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Earlier this year, Beyoncé angered a lot of people for remaining seated during Joaquin Phoenix’s standing ovation at the Golden Globes.

And now, she and husband Jay-Z have received a lot of criticism for seemingly being the only people to remain seated during Demi Lovato’s sensational rendition of the National Anthem at Sunday night’s Super Bowl.

So what does he have to say for himself? Was it a political statement like many people thought?

“It actually wasn’t – sorry,” Jay-Z said during an appearance at New York’s Columbia University, according to Page Six.

And if he was making a political statement, he revealed that everyone would know about it…

“I’d tell you… I’d say, ‘Yes, that’s what I’ve done.’ I think people know that about me.”

So what actually happened?

Jay-Z said that he, Beyoncé, and 8-year-old daughter Blue Ivy were seated from the time Yolanda Adams sang America the Beautiful, right before Demi Lovato sang The Star Spangled Banner…

“What happened was, we got there, we were sitting, and now the show’s about to start. My wife was with me and so she says to me, ‘I know this feeling right here.’ Like, she’s super nervous because she’s performed at Super Bowls before. I haven’t.

“So we get there and we immediately jump into artist mode… now I’m really just looking at the show. Did the mic start? Was it too low to start? …I had to explain to them that as an artist if you don’t feel the music, you can’t really reach that level.”

Jay-Z then added that he and Beyoncé would never engage in a silent protest, or a protest of any kind, with Blue Ivy in attendance. He concluded that both he and Bey were extremely “proud” of Demi Lovato for her performance…

“So the whole time we’re sitting there, we’re talking about the performance, and then right after that, Demi comes out and we’re talking about how beautiful she looked, and how she sounds and what she’s going through, and her life — for her to be on the stage, we were so proud of her.

“And then it finished and then my phone rang. And it was like, ‘You know you didn’t …’ I’m like, ‘What?’”

So what do you think? Are you buying his explanation?