HOUSTON—The most authentically absurdly American moment of one of the most authentically absurd happenings of Super Bowl week probably came when the Boston TV news guy asked the country singer if he would be thinking of the troops as he sang the national anthem on Sunday. I mean, as leading questions go, that is a doozy. Good luck saying no.
There have been many great moments at the press conference for the anthem singer and halftime performer at the Super Bowl. The late Prince asked if anyone had any questions, then immediately started performing, his guitar ablaze. Beyonce, who sang the national anthem, said she had to lip-sync President Barack Obama’s 2013 inauguration because she was preparing for the Super Bowl instead. Idina Menzel, who revealed her father used to gamble on football, followed by betting on the over-under on the duration of her anthem being suspended due to suspicious activity.
This thing is populated by celebrity journalists from places like Entertainment Tonight and Access Hollywood and Inside Nothing, which might be an entertainment show, who knows. The questions are obsequious enough to make sports journalists feel like Woodward and Bernstein. The answers depend on the cleverness of the performers. Sometimes it’s funny, oftentimes it’s ridiculous, occasionally — see above — it’s unintentionally great.
This year it was Luke Bryan, a country music star who when not singing sounds like Peyton Manning after a couple beers, and Lady Gaga, who delivered a terrific anthem last year. Other than the Boston guy asking the Platonic ideal of a satirical American question, that is all I remember about Luke Bryan. Good luck to him Sunday, I guess.
As for Lady Gaga, she’s not what you’d call funny. She plays along, but it’s not a natural thing. Which makes some sense, because among megastars she comes from a different place, and started with fans who came from different places, too — the LGBT community was an early adopter, and she has declared herself bisexual — and now she has soared into the strange obscurity of stardom, as Martin Amis once put it. Never forget the idea that once you play a Super Bowl halftime show, it’s very possible that your career is all over but the touring, Beyonce excluded.
So there was Gaga, fielding questions from Terry Bradshaw, a four-time Super Bowl champion and Fox analyst. Sure.
“You’re the biggest star that I’ve ever looked at, I sang with one of the Beatles once, but I screwed the song up,” began Bradshaw, in his charming ol’ boy way. Shortly after that, Gaga mentioned that her grandmother was a huge Steelers fan, and Terry responded, “Is she single, Lady? I have my wife here, that’s just a funny line.” Gaga replied, “She is single, but she’s a widow.” Sometimes it’s better when they don’t rehearse.
But since she’s more overtly political than, say, Coldplay, Lady Gaga was asked about whether she will unite America on Sunday, or make a political statement. Here are her answers.
“Well, I don’t know if I will succeed in unifying America: you’ll have to ask America when it’s over,” she said. “But the only statements that I’ll be making during the halftime show are the ones that I have been consistently making throughout making my entire career. I believe in compassion and inclusion; I believe in the spirit of equality and the spirit of this country as one of compassion and love and kindness.”
“I’d say one of the things I’m most excited about for this halftime show, as much as it is a great moment for me in my life, it wasn’t given to me; it was given to them. So essentially that kid that couldn’t get a seat at the cool kids’ table, and that kid that was kicked out of the house because his mom and dad couldn’t accept him for who he was, that kid’s going to have the stage for 13 minutes, and I’m excited to give it to them.”
Maybe that was schtick, long practised. Maybe it was empty words, sponsored by Pepsi Zero Sugar. At a certain level, everybody is in marketing.
But you know, it was nice. And you know, sometimes in this life, that’s enough.
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