Jaÿ-Z may very well be the headliner for the Super Bowl LXI halftime show in 2027.
On Tuesday (Oct. 20), a report from Puck cited multiple inside sources who claim Hov has chosen himself for the big stage next year. The booking has not been officially confirmed by the NFL or Roc Nation, but it’s quite possible Jaÿ could formally announce the gig this weekend. He’s set to perform two nearly sold-out shows at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., where the Super Bowl will be taking place on Feb. 14, 2027.
The reported selection comes amid a major run for Hov, who has been celebrating the 30th anniversary of his debut album, Reasonable Doubt, and the 25th anniversary of The Blueprint. In July, he grossed more than $42 million across three sold-out shows at Yankee Stadium. He also headlined the Roots Picnic in Philadelphia in May, grossed $12 million from a sold-out Paris show last month and had two sold-out London shows at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium that featured a reunion with the Fugees last month as well.
Jaÿ-Z has been involved in the Super Bowl halftime show since 2019, when Roc Nation signed a reported $5 million-a-year deal with the NFL to curate and produce the performance. The league renewed the partnership in 2024 for another five years.
The deal came less than a year after Hov rapped about the Super Bowl halftime show on his 2018 Beyoncé collab “Apesh*t,” where he had a very different stance.
“I said no to the Superbowl/You need me, I don’t need you/Every night we in the endzone/Tell the NFL we in stadiums too,” he rapped in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick.
The 2019 Roc Nation–NFL deal faced criticism that the NFL was using its alliance with Jaÿ to repair its image after the Kaepernick controversy three years prior. At the announcement, the Brooklyn superstar framed the partnership as moving from protest to action, saying the next phase was figuring out how to address social injustice.
The new halftime report follows a September story from the Daily Mail, which claimed the NFL and Roc Nation were having trouble securing a solo headliner and suggested Jaÿ-Z may be performing alongside special guests. The article was later removed.
XXL has reached out to Jaÿ-Z’s team for comment.
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