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Monday, November 2, 2026News that matters to Black communities

Jay-Z’s company has chosen every Super Bowl halftime act since 2019. In February he takes the stage himself.

The NFL confirmed the rapper will headline Super Bowl LXI at SoFi Stadium on Feb. 14, 2027, 30 years after his debut album, Reasonable Doubt

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Jay-Z at a 2011 event
Joella Marano from Manhattan, NY / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 14, 2027, the NFL announced Monday, ending days of speculation. The company he founded, Roc Nation, has produced the show and picked its performers since 2019. This is the first time he will be the one on the field.

The game is at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The NFL’s announcement describes Jay-Z as a 25-time Grammy winner. At 56, he will perform 30 years after Reasonable Doubt, the 1996 debut album that began a career built on owning the work as well as making it.

The booking closes a loop that started with a controversy. The NFL turned to Roc Nation in 2019, as the league faced criticism over its treatment of Colin Kaepernick, the quarterback who knelt during the national anthem to protest police violence against Black people. The deal gave a Black-owned company control of what is routinely one of the most-watched television broadcasts of the year, with an audience that has topped 100 million viewers.

Under Roc Nation, the halftime stage has gone to a run of Black and Latino artists, among them Kendrick Lamar, who headlined the show in 2025, and Bad Bunny, who headlined it this past February.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that when the league first reached its agreement with Roc Nation, he had one request: that Jay-Z take the stage himself one day.

The pick had been reported since Oct. 20, when Puck first reported that Jay-Z had chosen himself. Neither the NFL nor Roc Nation had confirmed it until Monday. Apple Music, the show’s sponsor, joined the NFL and Roc Nation in the announcement. Roc Nation will executive produce the show, and Hamish Hamilton will direct.

The game will air on ABC and ESPN, with streaming on Disney+ and the ESPN app.

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