Beyoncé steals halftime show
Mars did what he does best; Coldplay was just plain cold
Oh, Bey. There’s no question Beyoncé just stole that Super Bowl halftime show from its headline act, Coldplay. The only remaining question is, who didn’t see that coming?
On one side, you have a woman whose just-dropped, muchdiscussed Formation proves why “fierce” is linked to her name, serving as a sizzling, sexy, supercharged break from a sport that assiduously markets its own fierceness. On the other, you have a popular but polarizing British band whose work has been described by other USA TODAY critics as “earnest” and “sensitive” — not exactly words one immediately associates with the NFL.
And in the middle, you have Bruno Mars — like Beyoncé, a Super Bowl halftime veteran, and like her, a performer who seemed to know how to make best use of the stage he was given. In other words: Dance, because no one in the crowd is going to be paying much attention to the lyrics.
As for the headliners, well, to call Coldplay “divisive” is an understatement akin to calling the Super Bowl “somewhat oversized.” After all, how many other halftime acts go on CBS This
Morning before the game, as Coldplay frontman Chris Martin did, to confess that the band no longer worries that lots of people don’t like them? It’s not exactly a rousing bit of self-promotion.
Nor is it an exactly great sign when you start out with your big hit, Viva La Vida, and the crowd noise drowns you out. Martin is a personable and energetic performer, though an awful lot of that energy went into jumping. But he, and his song ’s lyrics, just seemed overwhelmed by the stadium and the event. And when he joined Beyoncé and Mars on Up
town Funk, it felt like the Super Bowl version of James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke.” But hey, Bey.