The NFL announced Thursday a bevy of music icons who will be performing during this year’s halftime show at the Super Bowl. The event, which is being held at the Rams new space aged stadium in Inglewood, California, will be headlined by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar.
With a combined 44 Grammys between them, the artists hope to usher in a modern halftime show for a more diverse audience. The choices for Super Bowl performers had come under fire in recent years, which led the NFL to pursue a partnership with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation entertainment group to bring the event into the 21st century. There were audible groans when Maroon 5 was announced as the 2019 halftime performers in Atlanta (largely viewed as the hip hop capital of America), which coincided with other trends such as “Oscars, so white” and the Women’s March that same year. As a result, Jay-Z was tapped by the Commissioner to help modernize the show.
In a prepared statement, Jay-Z remarked “On February 13, 2022, at the Super Bowl LVI in Inglewood, California, in the new SoFi Stadium, Dr. Dre, a musical visionary from Compton, Snoop Dogg, an icon from Long Beach and Kendrick Lamar, a young musical pioneer in his own right, also from Compton, will take center field for a performance of a lifetime…They will be joined by the lyrical genius, Eminem, and the timeless Queen, Mary J. Blige. This is the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show. This is history in the making.”
The league and Roc Nation are now in year 3 of their partnership and have produced the J-Lo/Shakira show, and The Weeknd prior to this.