Minutes before the end of the Super Bowl’s second quarter at Levi’s Stadium, I’m ushered into a hallway where Beyoncé's female dancers are standing in prayer-circle formation with their eyes closed. Clad in Black Panther-inspired leather outfits and berets, they seem at peace, a palpable contrast to the fiery, politically charged statement they and Beyoncé would soon make as guest performers during Coldplay’s halftime show. Bruno Mars, wearing MC Hammer-style pants, power walks by me and heads into a tunnel toward the field. The whistle blows on a small television behind them, signaling halftime.
It’s eight minutes until showtime -- that’s how long the staff is allotted to set up the stage, place the pyrotechnics and get the hundreds of cast members (band, orchestra, dancers and fans) in place for the 12-minute musical extravaganza. Every direction I turn someone’s yelling at a group to move. The first group through the tunnel is Youth Orchestra Los Angeles, whose members are wielding technicolor instruments to play onstage. My squad, the lucky few dozen handpicked by halftime sponsor Pepsi to watch from the sidelines, enters third behind a troupe of flag bearers.
As I walk out of the tunnel, my legs go slightly numb, the same type of healthy nervousness I get before running a race. I open my Facebook Mentions app and push the record button to stream the experience to my friends, family and followers in real-time. My mom, a Denver Broncos fan who’s watching from my small hometown in Nebraska, leaves a “hello” comment, as does a follower from the United Kingdom, reminding me just how universally appealing this music event has become in its 50-year history. More than 100 million people worldwide tune in every year, making it a lucrative promotional gig for the headliners and guests, whose song and album sales and streams always spike immediately after their performances.
I walk along the Carolina Panthers endzone, passing hurried stagehands, attentive police officers and suited executives. I turn the corner and find myself amid the sideline photographers and reporters before settling on the Panthers 30 yard line.
A jumbotron countdown warns us that we’re four minutes away from Coldplay’s first note. People are passing time by taking selfies and recording Snapchat videos. Two minutes out, cheering commences as hundreds of high school students run onto the field to secure the best sidestage views. The speakers are playing “Firework” from Katy Perry, who as last year’s headliner broke the halftime viewership record with 118.5 million viewers. I sing along. Someone screams, “57 seconds!” That’s when the connection on my live stream becomes noticeably blurry. I warn my viewers that the connection may give out.
A set of fireworks go off. Like a football player making a touchback, Coldplay’s frontman Chris Martin puts one knee on the field and belts a few lines from the British rockers’ 2000 breakout hit “Yellow” as the crowd holds up thousands of multicolored cards that when combined create an orange sun, yellow rays and blue sky. From afar, I see Martin run to the stage, joining his band mates and the youth orchestra for “Viva la Vida,” Coldplay’s first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single from the world’s top-selling album of 2008 (Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends).
“Whoever you are, wherever you are, we’re in this together,” Martin says, looking into the camera to hype the tens of millions of people watching remotely. The song ends with Martin kneeling and letting a fan rub his forehead with a rainbow flag. Martin flails his arms to the beat, just as he did the first time I saw him in concert in 2014 at South by Southwest in Texas, during the opening notes of “Paradise.” Marching bands enter from two tunnels, one near the Broncos endzone and one 100-plus yards away near the Panthers endzone. “Paradise” soon gave way to “Adventure of a Lifetime” from their seventh studio album, A Head Full of Dreams, which dropped in December. Dancers with flower umbrellas bump into me as they rush onto the field for choreographed routine filled with trippy Alice In Wonderland-esque vibes. With the amount of colors on display at this point, my view looks as though someone opened a giant crayon box and out escaped all of these halftime costumes and props.
As I had predicted in my pre-show live stream, my self-described twin Bruno Mars brings out unannounced guest Mark Ronson for “Uptown Funk,” their ultra catchy collaboration from 2015 that came out after Mars headlined the halftime show in 2014. The stadium crowd erupts as Mars and his male dancers blend “Uptown Funk” rhythms with dance elements from MC Hammer’s enduring 1990s hit “U Can’t Touch This.”
Thirty or so yards away, Beyoncé is standing on the 15 yard line, ready to perform “Formation” live for the first time since its surprise release fewer than 24 hours ago. A combo of fire blasts and fireworks makes the security guard jump in front of me. The temperature noticeably rises as the blasts continue throughout the black empowerment anthem (its music video references the Hurricane Katrina crisis and Black Lives Matter movement). “I like my negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils,” she wails before the ladies get in formation and raise their gloved fists in the air in unison. Beyoncé and company strut on stage for a fierce male vs. female dance-off against Mars and his crew. It ends with Martin walking the catwalk with Beyoncé and Mars for the end of “Uptown Funk.” Beyoncé pushes the camera away from the trio. Martin runs back to his piano, Mars walks forward off the stage and Beyoncé glides toward the Panthers side of the field.
Coldplay leaps into a warp speed medley of “Clocks” and “Fix You” intertwined with lyrics from past halftime shows (U2’s “Beautiful Day,” Prince’s “Purple Rain,” Destiny’s Child’s “Independent Women” and Mars’ “Just The Way You Are”). The songs are set to a montage of even more halftime performers such as Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Katy Perry, Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and more. Beyoncé and Mars come back to close out the set with Martin on “Up&Up.”
I’m still on the 30 yard line, wondering how that 12 minutes felt much shorter than reality. Beyoncé kisses an orchestra member. We have mere minutes to clear the field before the players return for the second half. I capture a few Snapchat videos and run by the Broncos cheerleaders, who by the end of the game will be on the winning side of Super Bowl history.
Flash forward to Monday morning, and Coldplay is already reaping the benefits of the international gig: According to data Forbes compiled: As of 7 a.m. PT, Coldplay has 11 songs on the iTunes top 200 songs chart with ”Adventure of a Lifetime” at No. 2, “Viva la Vida” at 8, “Paradise” at 10, “A Sky Full of Stars” at 26, “Fix You” at 30, “Hymn for the Weekend” at 33, “Clocks” at 38, “Yellow” at 50, “The Scientist” at 87, “Up&Up” at 156, and “Speed of Sound” at 172.
Meanwhile, Ronson and Mars’ “Uptown Funk” soared to No. 16, while Mars’ “Locked Out of Heaven” is locked at 161. Six Beyoncé songs are charting with “Run the World (Girls)” at 48, “Love On Top” at 134, “Crazy In Love” at 138, “Partition” at 168, “Halo” at 192, and “7/11″ at 194. Absent from the chart is Beyoncé’s new surprise single “Formation,” which she released one day before Super Bowl Sunday as an exclusive on Tidal. It will eventually become available on iTunes. Beyoncé also announced her Formation World Tour after the show. In comparison, last year’s halftime show incited a similar sales spike — headliner Katy Perry also had 11 songs in the iTunes top 200, while guest Missy Elliott had eight.
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