Jay-Z Will Headline the Super Bowl LXI Halftime Show on Feb. 14, 2027

Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl LXI halftime show on Sunday, February 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Apple Music, the NFL and Roc Nation, the entertainment company he founded, made the announcement on Monday, October 26, at halftime of the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles game on Monday Night Football.

The pick is unusual because Jay-Z has helped run the halftime show since 2019. His company produces the telecast and advises the league on which artists take the stage, so in effect the man who books the show has booked himself.

It also closes a loop that started almost a decade ago. Jay-Z once turned the show down, then faced heavy criticism when he partnered with the league, and now he will perform on what the NFL calls the year's most-watched musical stage.

Key facts at a glance

• When and where: Sunday, February 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, the stadium's second Super Bowl.
• How to watch: ESPN, ABC and Disney+, plus NFL+ on mobile devices. ESPN Deportes and Disney+ carry ESPN's Spanish-language telecast, and Univision has a separate Spanish-language presentation.
• Who makes it: Roc Nation is executive producer of the telecast, and Hamish Hamilton is the director.
• The résumé: 25 Grammy Awards, four Emmys, a 2021 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, and the first hip-hop artist in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the NFL said.
• The bar to clear: Bad Bunny's show in February 2026 averaged 128.2 million viewers, and Kendrick Lamar's in 2025 set the record at 133.5 million.

How the announcement came together

The reveal had been an open secret for about a week. Jay-Z played two concerts at SoFi Stadium on Friday, October 23, and Saturday, October 24, and many fans expected him to confirm the booking from that stage. Both nights passed without an announcement, as did a full Sunday of NFL games.

The league instead used its own broadcast. Heading into halftime on Monday, ESPN teased a "special announcement," then aired a black-and-white video of Jay-Z sitting in stadium seats. It was set to "Public Service Announcement (Interlude)" from his 2003 record The Black Album, opening with the line "Allow me to reintroduce myself." The clip went out on social media with the caption "GOAT's out of the bag."

The partners then confirmed the details. Roc Nation will executive produce the telecast and also act as strategic entertainment advisor for the live performance, with Hamish Hamilton directing. Apple Music launched a "Road to Halftime" hub with season-long programming, and its radio hosts Zane Lowe, Eddie Francis and Brooke Reese discussed the news live straight after the reveal.

No guest performers have been named. Because the game falls on Valentine's Day, much of the early speculation centres on his wife, Beyoncé, who headlined in 2013 and returned as a guest in 2016.

From critic to curator to headliner

Jay-Z's path to this stage has been anything but straight. He turned down the halftime show for the 2017 game and later said the decision was based on "principle." Lady Gaga performed that year instead. He had also once rapped, "I said no to the Super Bowl, you need me, I don't need you."

In August 2019, Roc Nation became the NFL's live music entertainment strategist under the league's Inspire Change programme. The initiative focuses on social justice work and followed the league's handling of quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who knelt during the national anthem in the 2016 season to protest police brutality and was effectively frozen out of the game afterwards.

Since that deal, Roc Nation has shaped every halftime show:

The shows have also won awards. Under his birth name, Shawn Carter, Jay-Z has received six consecutive Primetime Emmy nominations as an executive producer of the halftime show. He won for the 2022 hip-hop show and for Bad Bunny's 2026 set, and took a third Emmy in 2023 for co-directing Rihanna's performance. Bad Bunny's show won seven Emmys in all, the most for any halftime show, the NFL said.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that when the league first reached its agreement with Roc Nation, he had "just one request": that Jay-Z take the stage himself one day, "whenever the moment felt right to him."

A 30-year anniversary year

The timing fits the biggest touring year of Jay-Z's career. Branded "Jay-Z 30," the run marked 30 years since his debut album Reasonable Doubt and 25 years since The Blueprint.

It began with a headline set at the Roots Picnic in Philadelphia in late May. In July he played three sold-out nights at Yankee Stadium in New York, then two nights in London on September 4 and 5 and one in Paris on September 10. The run closed at SoFi, where guests included Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, John Legend, DJ Khaled, Scarface, Too Short and his daughter Blue Ivy Carter.

He also sat down with producer Rick Rubin for an eight-part documentary series, "Jay-Z in 8," walking through hits and deep cuts from his catalogue. That gives a halftime set plenty to draw on, even though the series and tour looked back rather than introducing new music.

"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."

Oliver Schusser, Apple's vice president of music and international content, said the company was "so thrilled" that the man who had helped bring other artists to the show would take the stage himself.

The criticism that has followed the partnership

Not everyone welcomed Jay-Z's role in the first place, and that history is part of how this booking will be judged. When the 2019 deal was announced, Kaepernick's partner, Nessa Diab, called it "disgusting" and said Jay-Z had let the league use him to "bury" Kaepernick.

Eric Reid, the first player to kneel alongside Kaepernick, said Jay-Z had "knowingly made a money move" with the people who had wronged his former teammate and was "using social justice to smooth it over." Kaepernick and Reid had filed grievances against the league, which were settled out of court in February 2019.

Jay-Z defended the deal at the time, saying, "I think we've moved past kneeling and I think it's time to go into actionable items." He argued the league "were willing to do some things, to make some changes."

His supporters point to the shows since then as the answer. Roc Nation is widely credited with putting a more diverse range of artists on the halftime stage, from Shakira and Jennifer Lopez to Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny's celebration of Puerto Rican culture. The new booking adds a different question for skeptics: whether the person who helps choose the act should be able to choose himself.

What it means for you

For viewers in the US, the game and halftime show air on ESPN and ABC, stream on Disney+, and are available on phones through NFL+. Spanish-language coverage runs on ESPN Deportes and Disney+, with a separate presentation on Univision.

For viewers in the UK, Canada and Australia, the announcement listed only US broadcasters and streaming services. Check local sports listings and your usual NFL broadcaster in the weeks before February 14.

For anyone hoping to attend, the show is part of the Super Bowl itself, so getting in means a game ticket at SoFi Stadium. The announcement included no ticket or pricing details.

For music fans, Apple Music's "Road to Halftime" hub is the official place for build-up content, and the partners have said it will run through the season.

What happens next

The next milestones are guest announcements and the usual pre-game build-up. The league and Roc Nation have not said when, or whether, they will name any guests ahead of the night.

The Super Bowl returns to the venue for the first time since Super Bowl LVI in February 2022, when Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg led the halftime show there. Both joined Jay-Z on stage at SoFi just days before this announcement.

After the game, the show will be measured against recent records. Bad Bunny's 128.2 million average viewers was above the game's own 124.9 million average but below Kendrick Lamar's 133.5 million. Beyoncé's 2013 halftime show drew 110.8 million viewers, then the second-highest for a Super Bowl.

The bottom line

Jay-Z's booking turns the halftime show's longtime producer into its headliner, three and a half months before kickoff. Here is what to do with the news:

1. Mark February 14, 2027, and plan to watch on ESPN, ABC, Disney+ or NFL+ in the US, or check local listings elsewhere.
2. Expect guest announcements to drive the build-up. The SoFi concerts, with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, John Legend and Blue Ivy Carter, are the best guide to who has recently shared his stage.
3. Revisit the catalogue if you want context. Reasonable Doubt and The Blueprint anchored his anniversary tour and are likely touchstones for the set.
4. Watch the debate over the partnership. The 2019 criticism from Kaepernick's allies has not gone away, and the self-booking will keep that question alive until the show.