Hey everyone,

On Sunday, there will be the 59th Super Bowl where Kansas City will aim for a third time win in a row. While the game is a major event for sports fans in the US,t here's another highlight that draws attention globally Kendrick Lamar will be performing during the halftime show. This performance comes just a week after his 6 Grammy Awards wins, while Doechii - who appeared on my list of top albums - won her first Grammy.
The Super Bowl is the ultimate expression of American culture: the NFL final, the multi-million dollar commercials and the 10-15 minutes music performance featuring some of the biggest American artists. For performers, the event represents a major financial opportunity. But not long ago, several artists began turning down the chance to perform. So, what changed? How did the NFL address this shift, and what impact does the Super Bowl really have on artists' careers?

If you know someone who’d enjoy this, share it! And if you’re new here, make sure to subscribe to the newsletter  to receive the next editions.

🏟️ The Super Bowl Halftime Show: a graal for artists

The Super Bowl Effect

The Super Bowl Halftime Show is a clear marker of success for the few artists selected every year. Beyond the symbolic siginifcance, is also has a massive financial impact for these artists.

Artists don’t get paid to perform, and some even pay from their own money to produce the show. For instance, The Weeknd paid 7 million of his own money to pay the production costs of his performance in 2021.

Why would artists do that? Is the exposure really worth it?

In the last few years, a performance at the Super Bowl generates around 50 million additional streams for solo performers in the week after the show. And this is not the part that makes most money. As Mary J. Blige explained in an interview, not being paid to perform in 2022 was not a problem as this event led to many opportunities for her. The tour she made that year grossed $34 million and helped her to sell out her shows and make millions out of her merch.

Artists refusing to perform

However, the Halftime Show hasn’t always held the same appeal for artists as it does today.

Rihanna performed at the Super Bowl in 2023, but she refused to participate in the past. At the 2019 the Super Bowl, she could have performed but said she declined the offer from the NFL (National Football League), which is the league responsible for the game and the show. And Rihanna wasn’t the only one to refuse.

There were several reasons why the NFL struggled to attract these superstars:

1. The NFL would interview 3-4 artists at the same time before deciding to go with one of them. Considering the number of superstars and these artists’ egos, you make more people unhappy than happy and burn too many cards each year.

2. NFL’s handling of Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick was an American Football player who decided to protest against police brutality and never managed to play or find a club that wanted to sign him after that. This caused many tensions with artists who supported him.

3. A lack of theme or link with the city hosting the Super Bowl during the musical performance. Some associations of artists were done at the last minute and there was a clear lack of vision and coherence for the show.

2019: Jay-Z and Roc Nation

In 2019, the National Football League decided to handover the process of selecting the artists and producing the halftime show to Roc Nation, Jay-Z’s management company. Here are the shows that happened since then:

• 2020: Jennifer Lopez & Shakira in Miami as a tribute to Latino culture

• 2021: The Weeknd

• 2022: Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar as a celebration of hip hop culture for the first Super Bowl happening in LA. in the 21st century.

• 2023: Rihanna, despite not releasing any music since 2016

• 2024: Usher & Alicia Keys

• 2025: Kendrick Lamar at the peak of his popularity

What changed since Roc Nation manages the Haftime Show?

First, they only ask for one artist at the time.

Second, Jay-Z can make deals with artists that the NFL couldn’t sign thanks to his relationships and status.

Third, some the shows had a special theme associated.

Since Roc Nation took over, Rap and R&B artists seem to be performing much more than before, this is of course due to rap’s popularity but also because of Jay-Z’s influence and relationships with many of these rappers. The NFL still tries to impose some rules to make sure the show doesn’t turn into something political or controversial. In 2022, when Dr. Dre and the West Coast legends performed, none of them respected the rules with Snoop having blue gang-affiliated colours or Eminem kneeling as a reference to Kaepernick.

Artists are now well aware of the financial repercussions of the show and Rihanna even used it to promote new collections and products from her billion-dollar company Fenty.

Now it’s time for Kendrick to perform after having a huge year in 2024 punctuated by his 6 Grammy Awards last week. Let’s see on Sunday what happens (or Monday morning as I don’t expect many Europeans being hardcore US Football fan to watch it at 2 AM) and despite all the things around it, I’m curious to see one of my favorite artists perform. And until then, I wish you all a great weekend!

You can list to the updated playlist with my favourite tracks released from the past few months. It has new additions from Maribou State or The Weeknd.