All hail the Queen! Queen Bey, that is, since you and a few million of your closest friends caught a little performance of hers last night. Whether you’re a football fan or not (as is my case), odds are you watch the epic half-time show every year, or at least end up hearing about it endlessly the following day. For every massive success in the past, there have been at least one or two unfortunate flubs along the way (or an infamous “wardrobe malfunction”). But folks are already referring to yesterday’s boring-than-thrilling Ravens win as possibly the greatest Super Bowl ever, and of course the entertainment played into that in a major way.
The eyes of the nation were on Beyonce last night in large part due to her most recent controversy involving lip-syncing at President Obama’s inauguration. While owning up to the deception at a press conference, she then reminded people that she could sing for real with a stunning a-cappella rendition of the national anthem. Beyonce avowed she would most definitely sing live at Super Bowl XLVII, saying: “This is what I was born to do.”
If there was any doubt in skeptics minds’ that she would not follow through, it was certainly dashed within a minute or two into the half-time spectacle. Looking fierce in leather and lace, Beyonce performed a medley of such hits as “Crazy in Love,” “End of Time,” “Baby Boy” and “Halo,” while also bringing out some serious girl power in the form of a mini-Destiny’s Child reunion thanks to cohorts Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. The trio belted out their chart-toppers “Bootylicious” and “Independent Woman” before teaming up on Beyonce’s hit “Single Ladies” (complete with those awesome signature moves that I still to this day can’t stop myself from doing in the privacy of my own, non-judgmental home, of course).
While Queen B may have stolen the show (oh yeah, there was some football going on last night too. Congrats Ravens!), let’s not forget the lovely ladies that lent their stunning vocals to the pre-game. Jennifer Hudson led the Sandy Hook elementary school chorus in a beautiful and tear-inducing rendition of “America the Beautiful” and powerhouse Alicia Keys wowed per usual with “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Let’s face it though, with the stunning voices these 3 women have, it’s hard to disappoint.
There is surely much griping (Sorry, San Fran, there’s always next year!) and celebrating (Nicely done Baltimore!) going on today, but the only thought this non-sports fan is left with from SuperBowl 2013 is: thank God the power outage didn’t happen during half-time. Is it too soon to hope for a repeat next year?