Jay-Z (Reportedly) Picks Jay-Z for Super Bowl LXI

noisy

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"Ever since the rapper and Roc Nation head signed on to oversee the show in 2019, his own headlining spot has seemed like a certainty. According to sources, 2027 will be that year.

After weeks of handwringing, Jay-Z, the chief decision-maker on who plays the Super Bowl halftime show, has finally picked the artist who will take the stage in L.A. in February: himself. That’s according to multiple sources, who say the pick has long felt inevitable and more compelling than Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, both of whom were considered for SBLXI. Besides, a Jay-Z performance is the natural next step in the $5 million-a-year deal his Roc Nation signed with the NFL in 2019—and re-upped in 2024— to curate and produce the halftime show. The league re-upped that deal in 2024 for another five years. (Reps for the NFL and Roc Nation did not respond to a request for comment.)

Jay-Z, 56, feels like more of a consensus choice than last year’s performer, Bad Bunny, who had the audacity to be born in Puerto Rico, sing in Spanish, and preach a message of hemispheric unity. The billionaire rapper/entrepreneur is married to Beyoncé and boasts a deep catalog of hits that Gen X and Millennial fans know by heart. His longtime ties to Barack Obama—who helped induct him into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2021—may draw criticism from the Fox News set, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Jay was hired by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to make the halftime show cool and build goodwill with casual fans turned off by the P.R. spasms of the Colin Kaepernick era.

The 2027 game feels like the right timing for the Brooklyn rapper, who has been breaking attendance records at stadiums across North America as he celebrates the 30th anniversary of his debut, Reasonable Doubt, and the 25th anniversary of The Blueprint. In July, he grossed more than $42 million across three sold-out shows at Yankee Stadium. He crushed his May 30 headlining set at the 80,000-person Roots Picnic in Philadelphia (where he took some shots at Kaepernick), and last month he grossed $12 million from a sold-out crowd in Paris. His biggest feat, reuniting the Fugees last month at his two sold-out London shows at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, is the type of TV moment the Super Bowl halftime show is made for. And a Jay-fronted show would surely lean on his Rolodex, if not his marriage, to deliver those kinds of cameos. (Another sign he’s in legacy-burnishing mode: the eight-part, Rick Rubin–featuring documentary currently streaming on HBO.)

Jay-Z could formally announce the Super Bowl gig this weekend, when he plays the first of two nearly sold-out shows at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles. Still, the booking isn’t without risk. Unlike Bad Bunny last year or Kendrick Lamar in 2025, Jay-Z hasn’t had a major hit since 2013, when Beyoncé’s “Drunk in Love” reached number two. He hasn’t released an album since 2017’s double-platinum 4:44. But chart position isn’t what drives live music success. It’s about how an artist makes people feel, not what they’ve done lately. For a man looking to solidify his legacy, it’s a smart move. It’s certainly not about the money."

Emotion

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