Katy Perry performs onstage during the Pepsi Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show at University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday in Glendale, Arizona.  Credit: Courtesy of TNS.

Katy Perry performs onstage during the Pepsi Super Bowl XLIX Halftime Show at University of Phoenix Stadium on Sunday in Glendale, Arizona.
Credit: Courtesy of TNS.

Katy Perry made all of our teenage dreams come true at the Super Bowl halftime show.

First, the sound. Her song choices were perfect. “Roar” and “Dark Horse” were two of the biggest songs of 2014, and it was important to include songs from the “Teenage Dream” album, which cemented her megastar status. “Firework” was the perfect song to end with, leaving the audience wanting more. It sounded like she was singing over a track of her own voice, which is a technique that I don’t care for, but I’m satisfied with the fact that she was singing at all for such a high-energy performance.

The look of the show was, for lack of a better term, very Katy Perry. She’s all about outrageous outfits and sets, and she didn’t disappoint. The fact that she wore four outfits in the span of about 12 minutes was quite impressive.

Whoever designed the show also came up with some pretty awesome ideas for the set.

“Let’s get a gigantic chrome lifelike puppet lion for her to ride on,” they said. “We need super high-tech 3-D projections on the stage,” they said. Oh, and also, have her suspended on a wire, circling around the stadium, singing “Firework” while actual fireworks go off.

And yet, what are the people talking about after it’s all over? The two people in shark costumes. Shark. Costumes. The world is a confusing place.

The only special guest announced ahead of time was Lenny Kravitz, who received barely a minute of screen time and sang a Perry song. All I noticed during that part was Perry’s angry-looking face and extremely resilient ponytail.

Missy Elliott’s surprise performance was definitely a highlight of the evening. It has been too long since the world has heard from her. Well, heard her songs and seen her mouthing the words to them, at least. I don’t care if she was lip-syncing or not, I was happy to see that “Misdemeanor” is still doing her thing. It was surprising, though, that she got double the amount of screen time that Kravitz did, and three songs to Kravitz’s one.

The comparisons to Beyoncé’s memorable halftime show started as soon as Perry hit the stage. But it isn’t fair to compare the show with Beyoncé’s, because Perry and Beyoncé don’t have much in common besides the fact that they were both big enough to be chosen for the Super Bowl. No, KP can’t dance like Beyoncé, but then again, who really can? There’s also no way for her to have an iconic reunion when she never had a group to begin with. Comparing Beyoncé to Perry is really comparing apples to oranges.

In other competitive girl news, if Taylor Swift fans have a problem with the look of the dancers in the “California Gurls” segment, they need to sit down. You can’t trademark the phrase “this sick beat” and the bob haircut and the high-waisted polka-dot bikini. The dancers’ look fit perfectly with the beach scene and it is insane to think that this was in any way a dig to Swift.

Perry successfully hit many different demographics in her show. Kids would like the beach scene with the animatronic palm trees and such (and apparently so did the college-age kids). Many guys probably think she’s hot. Moms think her tunes are just so catchy. Perry fulfilled her responsibility and managed to speak to a wide range of people, like any great Super Bowl performer should.