The Super Bowl is the biggest platform for music in the world, watched by more than 100 million TV viewers in the US alone.
Super Bowl LI, on Sunday, at the NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, will se the New England Patriots tackle the Atlanta Falcons, but it's what happens in the middle that is of most interest to the music industry - the legendary halftime show.
Lady Gaga will be the star of this year's show, following in the esteemed footsteps of the likes of The Rolling Stones, Beyoncé, Prince, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Katy Perry and - last year - Coldplay.
Coldplay manager Dave Holmes told Music Week: "I'd been having conversations with the NFL since 2008/09, we were up for consideration a number of times - it was on the cards, but I knew at some point we were going to get asked. It was a little late when they came to us, compared to when they normally approach artists, but we were ready.
"It was a lot of work but it was an incredible thing to be a part of - I feel really blessed to be a part of that as a manager. It was stressful as hell and I was really relieved when it was done, but it was fun."
"That was then and still is probably the biggest thing we've ever done, there was a lot of pressure," added the band's creative director, Phil Harvey. "I remember Chris saying at the time, The Super Bowl of music is... the Super Bowl."
The band, who are booked by Paradigm's Marty Diamond in North America, played seven songs to the 71,088 fans in the stadium and a domestic TV audience of 115.5m – the third highest-ever watched show in the US. They were joined by Beyoncé, Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson at various points of their set.
“It was an amazing opportunity to do something on such a huge scale,” added drummer Will Champion. “It required a huge amount of preparation and the rehearsal schedule was vigorous.
“Obviously there are so many things to consider with a television show of that size, and so many people who need to feel listened to and who need to get their message across: the league, the broadcasters, the producers of the show and the advertisers; everyone seemed to have something to say about it all.
“After six months of build-up and fretting about the song selection, the staging and the camera angles and so on, for the 12 minutes we were on stage it was fantastic. It was a really great atmosphere to be part of. We were very happy with the way it went.”
