We can't exactly act like this was a surprise, can we? Jay-Z's company Roc Nation has produced every Super Bowl Halftime Show since 2020. The NFL brought Jay in as a transparent attempt to get past the moment where players like Colin Kaepernick were protesting against police violence, and the partnership has been awfully successful for everyone involved. The last two Super Bowls, in particular, have had Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny at the moments when those two artists were fully in control of the zeitgeist. Now, we have reached the inevitable moment where Jay, at least according to reports, has chosen himself as the Halftime Show headliner.
In recent months, there have been rumors about other possible Super Bowl artists like Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, but Jay-Z always loomed in the background of those stories. Now, multiple sources have reportedly told Puck News that Jay has selected himself for the 2027 Super Bowl. Jay recently returned to the stage for the first time in years, playing a series of stadium shows around the world, including a trio of high-profile hometown gigs at Yankee Stadium, and he rapped on a remix of his wife Beyoncé's single "Morning Dew (Donk)" — his first new on-record verse in two years. Also, the woman who sued him for sexual assault recently recanted her allegations. The 56-year-old Jay certainly doesn't need to make a comeback, but if he feels like make some more music, he has certainly created the conditions where it could resonate.
In other halftime show news, the NFL continues to explore ways to use big-deal musicians to draw attention to their non-Super Bowl games. The biggest of those was Christmas 2024, when Beyoncé staged a big Cowboy Carter performance at a Netflix-televised game. Today, Netflix announced that U2, currently gearing up for a new album and tour, will play the halftime show "the NFL's first-ever Thanksgiving Eve game." The LA Rams will host the Green Bay Packers 11/25 at SoFi Stadium, with the game starting at 8 p.m. U2 famously played the first post-9/11 Super Bowl in 2002, so they're old hands at this.