Country Music Continues to Set Records … and Be Ignored by Super Bowl
On Saturday, September 27th, Zach Bryan played the largest ticketed event in American history. 112,408 people packed into Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor to witness Zach Bryan perform at the “Big House,” with John Mayer, Ryan Bingham and the Texas Gentlemen, and Joshua Slone supporting. Merchandise sales alone topped $5 million according to organizers, making it also the biggest merchandise sales event in history.
To break the record, Zach Bryan had to best George Strait who drew 110,905 people to the Home of Texas A&M Aggies, Kyle Field in Texas in 2024. George Strait was also 3rd (and now 4th) on the top of the list with a crowd of 104,793 that he drew for an event in New Jersey in 2024. The Grateful Dead’s concert at New Jersey’s Raceway Park in 1977 with 107,019 also on the list of top ticketed events.
What this all illustrates is the incredible popularity of country and country-adjacent artists currently, especially when it comes to live performances. And it’s hard to overlook how there is a football tie-in, since these records are being set in football stadiums, with Zach Bryan appearing in a University of Michigan football jersey during Saturday’s show. Zach regularly trolls the internet with his unabashed Philadelphia Eagles fandom.
The day after Zach Bryan’s record-setting show in a football stadium, the NFL announced that for the 32nd year in a row, country music will not be featured during the halftime performance of the Super Bowl—arguably the biggest live entertainment event each year. Instead it will be the “King of Latin Trap” Bad Bunny taking the field.
You have to go all the way back to 1994 when Clint Black, Tanya Tucker, Travis Tritt, and The Judds performed to find the last and really only time country music was featured during the Super Bowl halftime. There hasn’t even been a country artist featured as a guest in over 20 years. For the record, Shania Twain appeared briefly with No Doubt in 2003, and Doug Kershaw also made a quick appearance in 1990 when the Super Bowl was in his native state of Louisiana.
Since the Super Bowl halftime show became a big deal in 1991 with New Kids on the Block taking the field, country music has really only been featured predominantly once. When you consider that it’s one of America’s popular genres—and arguably the most popular genre currently—this feels like a travesty.
There is a huge barrier standing between a country artist playing the Super Bowl halftime, and it’s not popularity or talent. The NFL partnered with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in 2019 as their official “Live Music Entertainment Strategists.” This has put country music on the sidelines permanently like a 3rd string quarterback, and relegated it to pregame performances.
Making the Super Bowl halftime show exclusively the domain of hip-hop seems like a disservice to every other genre. At this point, the question isn’t whether a hip-hop performer will be chosen, but which one.
Country music is packing out football stadiums, and in record numbers. But for yet another year, it remains on the sidelines when it comes to the Super Bowl.
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September 30, 2025 @ 11:11 am
Realistically if they do a country halftime show it’s going to be someone like Morgan Wallen, so I’m fine with it being left out.
September 30, 2025 @ 12:46 pm
I remarked to my wife that I thought Luke Combs would also be another option other than Wallen. And doesn’t carry the political baggage Wallen still (slightly) carries.
I’m not excited for the half-time act, but I also haven’t been excited since…well…I can’t remember when. The half-time show is the time to go do anything else other than pay attention to it in between the actual game.
September 30, 2025 @ 3:43 pm
Morgan Wallen will never play the Super Bowl. Too controversial. It would be Chris Stapleton, Zach Bryan, Luke Combs, someone along those lines.
To me, it’s not a taste thing. It’s the principle that country music should have an opportunity to be represented at the biggest event each year in America.
September 30, 2025 @ 5:09 pm
Morgan Wallen has a song with Bad Bunny, whose to say he isn’t one of the guest who will eventually show up.
October 2, 2025 @ 6:01 pm
You dont want it to be Zach Bryan or Chris Stapleton. In this day in age, the half time show is always mired in politics, and frankly Nashville really doesnt want people discussing what Bryan’s or Stapletons politics are anyways, in this case for their listeners ignorance (which there is alot of) is bliss…
Frankly I have my suspicions about Luke Combs as well. Maybe Jelly Roll could play
September 30, 2025 @ 11:14 am
Unfortunately, the Super Bowl has turned into a joke as far as the halftime “entertainment”. I’m done with the NFL in general. The more traditionalist segment of our population has been insulted once again by this.
