Kendrick Lamar announcing he'll be headlining the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show. Kendrick Lamar announcing he’ll be headlining the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show. (Kendrick Lamar on YouTube.)
By Andrew Bucholtz on

Sunday morning was full of wild NFL news. From Miami Dolphins’ star Tyreek Hill being handcuffed and detained by police outside of Hard Rock Stadium to the Dallas Cowboys reaching a massive extension with quarterback Dak Prescott just hours before kicking off their season, there was a lot going on. And then, there was one piece of NFL news that came from a very unusual source; Kendrick Lamar’s Twitter/X account, who scooped all the usual NFL insiders. The famed rapper hadn’t tweeted since tweeting a link to his “Not Like Us” video in May, but returned to the platform Sunday to announce he’s playing the Super Bowl LIX Apple Music Halftime Show in New Orleans in February:

The link in that tweet doesn’t appear to work, but this was indeed that announcement, as per Lamar’s YouTube channel. Here’s the video he put out there:

“What the deal, everybody? My name Kendrick Lamar, and I’ll be performing at Super Bowl LIX. Will you be pulling up? I hope so. You know, there’s only one opportunity to win a championship. No round twos. Let’s get it! Boom! I don’t want you to miss it. Meet me in New Orleans, Feb. 9, 2025. Wear your best dress too, even if you’re watching from home. Let’s go!”

The NFL insiders and music industry press did eventually confirm this as well. Here’s how Adam Schefter handled it on ESPN:

This is just Lamar’s latest connection to sports. That’s also included a lot of athletes appearing in his videos and at his concerts, including around his beef with Drake and his eventual “Not Like Us” song there. He also performed at the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show in Los Angeles in 2022, but as part of an ensemble group with a lot of different artists.

There will certainly be a lot of excitement around Lamar headlining the show this time. It’s also remarkable to see how this news was able to stay under wraps until he tweeted it, and to see how his previous Twitter/X use was mostly just tweets of his videos months ago.

[Kendrick Lamar on X/Twitter; image from Lamar on YouTube]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz