Beyoncé and Jay-Z Sat During the National Anthem at the Super Bowl 2020
UPDATE: February 5, 2020, at 7:27 a.m. ET — Jay-Z says he wasn’t actually protesting by sitting during the national anthem at the Super Bowl. His and Beyoncé’s decision to stay seated was thought to be in solidarity with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who started kneeling during the anthem to raise awareness of police brutality. When asked if the move was “meant to convey a signal,” Jay-Z replied, “It actually wasn’t, sorry. It really wasn’t,” according to People. “I’d tell you…I’d say, ‘Yes, that’s what I’ve done.’ I think people know that about me.
“What happened was, we got there, we were sitting, and now the show’s about to start. My wife was with me and so she says to me, ‘I know this feeling right here.’ Like, she’s super nervous because she’s performed at Super Bowls before. I haven’t,” he said. “So we get there and we immediately jump into artist mode…now I’m really just looking at the show. Did the mic start? Was it too low to start? I had to explain to them [that] as an artist, if you don’t feel the music, you can't really reach that level.
“So the whole time we’re sitting there, we’re talking about the performance,” he explained. “And then right after that, Demi comes out, and we’re talking about how beautiful she looks and how she sounds, and what she’s gone through in her life for her to be on the stage and we’re so proud of her. It just happened.
“If you look at the stage and the artists that we chose—Colombian [Shakira] and Puerto Rican J.Lo—we were making the loudest statement,” he said.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Beyoncé and Jay-Z remained seated during the national anthem at the 2020 Super Bowl, People magazine confirms.
The couple attended Sunday night’s (February 2) big game at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami with their daughter, Blue Ivy. Per People, their decision not to stand was a continuation of the work started by former San Francisco 49ers player Colin Kaepernick, who kneeled during the national anthem to raise awareness of racism and police brutality in America.
Jay-Z recently signed a deal to join the NFL as a “live entertainment strategist” and has plans to make the organization more inclusive. “The NFL has a great big platform, and it has to be all-inclusive,” Jay-Z told the New York Times a few months back. (He’ll specifically be working with NFL’s activism arm, Inspire Change.) “They were willing to do some things, to make some changes, that we can do some good.”
On the League’s partnership with Jay-Z, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told the Times, “We don’t want people to come in and necessarily agree with us; we want people to come in and tell us what we can do better. I think that’s a core element of our relationship between [Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and the NFL], and with Jay and I personally.”
According to TMZ, Jay-Z and Goodell spoke to Kaepernick ahead of signing a deal together. “I think that we forget that Colin’s whole thing was to bring attention to social injustice so in that case this is a success, this is the next thing,” Jay-Z said, per TMZ. “There’s two parts of protest: the protest, and then there’s a company or individual saying, ‘I hear you, what do we do next?’ For me it’s about actionable items, what are we gonna do about it?”
Beyoncé shared some photos from her family’s Super Bowl outing on Instagram:
Sunday night’s national anthem was performed by Demi Lovato. Watch it for yourself, below.
Originally Appeared on Glamour
