After years of helping shape the Super Bowl halftime show from behind the scenes, Jay-Z is finally taking center stage. The rapper will headline the event himself.
The NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation announced Monday night that Jay-Z will lead the halftime performance on Feb. 14 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
The news arrived with a brief video showing Jay-Z seated inside SoFi Stadium as goats gathered around him. The clip carried the playful message, “GOAT’s out of the bag.”
The announcement ends days of speculation and brings Jay-Z back to the same stadium where he wrapped his “Jay-Z 30” concert series over the weekend. The tour began with three performances at Yankee Stadium in New York, moved to London and concluded in Southern California.
Since 2019, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation has worked with the NFL to advise on and produce the league’s major entertainment events, including the Super Bowl halftime show. When the partnership began, however, Jay-Z told NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, “If this is about me performing at the Super Bowl, then we can just end this conversation now.”
Seven years later, the artist once known as Shawn Carter has changed his mind and will perform on the Super Bowl stage.
In the years since Roc Nation joined the NFL’s entertainment efforts, halftime headliners have included Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, The Weeknd, Rihanna and Kendrick Lamar.
Jay-Z has earned 25 Grammy Awards from 89 nominations, the second-highest total in Grammy history behind his wife, Beyoncé, who has appeared at two Super Bowl halftime shows. His influential catalog includes “Reasonable Doubt,” “The Blueprint” and “The Black Album,” along with signature tracks such as “Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem),” “99 Problems” and “Empire State of Mind,” his collaboration with Alicia Keys.
Released in 1996, Jay-Z’s debut album, “Reasonable Doubt,” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame last year.
His influence reaches well beyond recording music. Jay-Z co-founded Roc-A-Fella Records and launched Roc Nation in 2008, expanding his work into music publishing, artist management and sports representation. The company now supports both performers and athletes.
In 2017, Jay-Z became the first rapper inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Four years later, he was welcomed into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Bad Bunny performed at last season’s Super Bowl in February, triggering a major surge in streams, playlist placements and music discovery activity in the hours after the performance.
By the following morning, the Puerto Rican superstar occupied the top six positions on Spotify’s Top 50 U.S. chart, while another of his songs landed at No. 8. Eleven additional Bad Bunny tracks were also listed among the chart’s top 50.
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