Many were skeptical over the motives of Jay-z and Beyonce together with their daughter Blue Ivy when The Star-Spangled Banner was played.
People took it for a political statement, but during a sitting with the Columbia University, Jay-Z finally talked about it.
He was Infront of an audience when he said, “It actually wasn’t (a political statement). Sorry. It really wasn’t. What happened was it was not premeditated at all.”
During the video from the Super Bowl, Lovato was still at the “rockets red glare” line when the family began sitting down. He talked about how the video clip background could have made something out of that situation.
He said, “TMZ could tell you anything without speaking to me. If it were me, I’d say, ‘Yes, that’s what I’ve done.’ I think people know that about me.”
The rapper-singer explained himself and said that they arrived during the gospel singer Yolanda Adam’s was singing “America the Beautiful”. And because he was the co-producer of the halftime show, he immediately changed to his artist mode. He arranged some last-minute adjustments on some technical stuff and was talking to his wife about the performance.
He then continued to explain, “The whole time we’re sitting there, we’re talking about the performance. Then right after that, Demi (Lovato) comes out, and we’re talking about how beautiful she looked and how she sounds and what she’s going through in her life, and to be on the stage, we’re so proud of her.”
He then got a phone call after Lovato’s performance on the national anthem, and he realized what the situation looked like for the family. He confirmed though that sitting moment wasn’t done on purpose and that he didn’t want to put his daughter too in that position.
He concluded, “It just happened. We were making the loudest sound. I didn’t have to make a silent protest. When you look at the stage, the artists that we chose: Looking at Colombian (Shakira), Puerto Rican JLo.”
It was last year that Jay-Z announced that his company, Roc Nation, would be partnering with the National Football League (NFL) and that the show would feature Shakira and Jennifer Lopez.
Jay-z and Beyonce received a lot of criticizes for being a supporter of Colin Kaepernick, who also kneeled during the national anthem before the games as a way to protest on the killing of unarmed African Americans by the authorities.
Many were also criticizing this year’s opening of the NFL. The halftime shows of the two Latinas seemed to be bringing down a lot of weight for the viewers even though they brought a lot of heat. These two popstars honored their heritage and made some silent symbolization during the shows. The Latino community was so proud of the women, and they all loved it.
However, there was some backlash saying that it was overly sexualized and not family-friendly. Others were saying that they were too vulgar and was not empowering the women but the opposite of it.
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