The man whose company has helped choose Super Bowl halftime acts since 2019 has finally chosen himself. In a joint announcement late on Monday, the league, its streaming partner and his entertainment company said the rapper will be the star of the interval at Super Bowl LXI, played on 14 February 2027 in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood. That put an end to a week of rumours. The reveal video showed him seated in the empty arena, surrounded by goats, a wink at the GOAT label.
The decision is a small U-turn. When his company began advising the league on entertainment in 2019, Jay-Z recalled telling commissioner Roger Goodell that any conversation about him performing could stop right there. Goodell now says his only request at the time was that the star would one day take the stage himself, whenever it felt right.
For the 56-year-old, born Shawn Carter, the timing has a neat symmetry. His debut album Reasonable Doubt turned 30 this year, and his anniversary concert run, which passed through Yankee Stadium, London and Paris, wrapped up at the very same SoFi Stadium last weekend. He called the path from that record to the halftime stage “a journey”. Roc Nation will produce the broadcast, with Hamish Hamilton directing.
Sceptics point out that Jay-Z has not released a solo album since 4:44 in 2017. His standing hardly depends on recent charts, though: 25 Grammy wins and 89 nominations put him second only to his wife, Beyoncé, and no rapper before him had been inducted as a songwriter into the hall honouring the craft.
He follows Bad Bunny, whose show in February collected seven Emmys, more than any halftime performance before it. The bar for February is set high.
