Thirty one year old singer Beyonce Knowles is poised to perform Sunday at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans during the Super Bowl half time show.NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said: “We pay the production costs for the halftime show. There is no fee for the artists.”The Grammy winning singer is said to be investing “hundreds of thousands of dollars” out of pocket to enhance the $600,000 budget the NFL provides in production costs. Her performance will also be partly funded by Pepsi, with whom Knowles recently signed a controversial $50 million dollar deal.
Knowles’ work has earned her numerous awards and accolades, including 16 Grammy Awards, 12 MTV Video Music Awards, a Billboard Millennium Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her contributions to Destiny’s Child. Marc Ganis, President of Sportscorp Ltd.said: ”Beyonce will not get paid, but her back up singers, her musicians, all the extras: they will be paid by the NFL production budget. But last year, for Madonna’s show, the budget certainly exceeded the budget the NFL gave her, and that will almost certainly be the same this year.
This means the artists have to pay the difference out of their own pocket.”Last year’s show was watched by 48.3% of the available TV audience, and drew 114 million viewers. Knowles’ performance will cost over $1 million, and will include chariots, cheerleaders, and Givenchy haute couture wardrobe.