Whether you choose to label it as magic or fate, there’s no denying the profound impact that a Super Bowl appearance had on artistes who have graced its stage.
For these artistes, the half-time show experience is transformative, often catapulting their careers to new heights and leaving an indelible mark on their artistry.
This year, as the Kansas City Chiefs defended their title against the Philadelphia Eagles, Kendrick Lamar performed at halftime.
His performance, which came a week after he won six awards at the 2025 Grammys, saw Lamar join a long list of famous artistes who have performed during the Super Bowl halftime show.
Two weeks ago, Lamar’s highly-anticipated performance took place in Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, thrilling the crowd.
Spotlighting from Kendrick Lamar to Rihanna and Beyonce amongst others, TheRadar analyses the effect of the Super Bowl on their music careers after their performances.
Transformative effect of Super Bowl performance on 5 American artistes
- Kendrick Lamar — 2025
A week after Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime performance, Rolling Stone reported that his diss track Not Like Us skyrocketed back to Number One on Billboard's Hot 100 chart.
The song also raked up about 49 million streams the same week, according to Luminate, while garnering over 33,000 song sales. Not Like Us also broke the number-one record on Hot R&B Hip Pop Songs Chart.
Since his performance, the consumption for the singer’s song Not Like Us has increased including his album catalogue. His latest album GNX climbed to the top of the album chart while Damn and good kid m.A.A.d city maintained the Top 10.
- Beyonce — 2024
The NFL 2024 Christmas Day halftime show also known as the Beyonce Bowl saw the game between the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans. The show was headlined by Beyonce and marked the first NFL Christmas gameday.
Beyonce performed songs from her Grammy-nominated album Cowboy Carter including 16 Carriages, Ya Ya, Blackbiird and Honey Buckin.
The American singer’s Super Bowl performance reportedly captivated fans and garnered more recognition for her Cowboy Carter album. The album historically won the Album of the Year at the Grammys Awards held on February 2, 2025.
- Rihanna — 2023
In 2023 after over six years hiatus from music, a pregnant Rihanna was captured performing to an excited crowd at the 2023 Super Bowl halftime show. Rihanna performed her hit tracks, particularly Umbrella and Diamonds.
Hosted at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, the show for the year reached over 121 million concurrent viewers. Featuring Rihanna, it became the second most-watched Super Bowl halftime show.
Following her performance, Rihanna's song catalogue according to Billboard received a 140% leap across all streaming services in the US. Her songs received 62.2 million on-demand official streams nationwide. She reportedly sold over 42,000 downloads in the US.
However, following her Super Bowl performance, her songs Umbrella and Diamonds became her most-streamed songs. Several of her songs also charted on the Billboard Hot 100.
- Lady Gaga — 2017
Lady Gaga’s Super Bowl Halftime performance was on February 5, 2017. She headlined the show with no guest artistes performing a medley of her songs including songs off her album Joanne (2916).
Lady Gaga’s halftime show is currently the most nominated Super Bowl halftime show in Emmy Awards history. It has also won the Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lighting Design.
As a result of her performance at the 2017 Super Bowl halftime, a total of 5.1 million tweets were made about Lady Gaga’s performance. She made the most tweeted about entertainers in the show's history.
According to Nielsen SoundScan, the American singer sold over 150,000 digital albums and songs in the United States. This was a 1,000% increase compared to the previous day. She also sold a total of 125,000 digital song downloads.
Her albums sold more than 23,000 downloads, with Joanne selling over 12,000 copies, followed by her 2009 album, The Fame Monster, which sold about 6,000.
- Bruno Mars — 2014
On February 2, 2014, Bruno Mars headlined the Super Bowl halftime show at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. The singer performed alongside his band Hooligans.
The Fox telecast of Bruno Mars's performance was said to have attracted the largest audience in the history of the Super Bowl with 115.3 million viewers.
Bruno Mars' performance received two 2014 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations for Outstanding Short Format Live Action Entertainment Program and Outstanding Lighting Design / Lighting Direction for a Variety Special. It also generated over 2.2 million tweets due to the interest for the singer’s Moonshine Jungle Tour.
11 notable American artistes who have visited Nigeria
Meanwhile, TheRadar earlier reported that numerous international music stars have graced Nigerian stages, thrilling fans with music tours, paid performances, philanthropic works and other unforgettable experiences.
As the Nigerian music industry continues to thrive in its international recognition, TheRadar spotlights 11 notable American music stars who have performed on Nigerian stages.
