With Jay-Z officially performing the Super Bowl halftime show, a near-decade long journey to take him to America’s biggest stage is complete.
‘First thing I said to Roger was, “If this is about me performing at the Super Bowl, then we can just end this conversation now,”‘ Jay-Z said when he first sat alongside NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announcing he had partnered with the league in 2019.
Goodell admitted he hoped that one day it would happen, and after once admitting it might be ‘selfish’ for him to pick himself, Jay-Z is now finally ready to take to the stage, with the official announcement made on Monday night.
The Daily Mail first reported that Jay-Z, who is married to Beyonce and has three children with her, was considering himself for the Halftime Show on September 18, something which Roc Nation and the NFL furiously denied at the time.
The February 14 show always felt inevitable and long overdue, putting one of America’s most culturally recognizable artists on its biggest and most prominent stage.
‘I think Jay’s Super Bowl performance was always going to happen once Roc agreed with the NFL years ago, so no big surprise there,’ Seth Schachner, host of Breaking Down the Biz podcast and a former Sony Music and Jive Records executive, told the Daily Mail.
Jay-Z will perform the next Super Bowl halftime show at SoFi Stadium in California in February
Jay-Z follows in the footsteps of his wife, Beyonce, who performed the 2013 halftime show
‘The Super Bowl is still the very biggest stage for music, and any artist – from independents to major superstars – are all seeking the chance for their music to be heard by the biggest audiences.
‘They can’t anymore, as streaming is too crowded, and social media can’t help every artist get their music heard. It’s a special, huge window no artist can or should pass up.
‘Also, while he’s a superstar, the Super Bowl is a great chance for Jay to have his music heard by the American mass market, and I bet there are still many who will be hearing his music for the first time, as so many music consumers are ‘in their own silos’ when it comes to what they hear.
‘It will no doubt drive tremendous numbers of streams for him, just as it did for Bad Bunny, and it will also set stage for him to keep touring. Plus, the NFL and Hip Hop are as quintessentially American as it gets, and it’s great that an American genre is getting the spotlight on music’s biggest stage.’
But Jay-Z’s road with the NFL has been marked by controversy from the very beginning, coming against the backdrop of political tensions that saw him slammed by some of the league’s players.
In 2018, reports claimed he turned down the chance to perform at Super Bowl LI in Houston, Texas. At a similar time, he dedicated a song to Colin Kaepernick – having been seen wearing Kaepernick jerseys after publicly supporting the quarterback when he became a free agent after kneeling during the national anthem.
Only a year later, Jay-Z announced his deal partnering with the league he had once criticized. His Roc Nation brand took ownership of the league’s entertainment and social justice endeavors, including the Super Bowl Halftime Show, in a five-year deal reported to be worth $25 million, extended again in 2024 with terms not publicly disclosed.
In a press conference announcing the deal, Jay-Z said: ‘I think we’ve moved past kneeling and I think it’s time to go into actionable items,’ claiming he was ready to lead the ‘next phase’ in the fight against social injustice started by Kaepernick.
But he faced enormous backlash for his comments, including from NFL stars who had been protesting by taking a knee. Reports both Jay-Z and the NFL had spoken to Kaepernick were quickly shot down by the quarterback’s girlfriend and others close to him.
‘He could have reached out to Colin,’ wide receiver Kenny Stills, then with the Miami Dolphins, said at the time. ‘He could have reached out to me.
‘Some of the ways that he answered his questions, talking about “We’re moving past kneeling” – like he ever protested. He’s not an NFL player. He’s never been on a knee.
‘I wonder how many common people that he knows or that he’s spoken to,’ Stills added. ‘I wonder if he’s read my Facebook comments or my Instagram comments or some of the things that people say to me… To be able to speak on it and say we’re moving past something – it didn’t seem very informed.’
Jay-Z partnered with the NFL in 2019, announcing the deal alongside Roger Goodell
Jay-Z faced backlash from some NFL stars who called his move ‘disingenuous’ after he had publicly supported Colin Kaepernick amid his backlash for kneeling during the anthem
‘They’ve done a good job shifting the problem to Roc Nation/Shawn Carter’s shoulders… I’m going to try to give this man the benefit of the doubt for now, but it doesn’t sit right with me. It’s not something I agree with or respect.’
Jay-Z defended his involvement, saying: ‘Everybody knows I agree with what you’re saying [in Kaepernick’s underlying message]. So what are we gonna do?… [Help] millions and millions of people, or we get stuck on Colin not having a job.’
But Eric Reid, who was Kaepernick’s teammate with the 49ers, claimed the agreement was a way for the league to ‘act like they care about people of color.’
He responded: ‘These aren’t mutually exclusive. They can both happen at the same time! It looks like your goal was to make millions and millions of dollars by assisting the NFL in burying Colin’s career.’
Since then, Roc Nation has continued to take the Super Bowl show to new heights as an American cultural phenomenon. But last year proved the most controversial yet, even drawing the ire of President Donald Trump among other vocal critics as Bad Bunny, one of Trump’s most famous critics, performed the first halftime show in Spanish.
Jay-Z himself is another critic. In a 2017 interview with BBC Radio 1, he called the Trump presidency ‘a joke’ and said he did not believe the president to be a ‘very sophisticated man.’
Last year, Trump said the show was ‘terrible’ and ‘one of the worst ever.’ This year, the NFL is gambling by giving the stage and the political platform that provides to another critic, but one that has good reason to look after its best interests.
‘For both sides it is also a smart risk play,’ Amore Philip, founder of Apples & Oranges Public Relations, who advises founders and public figures on branding and reputation, told the Daily Mail.
‘A headliner who built the show has every reason to protect it, which lowers the chance of a surprise the league would have to answer for.’
And so that makes the timing of Jay-Z’s show all the more intriguing, taking control himself at SoFi Stadium in California while also facing a wave of criticism for choosing himself for the big show. Why this year?
Bad Bunny’s halftime show last year
Jay-Z is taking a victory lap in a year that marks 30 years since his debut album was released
‘There’s anniversary factors,’ Schachner suggests. It is the 30th anniversary of his debut album, Reasonable Doubt, and 25 years since his Blueprint masterpiece. ‘And recent US / UK stadium shows, which have greased the wheel, as has an HBO series, which brought Jay to television audiences.
‘More important, the show needs an influential social figure, one with some edge and coolness, as the NFL made questionable choices in the past (eg, Maroon 5, even the aging Who). So Jay is a logical, cool figure to perform, and the NFL earns some “cred” for this.
‘Also he’s much more of a unifying choice than last year – Bad Bunny was fantastic, but some viewers may have been turned off by the language factor.’
The decision shines a larger light than usual on Roc Nation’s role with the NFL, and the partnership forged by Jay-Z in controversial circumstances.
But the Super Bowl halftime show has arguably never been a bigger spectacle, piggybacking off the NFL’s rising TV ratings and booming audience.
‘I would say that their stewardship has been a total success,’ Schachner says. ‘They’ve helped the NFL get back some relevance, a hip factor, and also have really helped address some of the big gaps between performances and audiences.’
And it has ultimately proved a perfect blend of circumstances for both Jay-Z and the NFL to finally use that partnership to give him the stage on his biggest platform yet.
Amore Philip added: ‘The deal has always been a trade of credibility for reach.
‘The NFL gained cultural standing with the audiences it most needed, and Jay-Z gained the biggest stage in music to curate on his own terms.
‘For years he chose who stood on that stage. Taking it himself is the natural final chapter: the curator becomes the headliner, and the partnership closes with his name on the moment, not just the credits.’
The Daily Mail has contacted Roc Nation representatives and the NFL for comment.
