With Jay-Z officially set to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show, a journey nearly a decade in the making has finally brought him to America’s biggest musical stage.
“The first thing I said to Roger was, ‘If this is about me performing at the Super Bowl, then we can end this conversation now,’” Jay-Z recalled when he appeared alongside NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to announce his partnership with the league in 2019.
Goodell acknowledged that he hoped the performance would eventually happen. After previously admitting it might be “selfish” to choose himself, Jay-Z is now preparing to take the stage, with the announcement officially made Monday night.
Our News Outlet first reported on September 18 that Jay-Z, who is married to Beyoncé and shares three children with her, was considering performing in the halftime show. Roc Nation and the NFL strongly denied the report at the time.
The February 14 performance had long seemed inevitable. It is also viewed as overdue, placing one of America’s most culturally influential artists on the country’s most prominent entertainment platform.
“I think Jay’s Super Bowl performance was always going to happen once Roc agreed to work with the NFL years ago, so it’s no great surprise,” Seth Schachner, host of Breaking Down the Biz podcast and a former Sony Music and Jive Records executive, told Our News Outlet.
Jay-Z will headline the next Super Bowl halftime show at California’s SoFi Stadium in February
Jay-Z is following his wife Beyoncé, who headlined the 2013 halftime show
“The Super Bowl remains the biggest stage in music, and artists of every level—from independent acts to global superstars—want the opportunity to reach its enormous audience.
“That kind of exposure is increasingly difficult to find. Streaming has become overcrowded, while social media cannot guarantee that every artist will be heard. It is a rare and enormous window that no performer can afford to ignore.
“Jay-Z is already a superstar, but the Super Bowl will introduce his music to a broader American audience. I suspect many viewers will hear some of his work for the first time because so many listeners remain in their own musical silos.
“The appearance should generate a huge increase in streams, as it did for Bad Bunny, and could help support future touring. The NFL and hip-hop are both deeply American institutions, so it is fitting that the genre is receiving the spotlight on music’s biggest stage.”
Jay-Z’s relationship with the NFL, however, has been controversial from the outset, unfolding amid political tensions that prompted criticism from several league players.
In 2018, reports said he had declined an opportunity to perform at Super Bowl LI in Houston, Texas. Around the same period, he dedicated a song to Colin Kaepernick and was photographed wearing Kaepernick jerseys after publicly supporting the quarterback, who became a free agent following his protests during the national anthem.
A year later, Jay-Z announced his partnership with the league he had previously criticized. His Roc Nation company assumed responsibility for the NFL’s entertainment and social justice initiatives, including the Super Bowl halftime show, in a five-year agreement reportedly worth $25 million. The deal was extended in 2024, although its updated terms were not disclosed.
During the press conference announcing the partnership, Jay-Z said: “I think we’ve moved past kneeling, and I think it’s time to move toward actionable items,” adding that he was prepared to help lead the “next phase” of the fight against social injustice that Kaepernick had helped begin.
His comments triggered a fierce backlash, including from NFL players who had protested by kneeling. Reports that Jay-Z and the NFL had spoken with Kaepernick were quickly rejected by the quarterback’s girlfriend and others in his inner circle.
“He could have reached out to Colin,” Kenny Stills, then a wide receiver for the Miami Dolphins, said at the time. “He could have reached out to me.
“The way he answered some of those questions—saying, ‘We’re moving past kneeling,’ as if he had ever protested—was difficult to hear. He is not an NFL player. He has never taken a knee.
“I wonder how many ordinary people he knows or has spoken with,” Stills added. “I wonder whether he has read my Facebook and Instagram comments or listened to what people say to me. To say we are moving past something without seeming informed about it was troubling.”
Jay-Z announced his NFL partnership alongside Roger Goodell in 2019
Jay-Z was criticized by NFL players who called the partnership “disingenuous” after he had supported Colin Kaepernick during the fallout over the quarterback’s anthem protest
“They have done a good job of shifting the issue onto Roc Nation and Shawn Carter,” Stills continued. “I will try to give him the benefit of the doubt for now, but it does not sit right with me. It is not something I agree with or respect.”
Jay-Z defended the partnership, saying: “Everyone knows I agree with the message behind what you are saying [about Kaepernick]. So what are we going to do? Are we going to help millions and millions of people, or remain focused on Colin not having a job?”
Eric Reid, Kaepernick’s former 49ers teammate, argued that the agreement allowed the league to “act like they care about people of color.”
He replied: “These issues are not mutually exclusive. They can happen at the same time. It looks as though your goal was to make millions and millions of dollars by helping the NFL bury Colin’s career.”
Since then, Roc Nation has continued elevating the halftime show as an American cultural event. Last year’s performance became the most politically charged yet, drawing criticism from President Donald Trump and other outspoken opponents after Bad Bunny, one of Trump’s most prominent critics, delivered the first halftime show performed in Spanish.
Jay-Z has also criticized Trump. In a 2017 interview with BBC Radio 1, he described Trump’s presidency as “a joke” and said he did not consider the president to be a “very sophisticated man.”
Trump later called Bad Bunny’s performance “terrible” and “one of the worst ever.” This year, the NFL is again handing its stage—and the political visibility that comes with it—to one of Trump’s critics, though Jay-Z also has a strong incentive to protect the league’s interests.
“For both sides, this is also a smart calculated risk,” Amore Philip, founder of Apples & Oranges Public Relations, which advises founders and public figures on branding and reputation, told Our News Outlet.
“A headliner who helped build the show has every reason to protect it, reducing the likelihood of an unexpected moment that the league would have to explain.”
That context makes the timing of Jay-Z’s performance particularly intriguing. He will take control of the event at SoFi Stadium in California while facing criticism for selecting himself for the headline slot. So why this year?
Bad Bunny performed during last year’s halftime show
Jay-Z is taking a victory lap in a year that marks three decades since the release of his debut album
“There are anniversary milestones,” Schachner said. It marks 30 years since the release of Jay-Z’s debut album, Reasonable Doubt, and 25 years since his acclaimed Blueprint album. “His recent stadium shows in the US and UK have also helped pave the way, as has an HBO series that introduced him to television audiences.
“More importantly, the show needs an influential social figure with an edge and a sense of cool. The NFL has made questionable choices in the past, including Maroon 5 and the aging Who. Jay is a logical, credible performer, and the league gains cultural standing from the choice.
“He is also a more unifying selection than last year. Bad Bunny was excellent, but some viewers may have been put off by the language barrier.”
The announcement puts an even brighter spotlight on Roc Nation’s role within the NFL and the partnership Jay-Z established under contentious circumstances.
Yet the Super Bowl halftime show has arguably never been a bigger spectacle, benefiting from the NFL’s strong television ratings and expanding audience.
“I would describe their stewardship as an unqualified success,” Schachner said. “They have helped the NFL regain cultural relevance and a sense of hipness, while also narrowing some of the significant gaps between performers and audiences.”
The circumstances have ultimately aligned for Jay-Z and the NFL to use their partnership to put him on the biggest platform of his career.
Amore Philip added: “The deal has always been an exchange of credibility for reach.
“The NFL gained cultural relevance with the audiences it most needed, while Jay-Z gained music’s biggest stage and the ability to shape it on his own terms.
“For years, he decided who appeared on that stage. Taking it himself is the natural final chapter: the curator becomes the headliner, and the partnership ends with his name attached to the moment, not merely listed in the credits.”
Our News Outlet has contacted Roc Nation representatives and the NFL for comment.
