Super Bowl 50 halftime show participant Coldplay
The Super Bowl 50 Halftime Show took place on February 7, 2016, at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California as part of Super Bowl 50. It was headlined by the British rock group Coldplay with special guest performers Beyoncé and Bruno Mars, who previously had headlined the Super Bowl XLVII and Super Bowl XLVIII halftime shows, respectively. The show received mixed reviews, attracting 115.5 million viewers.Background
Coldplay, Rihanna, and Katy Perry were considered as potential acts for the Super Bowl XLIX halftime show in 2015. Perry was soon confirmed as the headliner of the halftime show in November 2014. In summer 2015, many acts were being rumored as potential headliners for the 2016 halftime show including Taylor Swift, Britney Spears and One Direction. In September 2015, it was reported that Bruno Mars was set to curate the Super Bowl 50 halftime show, but the next month in October, It was reported that Maroon 5 was in talks to headline, but the band said they haven't had any conversations with the NFL about headlining, but were open to it. Maroon 5 would eventually headline Super Bowl LIII's halftime show.  In late November 2015, reports surfaced stating that multiple acts would perform during the halftime show. Coldplay was confirmed as the lead halftime performer for Super Bowl 50 on December 3, 2015, one day before the release of their seventh studio album A Head Full of Dreams. It was later confirmed that Beyoncé and Bruno Mars would join Coldplay as special guests. When Chris Martin originally called Mars to ask him to perform with Coldplay, Mars was wary of a multi-artist performance. The singer of Coldplay then invited Mars to his studio in Malibu where he was working. There, Martin revealed to Mars that he wanted for him to perform "Uptown Funk" with Beyoncé. Despite this, Mars remained skeptical and asked Martin to talk to Beyoncé to determine how she felt about the idea. Martin immediately texted a video of himself with Mars to Beyoncé, in which he asked her in the form of a song if she would come do the Super Bowl with both of them, to which she happily agreed.One day before the performance, Mars and Beyoncé were "watching playback backstage" while Beyoncé ate a bag of Cheetos. Mars asked her, "That's what you're doing?" to which she replied, "There's nothing more we can do these last two days. It's gonna be what it's gonna be. So I'm gonna enjoy this bag of Cheetos." Mars admitted to learning a lot watching Beyoncé's preparation for the Super Bowl performance, saying that she is "coming for you every single time, so you better bring your A-game every time."Performance
The show opened with Chris Martin singing the opening chorus from "Yellow". He was then joined by the remaining band members of Coldplay to perform "Viva la Vida", "Paradise", and "Adventure of a Lifetime" with the Youth Orchestra Los Angeles conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and the University of California Marching Band. Bruno Mars, Mark Ronson, and a troupe of backing dancers (dressed in the styles of Michael Jackson) then performed "Uptown Funk". Beyoncé, also in a Michael Jackson-like bodysuit and appearing with a set of backing dancers dressed as Black Panthers, then performed her new single "Formation" in a mass choreographed dance and forming the letter X (to represent Malcolm X) number before joining Mars onstage for a verse of "Uptown Funk". Coldplay played a snippet of "Clocks" transitioning into "Fix You," and Martin sang along to some of the songs included in a video montage of past Super Bowl halftime and national anthem performances, containing show numbers by Bruce Springsteen, Missy Elliott, Katy Perry, The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, James Brown, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, The Black Eyed Peas, U2, Prince, Beyoncé in 2013, and Mars in 2014. The show concluded with the band performing "Up&Up" with Beyoncé, Mars, and everyone taking part in the show. At the end of the performance, the audience participated in a card stunt, creating a rainbow and the phrase "Believe in love."