Beyoncé knew the eyes of the world were on her during as she performed at halftime of the NFL’s Netflix Christmas doubleheader and brandished a finger-gun gesture that put social media in an uproar.
By making the gun gesture with her left pointer and middle fingers high above the NRG Stadium turf in her hometown of Houston, football fans quickly claimed a tonuge-and-cheek response that an NFL player doing the same in a game would have been penalized.
Beyoncé’s halftime show during the Texas-Ravens games was also her first performance since husband Jay-Z was accused of rape, with a lawsuit accusing the music mogul and disgraced rapper Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs of raping a 13-year-old girl at an MTV Video Music Awards after-party in New York in 2000.
Jay-Z strenuously denied the allegations, and a lawyer for Diddy, who is currently awaiting trial and behind bars on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution, also denied the accusations.
Making a gun symbol of any kind in an NFL game is an automatic 15-yard penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. Beyoncé, of course, is not eligible to be penalized.
Beyoncé made the finger gun at the conclusion of her flashy halftime performance at the end of her country hit ‘TEXAS HOLD ‘EM’, where she was lifted from the temporary stage to high in the air in the middle of the huge stadium.
Beyoncé did a finger-gun gesture, causing an uproar on social media during her halftime show
Beyoncé knew the eyes of the world were on her during as she performed at halftime in Texas
Beyoncé’s performance featured musical guests including her 12-year-old daughter Blue Ivy
‘Glad I wasn’t the only one to notice,’ one NFL fan said.
‘I literally said the same thing to my husband as soon as she did it. The whole thing was awful.’
‘We had every other Texas stereotype – why not guns.’
‘Also worth noting Beyoncé is appropriating culture which has been banned by the left.’
Whether the gesture was part of her performance or any kind of protest with millions of eyes on her is unclear.
It was her first performance since she last hit the stage in October of 2023 to wrap her highly successful Renaissance World Tour at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Missouri.
Netflix promised a number of special guest appearances and Beyoncé was joined on stage by Shaboozey and Post Malone early in her performance. During the final stretch, she was joined by her daughter 12-year-old daughter Blue Ivy.
A collection of social-media messages about Beyoncé’s Christmas halftime show on Netflix
Beyoncé’s Christmas show was her third major showing at halftime of an NFL game.
She was the solo headliner for the Super Bowl halftime show in 2013 and was a special guest alongside Bruno Mars during Coldplay’s Super Bowl show three years later.
Many online also were dazzled by her performance and said next year’s Super Bowl headliner, Kendrick Lamar, had his work cut out for him.
