Madonna Super Bowl Gig a ‘No-Brainer’ for Cee Lo

When Madonna calls, you answer.

The Queen of Pop rang up Cee Lo Green several months back about performing “Like a Prayer” during the Super Bowl halftime show, and he didn’t give it a second thought.

“I was asked – cordially invited – by Madonna to be a part of it and, of course, very eagerly obliged. So it was basically as simple as that,” he told MTV News late Monday about the eye-catching gig, which included a dazzling light show, loads of dancers and fellow guests LMFAO, Nicki Minaj and M.I.A.

“It was kind of like a no-brainer. Working with Madonna is a very simple process,” he added. “She’s a very hard worker, quite the perfectionist, and we worked awfully hard for that entire 12-minute performance to be as close to perfection as possible.”

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With 100 million-plus viewers tuning in to the game and halftime show, it was no doubt the biggest audience Cee Lo and company had ever performed in front of. But everyone was so ready for anything that there was very little room for error or time to be nervous, Cee Lo told us.

“In our line of business and at this point of my career, I think I’m as prepared as you can be,” he said. “I’m most certainly poised to be in that place, in this place. It’s where we rehearsed, so well in advance, that it becomes a second nature.”

Cee Lo cited the professionalism of Madge and the entire crew for the performance going off without a hitch. “The technicalities of it are just amazing,” he said. “[It was] such a large crew that really helped. Without their tenacity and their know-how, it could not be done. It would be impossible. So I must commend the entire crew. Technically it takes an entire team to make something like that a success.”

Fashion also played a big part in the performance. While Madonna was sporting looks by Givenchy, Cee Lo’s black, sequined choir robe was a design all his own.

“They tease and they call me ‘Reverend Green’ and ‘Preacher Green,’ so I had a couple of those robes made just for fun,” he explained. “I mean, you know me, I’m still the same, you know, known for my sense of style, so on and so forth. And when the nature of the performance was discussed and they were saying, ‘We’re gonna do “Like a Prayer” and everyone will be in robes,’ and they were looking for my measurements to see if they were going to have to make me one, and I was like, ‘What do you mean? I have my own already!’ So she was pretty touched by that. I brought a lot of myself.”