Will this year’s Kendrick Lamar halftime show match the classics?
We’re hours away from the most-watched concert of the year: The Super Bowl Halftime Show.
The headliner is Canadian tuxedo-wearing, Drake-embarrassing, multi-platinum, award-winning poet lauret Kendrick Lamar, fresh off a great night at the Grammys. But of course, there’s no one single performer on football’s biggest night anymore and hasn’t been for quite some time.
Joining Lamar for his main-stage set will be SZA, who also won at the Grammys last weekend and with whom Lamar has performed previously, including “All the Stars” from the Black Panther soundtrack and “Luther” from his most recent album.
Will it match up with his previous perfomance in 2022, when he was part of a star-studded show with Dr. Dre, Snoop, Eminem and Mary J. Blige? That three-song set has an estimated 324 million views on YouTube, according to Live Football Tickets, which appears to be a secondary marketplace website for selling tickets that doubles as a data tracking company for Super Bowl halftime show stats. Sure, why not.
Anyway, because people tend to want to look back on previous performances, Live Football Tickets just published a list of the most watched shows of the YouTube era. The Dr. Dre performance from three years ago is the most-watched, followed by Shakira and Jennifer Lopez in 2020 (320 million views); Rihanna in 2023 (257 million); Coldplay, Beyonce and Bruno Mars in 2016 (140 million), and Lady Gaga in 2017 (106 million). For some reason, the kids of today don’t show the respect for Prince that they should, as his remarkable 2007 performance that ended with Purple Rain in the rain has “only” 7.1 million views and ranks 14th. Shameful.
Anyway, back to this year’s events.
The performances start well before game time.
By the time people start to gather at bars and houses across North America and around the world to start enjoying their pizza, wings, nachos, beer and other carb-laden goodies, the music will be ready to begin. The first official performance is from Post Malone, starting around 4 p.m. EST, as part of the YouTube Tailgate Concert, which can only be found on the NFL’s YouTube Channel.
If this pre-game party doesn’t sound very familiar, that’s ok: It’s a relatively newer part of the proceedings, launching in 2021 during the pandemic. Miley Cyrus was the first performer for this show, which has since featured the Chainsmokers in 2022, Jason Derulo and the Black Keys in 2023 and Gwen Stefani last year. This is the first year YouTube is the official host and named sponsor.
The Super Bowl is in New Orleans this year, making Jon Batiste, from nearby Metairie, Louisiana, the perfect choice for the American Nation Anthem. Before he wheels out his piano, Ledisi will sing “Lift Every Voice,” also known as the Black National Anthem, in honor of Black History Month (and fitting given the percentage of Black players on NFL teams — but don’t bring up Colin Kaepernick).
For more New Orleans brass, Trombone Shorty will accompany Lauren Daigle as she sings “America the Beautiful.”
Festivities kick off with the always impressive Human Jukebox Marching Band from Southern University during the official pregame show, but they’re not the only marching band offering their services this weekend. The St. Augustine High School’s Marching 100 played as both teams arrived at the Superdome Monday night.
And if you’re looking for more interactive fun to have with your big football party, there are tons of prop bets for everything from what song Post Malone will sing first during the tailgate show (current favourite is ‘Sunflower,’ at -200, followed by ‘Pour Me a Drink’ at +275), to whether Jason Kelce and/or Donna “Mama” Kelce will show cleavage during the game — he’s a 700+ for yes and a -2000 for no; she’s a +1000 for yes and a -5000 for no. There are even prop bets for the adorable Puppy Bowl and who will get the first touchdown! See the whole list here.
