Beyoncé lit up an NFL stage on Christmas Day, performing a medley of hits from her newest album, “Cowboy Carter,” at halftime of a game between the Baltimore Ravens and her hometown Houston Texans.
The performance went ahead with no technical issues on the Netflix streaming broadcast. Netflix’s ability to successfully stream both the NFL games and Beyoncé’s performance was questioned before the event — so much so that Beyoncé even teased it in an Instagram post.
After two pretaped songs, she appeared on field in an all-white outfit backed up by dancers and a band in white cowboy outfits. The first surprise guest was Shaboozey, who was followed barely a minute later by Post Malone delivering his verse on “Levii’s Jeans.” And though she didn’t sing, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s daughter Blue Ivy joined her mom for a dance on “Texas Hold ‘Em.”
Beyoncé previously performed at the Super Bowl XLVII halftime show in February 2013 in New Orleans and the Super Bowl 50 halftime show in 2016 outside San Francisco. Both of those shows also featured other stars, including a brief Destiny’s Child reunion in 2013.
Performing in Houston was nothing new for the superstar, who was born and raised in the city. Her stardom actually predates the Texans — Destiny’s Child’s “Survivor” went No. 1 in 2001, and the Texans’ first season was in 2002.
The Ravens dominated the first half of the game, leading 17-2 at the time Beyoncé took the stage. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson said before the game that he’d skip any halftime speech to watch Beyoncé’s show but remained in the locker room during the concert — though the Netflix broadcast reported that the show could be heard inside.
While Beyoncé performed live for the Ravens-Texans game, a pretaped Mariah Carey performance was played prior to the day’s first game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers. Taylor Swift was not in attendance for the Chiefs’ 29-10 win.
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