Skip to content
Premieres

Watch Beyonce Werk in Dance-Heavy Super Bowl ‘Countdown’ Video

Beyoncé Super Bowl promo pic

“Countdown,” from 2011 album 4, is one of our favorites — SPIN editorial director Charles Aaron dubbed it a “masterpiece” — but a relative commercial disappointment in Beyoncé terms. The splashy, Boyz II Men-sampling, happy-in-love dance-pop track never got higher than #71 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. Surely it would be unrealistic to hope the “Single Ladies” and “Irreplaceable” singer might perform it during her Super Bowl halftime show? The one where she’s reuniting with Destiny’s Child and the reported setlist so far doesn’t even include hits like “Jumpin’, Jumpin'”?

It might still be unrealistic, but like My Bloody Valentine teasing us for decades about the prospect of a follow-up to their immortal shoegaze touchstone Loveless, Beyoncé is keeping us hanging on. She has unveiled a rehearsal video, which shows enough dance moves to suspect ignorant and faux-ignorant pundits will once again be hyperventilating about the singer who allegedly lip-synced the way everyone else does. And, lo, the “Countdown to Touchdown” video features a snippet of, yes, “Countdown”!

Queen B also posted to Tumblr a couple of photos of herself all footballed-out. And if you’re wondering whether she’s getting a huge payday for her performance at the NFL’s big event, she’s not: A rep for the league told the Daily Mail, “We pay the production costs for the halftime show, there is no fee for the artists.” Good thing she has that sugary-beverage endorsement deal to pay her bills, bills, bills.