Kendrick Lamar has been tapped to headline the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show. The NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation, which hosts the championship football event, unveiled the rapper as next year’s artist in an announcement Sunday that coincided with the start of the league’s season.
Apple Music Super Bowl LIX will take place on February 9, 2025, at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. It will mark the return of Lamar, the 17-time Grammy Award-winning artist who made a splash this year with his hit “Not Like Us,” based on a song by the singer widely publicized musical feud with fellow hip-hop star Drake.
But the upcoming halftime festivities are Lamar’s first as a headliner following his performance at the 2022 Super Bowl in an ensemble show that also featured Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem and 50 Cent.
“My name is Kendrick Lamar and I will be performing at Super Bowl LIX,” Lamar says in a promotional video released alongside the Super Bowl ad, in which he is seen standing on a field in front of a massive American flag, throwing footballs toward the camera from a machine used in practice.
“Are you gonna come? I hope so,” the rapper continues. “You know, there’s only one chance to win a championship. No runoffs.”
Lamar’s latest album, “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers,” was released in 2022. In addition to “Not Like Us,” the rapper was featured on the track “Like That” this year alongside Future and Metro Boomin. He paid tribute to his genre in a statement released when news of the headliner was announced Sunday.
“Rap remains the most impactful genre of music to date. And I’ll be here to remind the world why. They found the right one,” Lamar said.
