Kendrick Lamar has been tapped to headline the 2025 Super Bowl Halftime Show. The NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation, who organize the massive football championship event, unveiled the rapper as next year’s performer in an announcement on Sunday that coincided with the league’s start to their season.
The Apple Music Super Bowl LIX takes place on Feb. 9, 2025, at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. It will mark a return for Lamar, the 17-time Grammy Award-winning artist who has made waves this year with his hit “Not Like Us,” stemming from a widely-publicized musical feud with fellow hip-hop star Drake.
But the upcoming halftime festivities are Lamar’s first as a headliner after he performed at the 2022 Super Bowl during an ensemble act that also featured the likes of Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Eminem and 50 Cent.
“My name’s Kendrick Lamar and I’ll be performing at Super Bowl LIX,” says Lamar in a promotional video released in time with the Super Bowl announcement, which sees him standing on a field in front of an enormous American flag, launching footballs toward the camera from a machine used in training.
“Will you be pulling up? I hope so,” the rapper continues. “You know, there’s only one opportunity to win a championship. No round 2’s.”
Lamar’s most recent album, “Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers,” was released in 2022. In addition to “Not Like Us,” the rapper was featured this year on the chart-topper “Like That” with Future and Metro Boomin. He paid homage to his genre in a statement released when the headliner news dropped Sunday.
“Rap music is still the most impactful genre to date. And I’ll be there to remind the world why. They got the right one,” Lamar said.