The NFL believes that they are bulletproof, and they’ve been proven right about that. Another misfit halftime act isn’t likely to sink them, but more people are going to tune out at halftime. Hopefully some more people will just skip the game, as I’ve done.
September 30, 2025 @ 11:37 am
I’m sorry the NFL did that to you.
September 30, 2025 @ 11:49 am
It’s the new kick off rules you don’t lke, huh?
September 30, 2025 @ 12:20 pm
sending thoughts and prayers for you during this troubling time
September 30, 2025 @ 3:47 pm
Gee, thanks…
I can live without the NFL. It doesn’t matter to me. Having some cross-dressing rapper who doesn’t even perform in English does, in fact, bother me. The NFL does not care about guys like me, and I’m fine with that. I expected the snark from my comment and expect more from this one.
September 30, 2025 @ 10:06 pm
If you have a dollar in your pocket the NFL cares about you just as much as they do anyone else with a dollar in their pocket.
What kind of guy are you that the nfl doesn’t care about?
October 1, 2025 @ 12:53 pm
The NFL wants to reach into new pockets, which is why they are playing more in Europe and are making a play for the Latin American community with having Bad Bunny do halftime.
October 1, 2025 @ 8:42 am
I’d love to hear *why* exactly it bothers you. This oughta be interesting.
October 1, 2025 @ 12:57 pm
You’ve already decided that I’m a bigot, which is the sort of thing I figured would happen as soon as I started explaining myself. I’ve dealt with that forever and will continue to deal with it.
The game will come and go, and country music will probably not be featured in next year’s game either. That’s more than enough from me about this…
October 1, 2025 @ 4:16 pm
Excellent response @Todd J. Peterson
October 2, 2025 @ 3:24 am
I didn’t “decide” you were a bigot. You revealed yourself to be a bigot. There’s a big difference.
October 2, 2025 @ 9:11 am
@rano – I’ve been call a bigot over so many things with no real basis in reality, including in print. People just make accusations like that over and over. Tiresome.
October 2, 2025 @ 12:48 pm
“with no real basis in reality”?
Read your statements. Read your own words. If you’ve been accused of being a bigot multiple times, it’s probably because you’re a bigot. If it’s “tiresome” being called a bigot, stop making bigoted statements.
October 1, 2025 @ 11:09 am
It is a sad statement on the world when freaks like Bad Bunny are popular.
October 1, 2025 @ 5:03 pm
Care to expand?
October 1, 2025 @ 5:18 pm
What makes him a freak?
October 1, 2025 @ 6:10 pm
Alas, if only he were a straight, white, Christian male expressing the cultural values of rural America it would be a joyous statement on the world.
October 3, 2025 @ 8:45 pm
It seems that he doesn’t care to expand, Leslie.
September 30, 2025 @ 12:40 pm
And yet, seemingly every year, the NFL (Super Bowl in particular) set new viewership records or come close.
People will do as they have always done at half-time, go to the bathroom, grab something to drink and eat, have a smoke, etc.
And the world will keep spinning…
September 30, 2025 @ 4:32 pm
If you need anything at Walmart, stop by during the Super Bowl and you’ll have the place to yourself.
October 1, 2025 @ 12:03 pm
My buddy (not a football fan) would take his family to Disneyland every Super Bowl to avoid the crowds.
September 30, 2025 @ 5:10 pm
How is the second biggest musical act I. The world a misfit?
September 30, 2025 @ 7:32 pm
I know he’s super popular even though I couldn’t name a single song he’s recorded. The NFL doesn’t care about people like me.
He is a cross-dressing dude who says he’s “sexually fluid” and is performing at the biggest contest of a sport which is built around toughness, aggression and what is now called “toxic masculinity”. THAT is why I call him a misfit for this event.
