Your backstage pass to the DFW music scene and beyond.
ARLINGTON -- The 59th annual All-Star Game was a musical mixed bag, stylistically speaking.
In an effort to appeal to as broad a swath of the crowd as possible, there was country star Gretchen Wilson's earnest reading of the national anthem; the Canadian Tenors' stirring rendition of O, Canada and Usher's athletic introduction of the starting line-ups.
But for the halftime extravaganza, the NBA lined up two of pop music's most visible talents, Shakira and Alicia Keys.
Neither fell victim to Cowboys Stadium's notoriously iffy acoustics -- in fact, both sounded solid from my vantage point -- and both delivered brief, but potent, performances.
With an eye toward next year's Super Bowl, here's hoping the NFL takes a page from the NBA's playbook and remembers that plenty of modern artists are capable of entertaining crowds as sizable as the kind squeezed into Jerry Jones's palatial sports arena.
Shakira went first, writhing inside a steel cage as she performed She Wolf, the title track from her latest album.
Following that with a marching band cameo and Give It Up to Me, another single from She Wolf, the Colombian vocalist gave the crowd plenty of salacious, thumping showmanship during her 10-minute set.
Grammy winner Keys fared better, running through a trio of tunes -- Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart, Empire State of Mind (Keys even improvised some lyrics appropriate to the occasion: "There's nothing you can't do when you're an All-Star") and No One.
She bridged the gap between her elegant, engaging R&B and rousing a rowdy crowd.
Compared to the Super Bowl's halftime show, this affair was much less embarrassing for all involved. The night may have been hard to pin down with regards to genre, but anything's better than calcified classic rockers.
