Jay-Z to headline Super Bowl LXI halftime show at SoFi Stadium, NFL announces

Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl LXI halftime show, the NFL announced Monday during halftime of the Dallas Cowboys-Philadelphia Eagles game on “Monday Night Football.” ESPN, which airs “Monday Night Football,” will also broadcast Super Bowl LXI.

The rapper was chosen … well, by himself, technically; the entertainment company he founded, Roc Nation, has a say in who takes the stage in the final NFL game of the season.

Puck reported last week that Jay-Z was in line for the gig, and that Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber had also been considered. With Roc Nation and the NFL partnering on the halftime show, the selection was perhaps inevitable.

Super Bowl LXI will take place Feb. 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

Jay-Z, who is married to 35-time Grammy Award winner Beyoncé, is reportedly the wealthiest music artist ever. He has won 25 Grammys himself, boasts 14 No. 1 albums, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.

Beyoncé headlined the halftime show at Super Bowl XLVII and was a guest performer at Super Bowl 50.

This year, Jay-Z staged a stadium concert series celebrating the 30th anniversary of his debut album “Reasonable Doubt” and the 25th anniversary of “The Blueprint,” including three sold-out nights at Yankee Stadium and stops at London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, Stade de France and SoFi Stadium.

Last year’s Super Bowl halftime show featured Bad Bunnyas the headliner with appearances by Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga, among others. The performance set a global viewership record as the most-watched halftime show of all time after drawing 4.157 billion viewers across global and U.S. broadcasts of the game, YouTube and other digital properties in the first 24 hours.