Coldplay delivers colorful Super Bowl 50 halftime show with Beyonce and Bruno Mars

BY MELISSA RUGGIERI

First of all, it’s incredibly strange watching a Super Bowl halftime show in daylight. It’s like watching Motley Crue at 7 p.m. Just not quite right.

That said, Coldplay delivered an expectedly colorful – and safe – performance that incorporated Bruno Mars and Mark Ronson's "Uptown Funk" and gave way to a dancing Beyonce with her newly dropped single, "Formation" (and no surprise that a Beyonce tour was announced just after the halftime show ended - she'll play the Georgia Dome May 1 - tickets on sale Feb. 22).

While Coldplay’s opening “Viva La Vida” sounded (unusually) live, featuring Chris Martin in his patented folded stance,  when the band broke into “Paradise,” the usual lip-syncing (a near-necessity given tricky stadium acoustics and the short time span for setup) kicked in.

The Super Bowl trio. Photo: Getty Images.

A cute little dance-off between Beyonce and Mars ensued before Martin re-appeared out of nowhere for another snippet of “Uptown Funk” (you’d think Mars didn’t have another half-dozen hits he could have performed).

The highlight of the brisk performance was when Coldplay unveiled their gorgeous “Fix You” as musical clips from Super Bowls past – Whitney Houston singing the national anthem, Bruce Springsteen in silhouette with Clarence Clemons, U2, Prince and Michael Jackson doing their thing – scrolled and Martin incorporated lyrical nods such as “it’s a beautiful day, purple rain.”