Who are the artists that refused to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show?

Cardi B, Taylor Swift, Adele, Rihanna, Dolly Parton, Jay-Z, P!nk, and Metallica are some of the famous artists who have declined to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show.

The Super Bowl is an annual league championship game for the National Football League (NFL) in the United States. Since 1966, the Super Bowl has been considered to be the final game of every NFL season and is known to have replaced the NFL Championship Game. For the unversed, since 2022, the Super Bowl has been played on the second Sunday in February and is considered to be a huge deal in the United States.

As the year 2024 has commenced, the Super Bowl 2024 is right around the corner. The game, officially known as Super Bowl LVIII, will be played by the Kansas City Chiefs against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, February 11, 2024, at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. The kick-off for the same is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. ET. The game will be aired live on CBS or Nickelodeon and stream live on Paramount+.

Did Taylor Swift reject performing at the Super Bowl halftime?

Before beginning with whether Taylor Swift rejected performing at halftime, let’s understand what exactly is the Super Bowl halftime. The Super Bowl as a whole is one of the most awaited NFL championship games of the year. The Super Bowl halftime is America's most-watched musical performance of the year.

Considered to be the “ultimate marriage between sports and pop culture”, the Super Bowl halftime show kicks off an hour and a half after the game has commenced and usually lasts about 12-15 minutes in which each artist headlining the show performs for the audiences who are eager to watch the spectacle happening live.

Over the years, artists such as Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, 50 Cent, Lady Gaga, Coldplay, Bruno Mars, Prince, Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Maroon Five, Jennifer Lopez, and many more have performed at the Super Bowl halftime show, turning the entire night astounding for the audience and viewers. However, many artists have refused to be a part of the event for various reasons. One such known artist is Taylor Swift.

As per reports, Taylor Swift has declined to perform at halftime multiple times. Initially, the singer reportedly refused to perform at the show due to Pepsi being the sponsor of the event while Swift was supporting its rival brand Coca-Cola. Now that Apple Music has replaced Pepsi as the sponsor of the Super Bowl, fans are eager to know if the singer is still open to performing at the event. However, reports claim that the singer has once again turned down the offer.

While the reason for the same has not been provided yet, Swifties are all okay with her decision claiming that the This Love singer has no time to perform at the halftime as she is busy working on her albums and her concerts.

Who are the other artists who rejected the offer of performing at the Super Bowl halftime?

Other than Taylor Swift, many other well-known artists have rejected the offer to perform at the Super Bowl halftime. The names of those artists and their reasons have been listed down below:

Adele

In 2016, the Hello singer was approached by the NFL team to perform at the 2017 Super Bowl halftime show. But the singer left her fans heartbroken after she declined to perform at the show. As per Billboard, that same year, the singer informed her fans that she turned down an offer to perform at the Super Bowl during a concert at the Staples Center.

She said, “First of all, I’m not doing the Super Bowl. I mean, come on, that show is not about music. And I don’t really — I can’t dance or anything like that. They were very kind, they did ask me, but I said no.”

Rihanna

Rihanna was offered to perform at the Super Bowl halftime in 2019, but the singer refused to do so in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick. For the unversed, Kaepernick peacefully protested against racial injustice and police brutality in 2016 by taking a knee during the national anthem. For this, he was released from the NFL that year.

Taking his side, Rihanna told Vogue, “I couldn’t dare do that. For what? Who gains from that? Not my people. I just couldn’t be a sellout. I couldn’t be an enabler. There’s things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way..”

Rihanna later went on to headline the Super Bowl halftime in 2023.

Cardi B

Cardi B too chose to side with Colin Kaepernick similar to Rihanna. In 2019, the singer expressed her displeasure over how Kaepernick was released from the NFL just for taking a stand over a matter. Hence she and her then-husband, Offset decided to ‘ditch’ the game. She told AP news, “I got to sacrifice a lot of money to perform. But there’s a man who sacrificed his job for us, so we got to stand behind him.” Cardi B also added, “‘He really wants to go to the Super Bowl, but he can’t go to the Super Bowl, because he’s got to stand for something.”

Dolly Parton

Despite being offered to perform at the Super Bowl halftime, Dolly Parton revealed that she declined the offer multiple times as she felt she was not ‘big enough’ to perform at the event.

During an interview in 2023 with The Hollywood Reporter, Parton said, “I couldn’t do it because of other things, or I just didn’t think I was big enough to do it to do that big of a production. When you think about those shows, those are big, big productions. I’ve never done anything with that big of a production. I don’t know if I could have. I think at the time that’s what I was thinking.”

Jay-Z

American rapper and record producer, Jay-Z also joins the list of the artist who has rejected performing at the Super Bowl halftime. In 2019, Jay-Z revealed that he did not agree with their ‘selection process’.

During an interview, Jay-Z said, “I think the process of selection was fractured. Take four of us and everybody thinks they’re playing the Super Bowl. It’s almost like this interview process. So if I could pick one, three other people are upset. That’s not even good math. After three years nine people are upset and three people are going to play. I just think the process could’ve been more definite.”

Then again in 2021, The rapper revealed to The New York Times that he turned down the invite to perform at the event because organizers wanted him bring Kanye West and Rihanna out during his performance.

P!nk

Similarly to Rihanna and Cardi B, the So What singer also chose to support Colin Kaepernick by rejecting the offer of performing at the Super Bowl halftime. In a 2019 interview with Billboard, Pink opened up on why she declined to perform at the event. She said, “Everybody that does it gets so persecuted. I’d probably take a knee and get carried out.”

Metallica

Metallica as the band also refused to perform at the Super Bowl halftime. Metallica’s James Hetfield opened up on rejecting the offer in an interview in 2016. He said that the band’s chance to perform at the event had passed and that they were not interested in pursuing the gig anymore.

Hetfield said, “I can’t dance, I can’t jump around, I’m not an acrobat, I’m not a variety show, you know? We are artists. We’re a band. We love playing songs. We’re not gonna fly through the air on a sparkly star with a unicorn.”

The singer also added, “It’s become less about music unfortunately, and more about just the spectacle. When we played for the fiftieth anniversary of the NFL… right here in our hometown and they didn’t have us do it… that would have been the time. Maybe that time has passed?”

Who is performing at the 2024 Super Bowl halftime show?

For this year, R&B legend Usher is set to headline the Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show. Along with him, other artists such as Reba McEntire, the Country Music Hall of Famer, Post Malone, and Andre Day will also be performing at the show.

Reba McEntire will perform the national anthem at the 2024 Super Bowl. In contrast, Malone will perform America The Beautiful, and Day will perform Lift Every Voice And Sing at the show.

This is the first time Usher will be leading the halftime show. He previously appeared as a guest during the Black Eyed Peas performance at Super Bowl XLV.