It’s playoff season in the NFL and a good reminder to discuss about who’s performing at the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show in Santa Clara, California. Over the last few years, it has been mainstream artists like The Black Eyed Peas (2011), Beyoncé (2013), Bruno Mars (2014) and Katy Perry (2015). This year, the halftime show will take a different direction and go with a light hearted approach. Rather than artists like the always requested Metallica, the highly suggested Taylor Swift, Californian and Grammy nominated artist Kendrick Lamar and the fan petition favorite “Weird Al” Yankovic. Instead, it’s one of alternate rock’s most renowned bands of the 21st Century, Coldplay.
That is until Jan. 8 where news surfaced that Beyoncé was announced to "rescue" the halftime show. Entertainment Tonight has reported that Bruno Mars could also perform with the two acts as well. As a result, you'll likely have three different styles of music under one roof for Super Bowl 50.
Prior to the latest announcement, it appeared that this year’s performer would be a step back from the top 40 artists over the last few years. In fact, Coldplay are the first non-pop orientated group to perform at halftime since The Who in 2010. It will be refreshing because auto tune won’t be any issue like the last few years. Nor the issue of the performance being too sexual or the need of censoring the lyrics. With Beyoncé brought into the discussion, these issues will return which at times takes away from the performance. Instead of the singing, it shifts on sexuality which can be a plus but that's entertainment preference for you and of course draw the audience's attention.
As much as I like Coldplay’s work, you would think the people in charge of the halftime show would go with a more energetic artist for Super Bowl 50. It's probably why Beyoncé is now included in this year's halftime show, to bring energy to the performance which people thought was severely lacking from Coldplay.
This year's halftime show should be the biggest of all-time, instead what you'll get from Coldplay is a smoother and heartwarming show because this group doesn’t talk about sex, drugs and partying. As a result, don’t expect young teens and adults thoroughly enjoy this performance because Coldplay isn’t a Jason DeRulo or a Chance the Rapper. Where I see most people looking forward to see Coldplay perform are the 30-year-olds. With this in mind, don’t expect fancy memes or ravishing reviews from the pop culture critics when it comes to Coldplay. Beyoncé will certainly be the hot topic from those critics.
My argument on this issue is in fact people are writing Coldplay off because they aren’t as huge as they were a few years ago. That didn’t stop James Brown (1997) or The Rolling Stones (2006) from pulling off one of the better performances in halftime show history. Coldplay’s performance has the potential of being underrated because they will deliver, to some extent it will have a U2 feeling from Super Bowl XXXVI (2002). The reason it will be underrated because it’s not the flashy lights and panache choreograph people have become accustomed to. This will be a sentimental performance because of its potential of having clever visuals.
The stage setting will be interesting because in many people’s minds, nobody can top Katy Perry’s props like the dancing shark. I can imagine the 50th anniversary of the Super Bowl may be the selling point this year and now that Beyoncé is included, the unpredictability of the stage increases. However, I don't think we'll see another power outage like Super Bowl XLVII (2013).
People seem to ignore how Coldplay's performances has had some wonderful visuals accompanied by the lively colors which could lead to beautiful visuals. This could be a hint that Coldplay do have something up on their sleeves that will surprise us on Feb. 7 on CBS.
Like in the past, I don’t think the public eye will know what Coldplay's song list will be or the stage visuals. We can speculate that “Paradise" or “Viva La Vida” will be on their song list, but that’s just speculation. But it adds some curiosity of how Coldplay will approach this performance which should be exciting.
No matter our music taste, it's refreshing to see different genres get the spotlight on the biggest stage in sports. Plus, the singing won’t be as bad like we’ve seen over the years. So that shouldn’t be an issue but at the end of the day, people will probably hate this year’s halftime show and Coldplay hasn’t performed yet. It’s like judging a book by its cover, just wait until they perform and then give your thoughts when it’s over.
Right now, the only thing we know about the 50th Anniversary of the Super Bowl is that’ll take place on Feb. 7 at Levi’s Stadium and Coldplay featuring Beyoncé is the halftime performer. Besides the game, the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show are among the three most talked about topics along with the commercials.
As it pertains to the artists, people will always complain about who’s performing and are entitled to express their opinions of artists. Music is like ice cream, some will choose vanilla while others prefer different flavors like rocky road or birthday cake to name a few. Everyone has their personal tastes and Coldplay is one of those artist’s people have been writing off because it’s not pop-oriented. However, the inclusion of Beyoncé and maybe Bruno Mars may shut the critics up and anticipate a memorable halftime performance to celebrate Super Bowl 50.