The Guardian - Beyoncé easily steals the show at Superbowl
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Until Beyoncé’s arrival, the Super Bowl half-time performance had been perfectly enjoyable but lacking the electric thrill – not to mention opportunity for gifs - she provided. Inspired by the Glastonbury festival, it saw Coldplay perform three of their biggest hits – Viva La Vida, Paradise and recent single Adventure of a Lifetime – on a flower-shaped stage, their instruments garlanded with flowers and the band’s name written in Hindi on the drum kit. They were accompanied by the LA Youth Orchestra, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and spent most of the first part of the show surrounded by selfie-snapping teenagers. It was fun but somehow lightweight, while their nods to Glastonbury – for instance, dancers dressed as giant flowers twirling around the field – had some of the festival’s hippy spirit but none of its demented euphoria.
Perhaps recognising that even 12 minutes of this would have risked losing the audience, Coldplay’s warm and fuzzy stadium rock was abruptly pushed aside by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars performing Uptown Funk – definitely a party anthem, but one so overplayed that its impact was blunted. It took Beyoncé’s performance of Formation – on paper a risk, since it’s so recent, but in practice enthralling – to inject some drama. As my colleague Lanre Bakare pointed out on our live blog, the lyrics “My daddy Alabama, momma Louisiana/You mix that negro with that Creole make a Texas bamma/I like my baby hair, with baby hair and afros/I like my negro nose with Jackson Five nostrils” must be some of the most political ever to be performed at a half-time show.
