Beyonce’s appearance, meanwhile, also ruffled a few feathers – this time with Fox News panelist.
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The halftime show – seen by an estimated 112 million people – is drawing praise from her fans and consternation from critics.
While they looked chummy on the Super Bowl 50 halftime stage, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin reveals in an upcoming Rolling Stone interview that Queen Bey once turned down collaborating with the band on a song called “Hook Up”. The singer is seen on top of a police vehicle that is sinking. There is a shot of a child dancing in front of a line of police officers in riot gear and a shot of graffiti reading the words “Stop Shooting Us”. In response, the Daily Show’s senior Beyoncé correspondent said, “You know what’s in the middle of middle America?” All of the backup dancers were wearing black berets and afros reminder one of the way Black Panthers dressed in the 60s.
“What we should be doing in the African-American community-and all communities-is build up respect for police officers and focus on the fact that when something does go wrong, okay, we’ll work on that”, he said.
In Washington DC, members of the National Sheriffs’ Association who watched the game together turned off the television when Beyonce appeared on the halftime show, telling the Washington Examiner they were upset the NFL let the singer perform her new anthem Formation, which they consider to be anti-police.
“It was awesome because there was so much in this video about black female empowerment, but it’s not just about self-love”, she said.
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Ms Opal Tometi, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, voiced appreciation for Beyonce on Twitter and noted that the Super Bowl fell on the birthday of Ms Sandra Bland, an AfricanAmerican woman who was found hanging previous year in a Texas jail in disputed circumstances after she was pulled over for a traffic violation. Her choreography also included an X-shaped formation in tribute to civil rights activist Malcolm X. Giuliani concluded with a plea to bring back “decent, wholesome entertainment” to the Super Bowl.
