Beyonce And Bruno Mars: Did They Upstage Coldplay At Super Bowl 50? Was There A Hidden Message?

Beyonce and Bruno Mars are getting rave reviews, but mostly at Coldplay’s expense. It seems that all the reviews are telling the same story, and it doesn’t look good for Coldplay. Yahoo Music is featuring an article titled “Coldplay Left In Cold At Super Bowl 50; Beyonce and Bruno Bring it.” Coldplay headlines are not very encouraging, but these are typical of what readers will find this Monday after Super Bowl 50.

Beyonce and Bruno Mars totally stole the Super Bowl halftime show, according to Fox News, Chicago Tribune, and USA Today, to name a few. They are all having a bit of a laugh at Coldplay’s expense while singing the praises of Beyonce Knowles. Good Coldplay reviews are difficult to find following the Super Bowl 50 performance. Lady Gaga is getting very positive reviews, and the #LadyGagaSB50 tweets are piling in. It doesn’t seem like anyone is writing about the game. It’s almost as if Coldplay’s Chris Martin lost the Super Bowl to Beyonce. In fact, the Washington Post has reported exactly that in an article titled “The night Beyonce won the Super Bowl.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHcXaJq6FHg

Did Technical Problems Interfere with the Coldplay Performance?

Beyonce and Bruno Mars did have several advantages over Coldplay, despite a substantial cash outlay for Coldplay’s stage and special effects. Knowles came with a new song. The new single, “Formation,” is only 30 hours old, and Beyonce belted it out to her adoring fan with great style. Knowles and her dancers’ routine was awesome and designed to coordinate into a dance off with Bruno Mars and his group of dancers. The result, well, it did actually steal the show, but some of Coldplay’s problems were technological and time-related. Beyonce’s dancing was far more visual than Coldplay putting on a light show in broad daylight. The sound quality also seemed to improve for Beyonce and Bruno’s songs as well. The Coldplay lyrics could barely be heard over the noise of the crowd, but Beyonce and Bruno Mars came in loud and clear.

Is There a Controversial Message in the Music, Costumes and Dance?

Beyonce and Bruno Mars not only upstaged Coldplay, according to the Washington Post, they then used that stolen stage to give a nod to Black Lives Matter. Of course, most people are probably oblivious to such subtle signs. Did football fans even notice that all Beyonce’s dancers were wearing Black Panther’s berets? Did they know the video for the new single “Formation” features a young black male in a hoodie standing up to armies of armed riot gear protected police, with a mere dance to protect him? Did they see the little paper sign held by dancers? The Beyonce video also made reference to the New Orleans Katrina tragedy. The Washington Post called it a nod to the Black Lives Matter campaign, and a testament to Beyonce’s political activism.

Was Beyonce and Bruno Mars’ performance actually supposed to be very controversial? Perhaps those who know love it, and those who don’t liked it just as well because they don’t know. The Daily Mail amps up the controversial nature of the performance. There are a lot of references that were not apparent to the casual viewer who isn’t a huge Beyonce fan or a political activist.

Whether or not the video was intended as some sort of message, the vast majority of the pubic found it extremely entertaining. The social relevance may have gone over their heads, but the sound and visuals were very effective in getting the crowd’s attention.

Do Beyonce and Bruno Mars have a political agenda, or do you think they were just being entertaining and current?

[Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images]