Queen Latifah has definitely come a long ways from her Newark days. Formerly Dana Elaine Owens, she made her introduction with her hip-hop album “All Hail the Queen” in 1989, with all the confidence and swagger that the title alludes to.
Since then she has starred in the musical “Chicago” on the big screen and been a Hollywood Bowl jazz concert headliner. At each step along the way, Queen Latifah’s versatile, brassy voice has proved that it is up to all challenges.
At the Super Bowl XLIV game, Queen Latifah joined a few other singers before the game to sing “America the Beautiful.” She was dressed in a shiny, steel gray jacket and jeans with hair pulled back which revealed a strand of what looked to be blue butterflies right underneath her right ear. Latifah stood in center field with a children’s chorus dressed in red, white and blue surrounding her.
Queen Latifah’s “America the Beautiful” rendition started off shakily. She was tugging on her left ear, trying to apparently adjust her ear piece. However she finally was able to find her voice and rhythm.
After a few drum accents that were worthy of the James Brown command “gimme two times,” Latifah moved into even deeper gospel funk territory through to the conclusion of the song. It was interesting, like her outfit, but not completely successful.
Minutes later, Carrie Underwood, former “American Idol” contestant who was clad in white, stood by herself and sang the national anthem a cappella. At first she sounded thin, however she eventually did find her footing. With the entire world watching even pros like Underwood and Latifah must be intimidated at least a little.
On the lyrics “rockets red glare” Underwood was able to find some red meat that she could chew on. Fireworks, on cue, arched up to the sky as the crowd cheered on the troops that were shown on the massive screen at Sun Life Stadium.
Underwood, in her big finish, sang a majority of the lyrics line “land of the free and the home of the brave” taking very little breath. However she still was able to manage to sustain syllables on the right and dramatic cues. Underwood wasn’t earth shattering but she definitely was solid.
However those four fighter jets streaking across Sun Life Stadium as Underwood finished her song were quite earth shattering.
Before Latifah and Underwood, the orange and green marching band of Florida A&M paid Michael Jackson homage, complete with gigantic posters depicting the face of the King of Pop.
The Indianapolis Colts came onto the field with The Who playing, which was the halftime entertainment at the Super Bowl. Whether that will give them an advantage has yet to be determined.
