You knew it was coming. JAY-Z wouldn’t close out his 30th anniversary year without taking the stage at one of the world’s biggest events. So yup, he’ll headline the Super Bowl LXI halftime show on Feb. 14 at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles.
The announcement came after rampant speculation earlier in the week. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell declined to give a definitive answer at the league’s recent meeting, but it looks like the cat was already out of the bag. The official announcement came during halftime of the Monday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.
In a black-and-white video, Jay, wearing his trademark New York Yankees cap, is seated in a stadium surrounded by 11 goats. The spot is reminiscent of one with Sheryl Swoopes that ran on the WNBA app throughout the season. A clip of “Public Service Announcement” plays as a title reads, “Goat’s Out of the Bag.”
And that’s all you’re getting until the show.
JAY-Z Calls This Moment A “Dream Come True”
“From Reasonable Doubt to standing on the Super Bowl Halftime stage, this has been a journey. Thirty years of music, work, and culture on the world’s biggest stage. This run continues to be a dream come true,” Jay said in a statement.
If you’ve been keeping up, you know this is likely the finale of Jay’s 30th anniversary takeover. Last June, he kicked off a wide-ranging tour with an appearance at the Roots Picnic. Then he played three sold-out shows at Yankee Stadium, stopped in London and Paris, and wrapped up the tour at SoFi last week.
Along the way, he brought out Beyoncé, Rihanna, Slick Rick, Pharrell, Eminem, Scarface, Fat Joe, Teyana Taylor, Swizz Beatz, Alicia Keys and Jeezy, among others.
Jay follows Kendrick Lamar in 2025 and Bad Bunny, who headlined the Super Bowl LX halftime show in 2026. Roc Nation has produced the halftime show since 2019, and renewed the partnership in 2024.
“When we first reached an agreement with Roc Nation to produce the show, I had just one request: that Jay-Z take the stage himself one day, whenever the moment felt right to him,” Goodell said.
The Controversy Surrounding JAY-Z’s Involvement With The NFL
But as with anything Jay does, his announcement didn’t come without controversy. In 2018, on “Apesh—” from Everything Is Love, his joint album with wifey Beyoncé, he rapped, “I said no to the Super Bowl, you need me, I don’t need you / Every night we in the end zone, tell the NFL we in stadiums, too.”
While that was widely viewed as support for Colin Kaepernick amid his NFL anthem protests, Kaepernick has since said he believes Jay sabotaged those efforts by becoming the “Black face of the NFL” as the league sought to move past the protests.
“You’re serving the culture up to a bunch of racists and, two, they don’t care about you,” Kaepernick told NBC News in September when his memoir, The Perilous Fight, was released. “You’re the music guy to them. They quite literally need a Black face — and have said as much.”
In a freestyle at Yankee Stadium in July on the first night of his three-night stand, before Kaepernick’s book was released, Jay addressed some of the criticism.
“They run out of characters, had to bring back up [Kaepernick] again,” he rhymed, responding to fans who criticized his deal with Target to sell a vinyl version of Reasonable Doubt. “Buddy took a check, I ain’t even mad at him, but along with that check you have to sign a non-disparagement. I’m the one [the NFL] can’t control.”
Jay hasn’t responded to Kaepernick’s book. Kaepernick denies signing a non-disparagement clause.
We Don’t Know Who Will Hit That Stage With Him
Jay also hasn’t confirmed any potential halftime guests, but speculation has grown around the goats surrounding him in the announcement video. There are 11 of them, so he could pull from some of the artists who joined him onstage this summer and fall.
Or maybe he’ll bring out 11 NFL players. Or 11 social justice advocates. Or some combination of all three.
Will one of them be Beyoncé? What about Kanye, whom many fans would like to see reunited with Jay despite his history of abhorrent behavior?
Welp, whatever happens, we’re watching … and you know you are, too.
