American billionaire rapper Jay-Z to headline 2027 Super Bowl halftime show

American billionaire rapper Jay-Z will headline the Super Bowl halftime show in February, taking the stage himself after seven years of choosing and producing the show for the National Football League through his entertainment company, Roc Nation.

Apple Music, the show's sponsor, made the announcement on Monday during halftime of the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles game on Monday Night Football. "GOAT's out of the bag," the streaming service wrote on X. The Apple Music Super Bowl LXI Halftime Show will take place on Feb. 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, and will be broadcast on ESPN and ABC and streamed on Disney+.

"From Reasonable Doubt to standing on the Super Bowl Halftime stage, this has been a journey," Jay-Z said in a statement released with the announcement, referring to his 1996 debut album. He called it "thirty years of music, work, and culture on the world's biggest stage."

Roc Nation will executive produce the show, and Hamish Hamilton, who has directed several recent halftime performances, will direct.

A long-running NFL deal

Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, signed Roc Nation up as the NFL's live music entertainment strategist in 2019. The role gives the company a hand in picking and producing the halftime show and other music at league events. The league extended the partnership in October 2024.

Since the deal began, Roc Nation has staged halftime shows by Shakira and Jennifer Lopez, The Weeknd, a group led by Dr. Dre, Rihanna, Usher, Kendrick Lamar and Bad Bunny. Lamar's 2025 performance drew 133.5 million viewers, the largest audience for a halftime show, and Bad Bunny's show in February averaged 128.2 million.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that when the league first reached its agreement with Roc Nation, he had one request: that Jay-Z perform himself one day. "For several years, we've had the privilege of working closely with Jay-Z and Roc Nation," Goodell said.

Jay-Z, 56, had long resisted the idea. He said in 2024 that he thought "it would be selfish to pick myself too early."

His choice ends weeks of speculation. Singers Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber had also been considered for the slot, and traders on prediction markets had swung between Jay-Z and Cyrus as the favorite through October.

Back on the road

The halftime show caps a busy year on stage for the rapper. He returned to touring this summer for the first time since 2017 to mark 30 years since Reasonable Doubt, playing three sold-out nights at Yankee Stadium in New York and stadium shows in London and Paris. The run ended with back-to-back concerts at SoFi Stadium, the Super Bowl venue, on Oct. 23 and 24.

He has won 25 Grammy Awards, second only to his wife, Beyoncé, and in 2017 became the first rapper inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Jay-Z became the first hip-hop billionaire in 2019 and is now worth an estimated $2.5 billion, making him the richest musician in the world. Most of his fortune comes from business deals rather than music. He sold a majority of the music streaming service Tidal to Jack Dorsey's Block Inc. in 2021, sold half of the Armand de Brignac Champagne brand to LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton the same year, and sold control of D'Ussé cognac to Bacardi Ltd. in 2023. He also owns Roc Nation, his music catalog and an art collection.

Performers are not paid a fee for the halftime show beyond union scale, but the exposure usually brings a jump in streams and sales. Beyoncé headlined the show in 2013 and appeared again in 2016.