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Madonna dazzled the Super Bowl crowd with an high-octane half-time show

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana (AFP) - Madonna dazzled the Super Bowl crowd with an high-octane half-time show that started with an army of Roman gladiators and ended with plea for world peace written in lights.

The glittering 12-minute performance at Lucas Oil Stadium featuring several guest stars had legions of fans racing to Twitter to give their thumbs-up, with some going so far as to declare it one of the best in Super Bowl history.

"Now THAT was a halftime show!" said @michaelsette7 of Toronto in a typical tweet of approval. "All hail the queen. Bow down everyone, bow down!"

Entertainment Weekly critic Ken Tucker agreed, calling Madonna's performance "joyous, unironic, open-hearted ... She was both in full command and full of generosity towards her massive audience."

©AFP / Timothy A. Clary

Legions of fans gave their thumbs up to Madonna's Super Bowl show on Twitter

With a new album titled "MDNA" out March 26, the 53-year-old Madonna teamed up with choreographer Jamie King and Canada's Cirque du Soleil for the most-watched musical interlude of any major sporting event in the world.

Her challenge was to redeem last year's dismal showing by the Black Eyed Peas, whose futuristic performance failed to impress spectators already put out by Christina Aguilera botching the lyrics of the US national anthem.

With muscular spear-wielding gladiators in gold marching onto the field, Madonna -- styling herself as a Roman empress with a diamond-studded crown and kinky thigh-high boots -- kicked off the show with her 1990 dance hit "Vogue."

She then shifted into hip-hop mode, bringing out breakdancers -- and an impressive tight-rope walker -- for "Music" from 2008, accompanied by electro duo LMFAO who sampled their 2011 hit "Sexy and I Know It."

Rap queen Nicki Minaj and irreverent M.I.A. then joined Madonna for the just-released "Give Me All Your Luvin" set to a "Glee"-like cheerleader theme, complete with golden pom-poms and marching band.

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M.I.A. during her performance at the Super Bowl 46 half-time show

In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, M.I.A. -- real name, Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam -- flipped a middle finger to the camera while singing a four-letter word that is part of "Luvin"'s original lyrics.

The image on the screen then scrambled just as briefly, suggesting that NBC television -- the official broadcaster of this year's Super Bowl -- was caught off-guard.

"We apologize for the inappropriate gesture that aired during halftime," NBC spokesman Christopher McCloskey said. "It was a spontaneous gesture that our delay system caught late."

For the finale, Madonna rolled out her 1989 hit "Like A Prayer" with crooner Cee Lo Green, a black-robed gospel choir and the stadium illuminated with thousands of tiny lights, concluding with the words "world peace" set against the darkness of the field -- and Madonna disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Half-time at the Super Bowl has been one of the most coveted gigs in American pop music since the late Michael Jackson performed with a 3,500-child choir in 1993, but hit a bump with his sister Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" in 2004.

"This is a Midwestern girl's dream to be performing at the half-time show," said Madonna, a Michigan native, prior to Sunday's show.

Performing the national anthem before kickoff was "American Idol" winner Kelly Clarkson, with country stars Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert adding to the patriotic mood with a duet version of "America the Beautiful."

©AFP/File / Raul Arboleda

A giant photograph is seen pasted on a roof at the Commune 1, a shantytown in Medellin

MEDELLIN, Colombia (AFP) - An artist, a vegetable seller, a mother of 14 -- gigantic portraits of these everyday "heroes" on the streets of Medellin aim to give young people something other than the city's violent street gangs to look up to.

The photographs of 20 residents have sprung up in "comuna uno", one of the toughest areas of the Colombian city of 2.3 million that in the 1990s was a battle ground between powerful cocaine cartels and the government.

"We are paying homage to these heroes of daily life -- simple neighborhood people who may not have a diploma, but are an example to children because they are not compromised by illegality," said psychologist Lina Alvarez, who is involved in the campaign sponsored by the city government.

There are no sports stars or famous singers. The portraits are of people like Maria Emiliana Oquendo, an 86-year-old dressmaker who raised 14 children, and Jonathan Uribe, who opened a free rap school.

©AFP/File / Raul Arboleda

Children walk past a giant photograph pasted on a facade at the Commune 1

At first, many people thought the government was honoring the memory of victims of the criminal gangs and guerrilla groups that have been at war with the authorities in Colombia for nearly half a century.

Mounted on Medellin's walls and rooftops, the images can be seen from cable cars that were built in 2006 to reach the city's poorest mountainside neighborhoods.

"We want to show people who ride the Metrocable that their neighborhood's future is not violence, that it is full of positive things," said Alvarez.

One of the icons of the exhibition, Gilberto Idarraga, a vegetable seller when he's not gliding across a dance floor, does not expect his sudden exposure in the media to bring him glory.

"Our contribution is just to always struggle to do our best," he told the local newspaper El Colombiano.

It was the children in the neighborhood schools who chose these modest and hard-working people as models.

©AFP/File / Raul Arboleda

View of a giant photograph pasted on the roof of a house at the Commune 1

But the initiative was directly inspired by a French artist, photographer JR, who is known for his giant portraits of youths in the gritty Parisian suburbs, the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and the Palestinian territories.

The Medellin pictures, taken by Colombian photographer Felipe Mesa, are accompanied by just a few words -- "harmony and tolerance," "love," "liberty" -- that emphasize the desire to change the image of these neighborhoods and the exhibition's message of peace.

Dubbed "Heroes without borders," the exhibition's title alludes to the "invisible borders" that delineate the territories of organized crime groups in Medellin, ranked the 14th most dangerous city in the world with a murder rate of 70 per thousand inhabitants last year.