Beyoncé’s Christmas NFL halftime show is underway

CNN
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I hope your Santa hat was attached because Beyoncé gave us an amazing “Cowboy Carter” gift for Christmas.

The superstar spread holiday cheer during the Christmas Day halftime show at the Texans-Ravens NFL game in her hometown of Houston, Texas, marking the first time Beyoncé has performed songs from her hit 2024 album “Cowboy Carter” before a live -audience performed.

Beyoncé began her iconic performance on horseback by literally riding in and singing “16 Carriages.” After dismounting with vintage cars arranged in the background, she began her cover of the Beatles classic “Blackbird,” accompanied by country singers Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts, with whom she collaborated on the song.

Post Malone made a surprise appearance to perform their collaboration “Levii’s Jeans” following Bey’s duet with country singer Shaboozey.

Backed by a full marching band, Beyoncé also performed “Ya Ya” and was joined on the field by her daughter Blue Ivy, who danced alongside her mother during the song “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

“Merry Christmas everyone,” Beyoncé said at the end of the set as she was lifted high above the field on a white platform.

Beyoncé is no stranger to major NFL events. The Grammy winner headlined the 2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans and was on the field with Coldplay and Bruno Mars during the 2016 Super Bowl show.

She also used a commercial that aired during the 2024 Super Bowl to announce “Cowboy Carter,” the highly anticipated “Act II” follow-up to her 2023 album “Renaissance.”

“Cowboy Carter” was released in March and received 11 Grammy nominations.

Queen Bey announced this week’s performance on Tuesday with a cheeky video in which she holds a rolling soccer ball in her sky-high heels while playing a banjo to her popular song “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

The video is designed to look like it’s buffering in one spot – with a red, spinning circle on Beyoncé’s nose – and pokes fun at Netflix’s previous lagging livestream issues, which many encountered during the Mike Tyson’s slightly glitchy livestream -Jake Paul fight. After the fake “mistake,” Beyoncé can be heard giggling and winking at the camera.

A Netflix representative previously told CNN that they have made additional optimizations to their systems to improve viewing quality and better handle the large viewership they expect for the Christmas Day NFL games.

Netflix was the streaming host of both the Chiefs-Steelers game – played earlier in the day – and the Texans-Ravens game on Christmas Day.

Mariah Carey, the so-called Christmas Queen herself, also made a spectacular appearance at Netflix’s Christmas Day NFL games, appearing in a pre-recorded video of her holiday hit classic “All I Want For Christmas is You,” which was streamed before both Play.

Carey’s performance marked the song’s 30th anniversary and featured the Grammy-winning singer on a rooftop in Los Angeles. Carey was surrounded by dancers and children in Christmas costumes and sang amid a fake snowfall.