The Super Bowl is about football. Sure.
But outside all the yard-running and punt-snapping, the championship game has undeniably snowballed into a major pop culture event â the big-budget commercials, the celebrity endorsements, the megawatt halftime show.
Hereâs a look at some of the nightâs most entertaining moments.
Coldplay fumbles, Beyonce touches down
Billed as a halftime show âguest star,â Beyonce proved that no one sidelines Queen Bey â especially when that someone is Coldplay.
In line with their hippie roots, Coldplay kicked off the show in technicolour fashion as lead singer Chris Martin belted out âViva La Vidaâ atop a lotus-shaped stage. A gaggle of dancers dressed as flowers descended on the field, followed by plenty of daytime fireworks and confetti.
Despite the bandâs best efforts, Twitter was not having it.
I like how Coldplay's new aesthetic is "sherbet"
â Sage Boggs (@sageboggs)
Coldplay is definitely this year's left shark
â Dan Doelling (@daniel_doelling)
It's pretty amazing that they were able to fit every Coldplay fan onto the field
â FaZe Rigby (@FSU_ATL)
Four songs later, reprieve arrived in the form of Bruno Mars, who brought the party back with a groovy rendition of âUptown Funk.â Mars was backed up by an 80s-inspired dance crew that delivered a gimmick-free performance full of Marsâ signature swagger.
Then, quite literally out of left field, the camera panned to Beyonce and her veritable army of dancers. Dressed in a gilded leather military jacket, Beyonce delivered the first live performance of her latest hit, âFormation,â a gritty track dropped Saturday thatâs been lauded for its celebration of black culture.
One of the performanceâs most meme-able moments came as Beyonce crooned, âI got hot sauce in my bag,â and flame cannons exploded in the near distance.
Beyonceâs show-stealing performance comes as little surprise; according to Twitter Canada, Canadians tweeted about Beyonce ten times more than Coldplay before the halftime show began.
Today on Twitter: 10x more Canadians are talking about than are talking about
â Twitter Canada (@TwitterCanada)
A campy dance-off soon followed between Beyonce and Bruno Mars on centre stage, with Beyonce deftly recovering from a minor slip.
The duo eventually passed the torch back to Coldplay, and the band ended the show with âFix You.â Martin sang as images of past Super Bowl halftime performers faded across the screen, with Mars and Beyonce eventually joining the band to wave the crowd goodbye.
Despite Coldplay finishing the show, Queen Bey still got the last word. The show ended with the announcement of her new tour, âThe Formation World Tour,â set to begin sometime this year. Tickets are expected to go on sale later this month.
Lady Gaga slays
Football fans willing to drop small fortunes on Super Bowl tickets may not seem, at first, like your prototypical Lady Gaga fans. But Gagaâs spellbinding rendition of âThe Star-Spangled Bannerâ struck all the right notes Sunday, and may have converted a couple new Little Monsters.
Dressed in a glittering ruby pantsuit, Lady Gaga channelled her inner Barbra Streisand as she belted out the U.S. anthem with Broadway-worthy pipes. The song lasted a whopping two minutes and twenty seconds.
For some, the performance harkened back to Gagaâs operatic homage to the Sound of Music at the 2015 Academy Awards.
Betty White nails the âdabâ
For the uninitiated, the âdabâ is a dance move popularized by Carolina Panthers quarterback Cameron Newton in post-touchdown celebrations.
The choreography is fairly simple, consisting of a couple arm flails followed by tucking oneâs forehead into the crook of the elbow. The move has been done by Hillary Clinton, Ellen DeGeneres and, now, âGolden Girlsâ actress Betty White.
White performed the signature move in an attention-grabbing pre-game promotion. The 94-year-old later tweeted that she âtaught Cameron Newton everything he knows.â
I taught everything he knows.
â Betty White (@BettyMWhite)