Jay-Z has confirmed he will headline the 2027 Super Bowl halftime show.
The 55-year-old rapper’s selection was announced Tuesday in a joint statement from Roc Nation, the NFL, and Apple Music, hours before the Dallas Cowboys faced the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday Night Football. Jay-Z, who founded Roc Nation in 2008, had reportedly been considering other artists including Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber for the coveted slot before deciding to take it himself.
“From Reasonable Doubt to standing on the Super Bowl Halftime stage, this has been a journey,” Jay-Z said in a statement. “Thirty years of music, work, and culture on the world’s biggest stage. This run continues to be a dream come true.”
The February 14, 2027 game will be held at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, marking the first time the Brooklyn-born artist has performed during the NFL’s marquee event. Recent halftime performers have included Kendrick Lamar, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, The Weeknd, and Bad Bunny.
Several major stars have publicly declined the opportunity over the years, sometimes reversing course later. Rihanna, who ultimately performed in 2023 and revealed her second pregnancy mid-show, initially refused on political grounds.
Speaking to Vogue in 2019, Rihanna explained she turned down the gig in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick, the former quarterback who began kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality and later alleged the NFL blacklisted him.
“I couldn’t dare do that,” she said of doing the halftime show. “For what? Who gains from that? Not my people. I just couldn’t be a sellout. I couldn’t be an enabler. There’s things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way.”
She performed four years later but noted there was “still a lot of mending to be done in my eyes.”
Adele also passed, reportedly turning down the 2017 slot that eventually went to Lady Gaga. Addressing an audience at LA’s Staples Center in August 2016, the British singer made her position bluntly clear.
“First of all, I’m not doing the Super Bowl. I mean, come on, that show is not about music. I can’t dance or anything like that. They were very kind, they did ask me, but I said no,” she said at the time. The NFL later denied extending an official offer.
Taylor Swift has never performed despite having the catalog for it, partly due to a long-running Diet Coke endorsement from 2013 to 2018 that conflicted with the show’s Pepsi sponsorship. After that deal ended, she was reportedly occupied with re-recording her Big Machine Records catalog. Her relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, whom she married in July, has since complicated any potential appearance.
Dolly Parton, who died earlier this year, was offered the gig “many times” but repeatedly declined. She told The Hollywood Reporter in 2023 that she felt she wasn’t “big enough” for the massive production.
“I couldn’t do it because of other things, or I just didn’t think I was big enough to do it—to do that big of a production,” she said. “When you think about those shows, those are big, big productions. I’ve never done anything with that big of a production. I don’t know if I could have. I think at the time that’s what I was thinking.”
Pink has also been uninterested. The 47-year-old singer said in 2019 that the scrutiny performers face deterred her.
“Everybody that does it gets so persecuted,” she said. “I’d probably take a knee and get carried out.”
The NFL has not announced any additional performers for Jay-Z’s 2027 show.