Super Bowls are remembered for a few pivotal plays or colorful characters on the field. With over 100 million people tuning in to watch the event, though, there are bound to be those who are not avid football fans, preferring the spectacle of a glitzy halftime show to the back-and-forth movement of the pigskin.
This year Beyoncé took over the halftime show in a performance that Grantland writer Wesley Morris called “honest-to-God perfection.” With one of the most successful musical artists in history performing at the most popular televised event in America, the stage was set for nothing less than the miraculous. And the reaction to her performance throughout the media seemed to reflect just that. The show was put on par with some of the greatest Super Bowl halftime acts, such as Prince in 2007 and U2 in 2002.
Maybe they were numbed by some of the more atrocious acts recently, (Black Eyed Peas and Madonna)but calling Beyoncé’s halftime show anything near perfection is insulting. One of the most common descriptions was the word “powerful.” Beyoncé definitely has the ability to be powerful, with a voice that is arguably unmatched among current female artists, but the problem was that she just did not use it enough.
The halftime show actually holds an important responsibility with ratings during the Super Bowl. It has to keep millions upon millions of football fans entertained enough so that they do not switch the channel for the half-hour break in the game. It really does take a powerful performance to make a halftime show worthwhile, especially for those more invested in the game, and Beyoncé did not live up to that mark.
During the 13-minute set, Beyoncé sang for a total of only 4 minutes and 30 seconds. For much of the rest of that time period, viewers were faced with recordings of her and backup singers while she danced her signature moves. With a voice as strong as hers, it is a real shame that she did not belt out more lines of her songs.
One possible reason for the lack of singing was the amount of dancing, which surely takes a physical toll on a performer. This did not seem to bother Mick Jagger, though, during Super Bowl XL. Jagger did not stop moving during his 14-minute performance, yet, at an age more than double that of Beyoncé, sang vigorously for over 10 minutes.
Another common word of praise for Beyoncé was her imposing stage presence. Other than the spectacular visual effects (props to her visual effects coordinator), Beyoncé did not bring anything to the table that left an exceptionally deep impression. After nailing several of her old hits at Super Bowl XXX, Diana Ross decided to finish her performance by having a helicopter fly down into the stadium and airlift her out as she sat in the doorway waving to fans. Prince played through rain as he ripped on electric guitar and effectively infused Jimi Hendrix with the Foo Fighters at Super Bowl XLI.
Beyoncé was also said to have exuded a certain je ne sais quoi that allowed her to connect emotionally with the crowd and viewers worldwide. But asking the crowd to reach toward her and touching a few hands falls short of deserving praise.
At Super Bowl XXVII, Michael Jackson made a salute to the children of America and the world by having the fans hold up signs that collectively displayed massive drawings of children of all colors spanning the entire stadium. Bono of U2 at Super Bowl XXXVI made his way to the stage by traveling through a sea of fans and then went on to deliver one of the more emotional halftime performances in memory. With a scrolling list of names of the victims of the 9/11 attacks projected onto a screen behind them only months after the catastrophe, U2 brought the crowd together in remembrance of those lost.
Compared to these performances, Beyoncé just does not measure up. The vocals, overall impression, and emotion of her show do not warrant a top spot. The disappointment in her performance resonates mainly from the fact that she is one of the best musical artists of all time. She could have provided a halftime show that will be remembered years from now, but she did not.
Football fans deserve more than the washed up members of Destiny’s Child returning to be drowned out by background music in the middle of the season’s most important game. They deserve more than four and a half minutes of Beyoncé’s voice, which included singing the sounds of a guitar solo and over a minute of the word “halo” being repeated. Of course her name alone will bring in the necessary ratings for CBS and the NFL, but the entertainment value the Super Bowl deserves was just not there.
