Beyonce held her first press conference while at the Super Bowl and addressed the controversy that has followed her since President Obama's inauguration.
The singer, wearing a long-sleeve white dress, opened up the presser by belting out live rendition of The Star Spangled Banner, before telling reporters that's she did indeed use a pre-recorded track at the inauguration and that she sang along with it due to the weather conditions.
"I am a perfectionist. I did not have time to rehearse with the orchestra for a live television show and a very very important emotional show for me one of my proudest moments," Beyonce told the assembled crowd at the New Orleans Convention Center. "I did not feel comfortable taking a risk. It was about the president and the inauguration and I wanted to make him and our country proud so I decided to sing along with my prerecorded track. I'm very proud of my performance."
Knowles said that she does not plan on doing the same thing for the halftime show.
"I will absolutely be singing live," Beyonce said. "This is what I was born to do."
The Grammy winning artists did not comment on the controversy publically until Thursday and said that she also sang along with the pre-recorded track, so it was not all lip syncing. She also commented on the rumors that she will be reuniting with her Destiny's Child co-members at the show.
"I don't know," she said coyly. "I can't really give you any details. I'm sorry."
Beyonce described the hardships of putting together the show, saying that it was difficult to decide what to add into the 12-minute show.
"It was the hardest thing," she said of the process of picking which songs to perform. "Trying to condense a career into 12 minutes was not easy because all of my songs are like my children."
CLICK HERE for video of the press conference and Beyonce singing.
Beyonce said to NFL.com that performing at the Super Bowl has been a career aspiration for her: "I thank God I've been given this opportunity. You work very hard for these moments and I'm just hoping all my life lessons and life experiences can be used for this performance."
"I've had a 16-year career, and all of the things that I've done have prepared me for this," she said. "I'm ready."
Beyonce said she plays fantasy football and knows "every little detail" about her players and the games.
The show Super Bowl will also have a number of musical acts in the pregame, including performances by Matchbox Twenty and OneRepublic as well as Alicia Keys performing the national anthem. The NFL also confirmed Thursday that Jennifer Hudson would perform "America the Beautiful" with the Sandy Hook Elementary School choir.
The singer previewed some of her show on Thursday, releasing a short video on YouTube.
The video on YouTube, titled "Beyonce Super Bowl Halftime Show Rehearsal: Day 1," shows Beyonce's halftime rehearsals from day one and offers fans a tease of what is to come on Sunday. A black and white shot of Beyonce at a computer in the empty rehearsal hall starts the video before the card "Countdown to Touchdown" drops in.
Beyonce is singing in the background as shots of her and her dancers practice during the run up to the big game. The footage shows a large number of choreographed dancing and a large number of dancers and features a 10-second countdown as more footage is flashed before Beyonce leaves the hall.
Beyonce also put up a photo of her in a football face. CLICK HERE for the photo.
Chances are there will be more videos since the title has "Day 1" in it, but that remains to be seen.
The singer also opened up about her past miscarriage in her new HBO documentary :Life is But a Dream."
According to Yahoo, "About two years ago, I was pregnant for the first time," Beyonce says in the doc airing February 16, via Us Weekly. "And I heard the heartbeat, which was the most beautiful music I ever heard in my life."
Beyonce isn't much a prognosticator though. When asked to pick a winner for Sunday she played it safe, saying: "Oh, man, I can't say that either."