You knew it was coming. JAY-Z wouldn’t shut out his thirtieth anniversary yr with out taking the stage at one of the world’s greatest occasions. So yup, he’ll headline the Super Bowl LXI halftime present on Feb. 14 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
The announcement came after rampant hypothesis earlier in the week. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell declined to give a definitive reply at the league’s current assembly, but it appears to be like like the cat was already out of the bag. The official announcement came during halftime of the Monday Night Football recreation between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.
In a black-and-white video, Jay, sporting his trademark New York Yankees cap, is seated in a stadium surrounded by 11 goats. The spot is reminiscent of one with Sheryl Swoopes that ran on the WNBA app all through the season. A clip of “Public Service Announcement” performs as a title reads, “Goat’s Out of the Bag.”
And that’s all you’re getting until the present.
JAY-Z Calls This Moment A “Dream Come True”
“From Reasonable Doubt to standing on the Super Bowl Halftime stage, this has been a journey. Thirty years of music, work, and culture on the world’s biggest stage. This run continues to be a dream come true,” Jay said in a assertion.
If you’ve been retaining up, you know this is possible the finale of Jay’s thirtieth anniversary takeover. Last June, he kicked off a wide-ranging tour with an look at the Roots Picnic. Then he performed three sold-out exhibits at Yankee Stadium, stopped in London and Paris, and wrapped up the tour at SoFi last week.
Along the manner, he introduced out Beyoncé, Rihanna, Slick Rick, Pharrell, Eminem, Scarface, Fat Joe, Teyana Taylor, Swizz Beatz, Alicia Keys and Jeezy, among others.
Jay follows Kendrick Lamar in 2025 and Bad Bunny, who headlined the Super Bowl LX halftime present in 2026. Roc Nation has produced the halftime present since 2019, and renewed the partnership in 2024.
“When we first reached an agreement with Roc Nation to produce the show, I had just one request: that Jay-Z take the stage himself one day, whenever the moment felt right to him,” Goodell said.
The Controversy Surrounding JAY-Z’s Involvement With The NFL
But as with anything Jay does, his announcement didn’t come with out controversy. In 2018, on “Apesh—” from Everything Is Love, his joint album with wifey Beyoncé, he rapped, “I said no to the Super Bowl, you need me, I don’t need you / Every night we in the end zone, tell the NFL we in stadiums, too.”
While that was extensively considered as support for Colin Kaepernick amid his NFL anthem protests, Kaepernick has since said he believes Jay sabotaged these efforts by changing into the “Black face of the NFL” as the league sought to transfer previous the protests.
“You’re serving the culture up to a bunch of racists and, two, they don’t care about you,” Kaepernick informed NBC News in September when his memoir, The Perilous Fight, was launched. “You’re the music guy to them. They quite literally need a Black face — and have said as much.”
In a freestyle at Yankee Stadium in July on the first night time of his three-night stand, before Kaepernick’s e book was launched, Jay addressed some of the criticism.
“They run out of characters, had to bring back up [Kaepernick] again,” he rhymed, responding to followers who criticized his deal with Target to promote a vinyl model of Reasonable Doubt. “Buddy took a check, I ain’t even mad at him, but along with that check you have to sign a non-disparagement. I’m the one [the NFL] can’t control.”
Jay hasn’t responded to Kaepernick’s e book. Kaepernick denies signing a non-disparagement clause.
We Don’t Know Who Will Hit That Stage With Him
Jay also hasn’t confirmed any potential halftime friends, but hypothesis has grown around the goats surrounding him in the announcement video. There are 11 of them, so he could pull from some of the artists who joined him onstage this summer time and fall.
Or perhaps he’ll convey out 11 NFL gamers. Or 11 social justice advocates. Or some mixture of all three.
Will one of them be Beyoncé? What about Kanye, whom many followers would like to see reunited with Jay despite his historical past of abhorrent conduct?
Welp, whatever occurs, we’re watching … and you know you are, too.
The submit I Choose Me: Jay-Z Will Headline 2027 Super Bowl Halftime Show appeared first on Bossip.
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