Talk about understanding your audience.
As rock band The Killers performed in London’s The O2 Arena on Wednesday, and the concert overlapped with England’s Euros semifinal match against the Netherlands.
Instead of trying to dodge the elephant in the room and compete for fans’ attention, the artists halted their show — and actually displayed the final few moments of the match on the arena’s big screen.
As the last ticks on the game clock expired, the crowd at The O2 erupted in cheers as red, white and blue confetti rained down after England’s 2-1 win.
It was only fitting, then, that The Killers promptly performed maybe their most iconic tune: “Mr. Brightside.”
Stateside, the 2003 song is famously associated with the University of Michigan’s “Big House” football stadium.
Ironically enough, “Mr. Brightside” was honored earlier Wednesday with two Guinness World Records, including one for spending 416 weeks on the UK’s singles chart.
It remains unknown if the sequence was planned by the group or if the playlist of songs just happened to align perfectly with the fate of the sporting universe.
Pertaining to the pitch, England overcame an early 1-0 hole to the Dutch with captain Harry Kane scoring in the 18th minute on a penalty kick to knot things up.
Then, Ollie Watkins punctuated a turnaround play with a terrific cross-body goal in the 90th minute of action — a moment that proved the difference in the dramatic match.
Watkins’ goal meant that England had reached its second straight Euro final.
In 2021, the British lost to Italy in penalty kicks.
After Spain triumphed over France, 2-1, on Tuesday, it set up a showdown between the Group B and C winners with the tournament crown at stake.
England will seek its first ever Euro title as it battles the Spanish on Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern from Olympiastadion in Berlin.
