Coldplay played the Super Bowl 50 halftime concert last night, but social media widely acknowledged it was Beyoncé who stole the show with a rousing rendition of her new single “Formation,” released just one day before the game on Feb. 7.
Beyoncé has owned the Super Bowl spotlight before — most notably for her halftime show in 2013, widely considered one of the best halftime shows ever. But her performance Sunday was overtly political, a striking interruption of sports entertainment’s biggest night.
Instead of performing her new duet with Coldplay, “Hymn for the Weekend” — the reason, many had assumed, behind her presence at the halftime show — Beyoncé marched her “formation” into the center of the arena. Her dancers' outfits were directly evocative of the Black Panthers, the historic movement for black rights that was established — like the Super Bowl — 50 years ago this year. At one point in the show, they raised their arms in the air in the Black Power salute.
Beyoncés dancers in black berets at #SB50 paying homage to the Black Panthers 50 years after their #formation in '66 pic.twitter.com/YXpzBkkm6s
— The Dream Defenders (@Dreamdefenders) February 8, 2016
It was Beyoncé’s third of several major political statements over the weekend. The video for “Formation,” released Feb.6, is an unabashed celebration of blackness — Beyoncé praising, among other things, her roots, her daughter’s hair, and her husband’s nose. The lyrics are interspersed with New Orleans-saturated visuals and images of a black child confronting police officers. One shot pans over graffiti that demands “stop shooting us.” Towards the end of the video, the singer sinks a New Orleans Police car with the weight of her own body.
One day earlier, Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s streaming service Tidal announced it had donated $1.5 million to charities including #BlackLivesMatter. The date was significant — Feb. 5 would have been Trayvon Martin’s 21st birthday.
And shortly after Beyoncé’s Super Bowl performance last night — on what would have been the 29th birthday of Sandra Bland — the singer announced a fund to support work around the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Mich. According to the announcement,
“Fans will be given the chance to support the program … which will benefit local United Way programs, the United Way of Genesee County and the Community Foundation of Greater Flint with the goal of addressing long-term developmental, education, nutrition and health needs of children affected by the Flint water crisis.”
Taken together, Beyoncé's moves this weekend are powerful statements of identity, solidarity, and action — all to an infectious dance beat.
“The potency of ‘Formation’ doesn’t comes from its overt politics: it comes from the juxtaposition of lyric with the images, which organically present black humanity in ways we’ve haven’t seen frequently represented,” wrote Syreeta McFadden in The Guardian.
“Beyoncé’s work shows that revolution can be beautiful; protest and celebration are not contradictions when imagining a black future that isn’t overrun by images of black pain and death.”
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