Beyoncé and Jay-Z stay seated during Super Bowl national anthem performance: report
By Nate Day | Fox News
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Music superstars Beyoncé and Jay-Z chose to remain seated during Demi Lovato's performance of the national anthem at Super Bowl LIV.
The pair attended the game with their daughter Blue Ivy, who also stayed in her seat, according to TMZ.
In images obtained by the outlet, the musical family can be seen sitting during the performance while others stood.
Jay-Z's entertainment company Roc Nation holds a partnership with the NFL, giving him a say in what artists perform at major NFL events -- including the Super Bowl.
After the song, DJ Khaled stopped by and spoke with Jay-Z, which was also seen in TMZ's photos.
Jay-Z recently spoke to the New York Times about his partnership with the NFL, insisting that it was not made for economic gain, but instead to promote education surrounding social justice.
“As long as real people are being hurt and marginalized and losing family members, then yes, I can take a couple rounds of negative press,” he said of the backlash received for the partnership, which some say as a betrayal of Colin Kaepernick and his protests within the NFL.
“No one is saying he hasn’t been done wrong. He was done wrong,” Jay-Z said. “I would understand if it was three months ago. But it was three years ago and someone needs to say, ‘What do we do now -- because people are still dying?”
Fox News' Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
Jay-Z explains why he was seated during Super Bowl LIV national anthem
By Nate Day | Fox News
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Jay-Z is clearing the air.
The rapper and his wife, Beyoncé, drew criticism and praise for staying seated during the national anthem at Super Bowl LIV on Sunday.
TMZ was able to obtain photos of the couple sitting with their daughter Blue Ivy during Demi Lovato's performance.
Now, the outlet has obtained footage of Jay-Z, 50, explaining that he wasn't making a political statement but was actually observing the show.
Jay-Z visited Columbia University in New York for a Q&A session when he was asked whether his sitting down was meant to send a message.
"It actually wasn't," he stated plainly. "Sorry."
He explained that he was busy observing the show, which he had a hand in producing thanks to a deal between his company Roc Nation and the NFL.
"We get there and we immediately jump into artist mode," he explained. "...So now I'm just really looking at the show. Did the mics start? Was it too low to start?"
The rapper continued, saying that he wanted to make sure that fans at home could "really feel the music," so it was important to him that every aspect of the song was perfect.
He also noted that he was closely watching Yolanda Adams perform "America the Beautiful," critiquing what shots the cameras were capturing.
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"The whole time, we're sitting there, we're talking about the performance and right after that, Demi comes out and we're talking about how beautiful she looked and how she sounds and what she's going through in her life for her to be on the stage, we're so proud of her," he said.
Additionally, Jay-Z said that he and Beyoncé, 38, wouldn't have put their 8-year-old daughter in that position.
"It just happened," he noted. "I didn't have to make a silent protest. If you look at the stage, the artists that we chose, Colombian [Shakira], Puerto Rican JLo ... we were making the biggest loudest protest of all."
