Last Sunday might have been supposed to be all about American football but anyone not suffering of bad faith will agree Beyoncé Knowles defeated both the 49ers and the - factual winners - Baltimore Ravens on the field of the Super Bowl XLVII taking place at New Orleans' Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
The superstar's electric halftime show performance is even rumored to be the cause of the stadium's power blackout that occured shortly after she left the stage, generating histerical tweets on the popular social network Twitter. Personal favorites including the following: "@SarahDiouf Beyoncé be like 'NAHHH NEGGAS THIS IS MY SHOW' *walks out with the power* #dead", "@Ray_Gee Beyoncé snatched wigs, weaves, careers, and lights. #knowher", even Jay-Z joked about the incident on his account "@S_C_ Lights Out!!! Any questions??" referring to his wife's now famous line ironically dropped after singing the "Star Spangled Banner" national anthem a capella and live at the Super Bowl press conference last week in response to the inauguration lip-synch so-called "scandal". No wonder the 12-minutes-long set resulted to an astonishing total of 5.5 millions tweets, reuniting Beyoncé with one of her favorite sport: setting Twitter on fire. An activity she already once mastered after revealing her pregnancy on stage during the MTV Music Awards back in August 2011.
Beyoncé's stellar offering included 8 hit songs (if you count her "Love On Top" belting intro) from her repertoire that browsed through her 10-year-long career as a solo artist with early cuts like a sans-Jay-Z "Crazy In Love" and a likely sans-Sean Paul "Baby Boy" to a more recent fans favorite "End Of Time" or smash "Single Ladies". The latter which required the help from her former Destiny's Child band mates Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams she also performed 2001's "Bootylicious" and "Independent Women Part 1" with, making the group's fanbase dreams of a reunion come true after the release of a "Love Songs" compilation comprising a new track entitled "Nuclear" on January 29. Williams desperately tried to shut down the heavily persistent rumors of them back together on the same stage at the event by pretending to be appearing on the traveling show "Fela!" on that night. A ruse - she later revealed on her Twitter claiming she wanted to keep it a surprise - that failed to reach its purpose as the official ticketing website stated she would not be appearing January 31 - February 3rd.The trio's get together clearly was a success (though criticism against Williams' ability to be as good of a performer as her associates - singer Keyshia Cole was bashed after a negative tweet saying so) and a win-win situation as Billboard.com reported on Wednesday Beyoncé and Destiny's Child albums sales were up 197% in the week ending February 3.
Another winner that night was NY-based designer Rubin Singer, an up and comer the mass audience had never heard of, responsible for Beyoncé and Michelle's outfits as well as the 120 dancers accompanying the singers. Knowles' one-piece wasreportedly made of engineered python, panelled iguana and trapunto/pick stitched leather, causing PETA to attack the diva yet again reports were saying yesterday, and took more than 200 hours to create. He made headlines on The New York Times' website and appeared on a string of shows including ABC's Good Morning America or ET as well as having his fair share of mentions of Twitter ever since the event.
If hardcore fans like myself were let down by the fact that despite some new choreography here and there, - and an overall pretty solid performance, don't get me wrong - Beyoncé mostly mashed up effects and technology from her legendary 2011 Billboard Awards performance with arrangements from her 4 consecutive nights line-up at Revel in May 2012, resulting in a missing "wow" factor , the press and general media (she made the news several times) on the other hand accordingly acclaimed the diva's energetic show. Gawker's Rich Juzwiak even concluding that "Beyoncé Knowles Is King of Pop" directly adressing Micheal Jackson's rightful legacy while Forbes.com stated she "has set the bar for future haltime shows with this performance." (and with predecessors like Micheal Jackson or Prince, that says a lot!)
But with everything Beyoncé does (including breathing) - and getting accolades for - where preachers' convictions are reaffirmed about her talent, the army formed of her detractors are quick to vigorously try to demolish all the credits she's given. Certain aknowleged the quality of her performance but claimed Madonna's last year halftime show was better, forgetting a good performance has nothing to do with the amount of production in it (Madonna's was more impressive indeed!) Once gone are the never-ending troups of dancers and massive stage, unfortunately Madge struggled to deliver anything other than painful and embarassing-to-watch stiffness in the dance department and let's not even begin with her lip-synching (everyone gave Beyoncé such a hard time about recently) or the fact her feature guests included LMFAO. She managed to reach 112,5 millions viewers (against 104 millions for Knowles) ranking the most-watched halftime performance in Super Bowl history but if you ask me numbers have nothing to do with quality.
King/Queen Beyoncé on the other hand was so accurate in her movements you could only imagine how many times they had been rehearsed. Enabling her to fully let go emotionally in all the passion and wildness she sucessfully gives everytime she's on stage. Charisma and presence, elements that define a good performance aside from vocal abilities. She showcased all three.
However her "haters are going to hate" so there they went on how disposable her music is and on. One anti-Beyoncé individual even taking the time to visit her Facebook page (made for fans) to post a message reading that if he was part of the NFL, he'd want his money back regarding the horrible show she put on - except she didn't even get paid. But if it's understable not to like her persona nor her music, they forgot no contempary artist comes close to her level as an entertainer and that's what it's all about. Certainly aware of it, the star released dates for her upcoming "The Mrs. Carter Show" world tour quickly after the halftime as a statement and it's what everyone has been talking about ever since ploting to make sure to get access to the hot tickets. Word has it we get one great performer per generation and if it's any true, hate it or love it, Beyoncé Knowles is ours.
Courtesy of myself.
