

Furthermore, the whole production seemed dated. From another era where excess was applauded, when life was fun and problems were pushed under the rug. Only now, our problems are front and center. And it’s clear that Madonna, like the rest of the 1%, really wants nothing to do with us, she only wants our money. Sure, everyone still likes to party, but you got no impression that Madonna wanted you up on stage, celebrating with her. If anything, you felt if you ran up, you’d get kicked off.

Today’s music is all about inclusiveness. Tastemakers like television and radio mean ever less. The swell of public appreciation is what truly matters. And you won’t get universal approval of Madonna’s Super Bowl appearance, it was a niche event on the main stage. And this is dangerous. You only want to play for naysayers if you can convert them.

And Madonna did not.

P.S. What’s up with the narcissism in the new single, the endless repetition of her own name? Didn’t that peak with Wang Chung back in the eighties?

P.P.S. Never do someone else’s act. The magic disappearance at the end smacked of nothing so much as Michael Jackson, another superstar who became so enamored of his fame that he lost touch with his audience.