Beyoncé turns NFL Christmas Halftime Show into a ‘Cowboy Carter’ party with Post Malone cameo

(CNN) — Hope your Santa hat was fastened, because Beyoncé gave us the ultimate “Cowboy Carter” gift this Christmas.

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

Beyoncé began her iconic performance on horseback, literally riding in while singing “16 Carriages” in what appeared to be a pre-taped segment. After dismounting with classic cars arranged in the background, she began her cover of The Beatles’ classic hit “Blackbird,” accompanied by country singers Tanner Adell, Brittney Spencer, Tiera Kennedy and Reyna Roberts, who she collaborated on the song with.

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

Backed by Texas Southern University’s 200-member Ocean of Soul Marching Band, Beyoncé also performed “Ya Ya” and was joined on the field by her daughter Blue Ivy, who danced next to her mother during the song “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

Beyoncé honored the hometown team by including the Texans Cheerleaders in the performance, in addition to featuring significant figures in rodeo culture such as Bull-riding legend Myrtis Dightman, Jr. and Ja’Dayia Kursh, the first Black Rodeo Queen in Arkansas, among others.

“Merry Christmas, god bless y’all,” Beyoncé said at the end of the set, as she was raised high above the field on a white platform.

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

She also used an ad spot 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 has gone on to earn 11 Grammy nods.

Queen Bey teased this week’s performance on Tuesday with a cheeky video of herself stopping a rolling football with her sky-high heels while finger-picking a banjo along to her popular song “Texas Hold ‘Em.”

The video is made to appear as though it’s buffering at one point – with a red spinning circle on Beyoncé’s nose – poking fun at Netflix’s previous lagging livestream issues that many called attention to during the slightly glitchy livestream of the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight. After the faux ‘glitch,’ Beyoncé is heard giggling and winks to the camera.

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

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

Mariah Carey, the so-called Queen of Christmas herself, also made a splashy appearance during Netflix’s Christmas Day NFL games when she appeared in a pre-recorded video of her classic Christmas hit “All I Want For Christmas is You,” which was streamed ahead of both games.

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

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

This story has been updated with additional information.