However, the Super Bowl isn’t about football anymore; it’s about commerce, gambling, and the non-sports elements of the broadcast. It’s a chance to congregate, hang out and consume. Given this reality, he’s probably a great choice.
If the game primarily was about football, a big country music act (or acts) would fit in well. Maybe the first few Super Bowls were about that. Those days are long gone.
October 1, 2025 @ 5:24 pm
Why are you so worried about his sexuality? What is the difference between a what he wears and the frolic or robe of a priest.
Toughness and aggression is not the same as “toxic masculinity”. The guy does a lot of good work with charity and helping people. Guess you hate Willie Nelson too because he’s a long haired hippie who smoke pot. Probably couldn’t stand Johnny Cash because of his stance on inequality? Hell our founding fathers wore wigs, rouge, and high heels the whole time they were writing the constitution.
October 5, 2025 @ 10:22 pm
Keep fighting the good fight, Todd. This comment section is obviously filled with a lot of self-loathing and easily manipulated simpletons that have allowed the genociders that run the media to brainwash them into hating their own ethnicity. It’s pathetic.
September 30, 2025 @ 11:22 am
Frankly, country music isn’t the spectacle that many of those other genres are. It’s a less attractive product to *watch* if you’re not already a fan of the music, because it’s intentionally more about the music than the pomp. And like the first Andrew up there said, I think all of the artists willing to make a big enough spectacle for a halftime show are not the ones we would want representing the genre.
October 1, 2025 @ 12:06 pm
This is spot on. The halftime show is more about the show than the music itself. Country music just doesn’t specialize in this kind of spectacle and that’s how most of us like it.
October 1, 2025 @ 12:11 pm
Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bruce Springsteen, and in some respects Prince all put on respectable, rather straight-ahead concerts without spectacle. The NFL purposely curated it this way after the boob incident in 2004. A country artist like George Strait or Chris Stapleton could totally get up there and perform a straight ahead show.
October 1, 2025 @ 12:39 pm
Gavin Adcock will headline at next year’s Superbowl.
He will come out standing on top of a monster bus, chugging a giant can of beer.
Fuck yeah!
October 5, 2025 @ 10:28 pm
Prince? Really? As I was reading the comments on this thread I specifically recollected that performance of his as the exact moment the halftime show began to devolve into crude sexual innuendo. You obviously don’t remember the guitar as phallus portion of that year’s show. I’ll direct you to the 9:50 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WYYlRArn3g
October 6, 2025 @ 12:22 am
“Crude sexual innuendo.”
Oh, please.
You could play that Prince performance for 1,000 people. Some will like it and some may not, but not 1 in a thousand are likely to say that it contained crude sexual innuendo. The guy wore a full suit with a jacket and made no sexual gestures.
Nothing near a standand performance from Elvis, Jagger or Michael Jackson, in that regard.
Some trolls called his guitar a phallic symbol. Wow. The Washington Monument, the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building and Macbeth’s dagger and a willow tree in Hamlet have been called phallic symbols. That’s hardly a determination of “crude sexual innuendo.”
I’m not a Prince fan and I don’t feel qualified to judge, but Prince’s Super Bowl halftime show generally comes out as #1 of them all by publications that have ranked these things.
October 6, 2025 @ 6:56 am
I don’t know. I thought that was the moment when Justin Timberlake ripped off Janet Jackson’s bra to expose her breast. That’s what led to the backlash that had classic rock artists playing the Super Bowl for the next few years, including Prince. Also, I very specifically said, “and in some respects Prince” because he actually sang and played guitar live.
Let’s not get pearl clutchy here.
September 30, 2025 @ 11:44 am
I might be wrong on this but I think you have to go back to Springsteen’s performance in 09′ when the vocals were completely live. I believe the instruments were all a backing track. (that has to do with zero time to soundcheck and to avoid logistical issues with setting all that up in zero time) Zach Bryan would be the most logical choice of a Country artists that would have completely live vocals at Super Bowl show. That would be good for Country music and good for music in general to have 100% live vocals at a Super Bowl show.
September 30, 2025 @ 11:48 am
Sportsball!
September 30, 2025 @ 11:55 am
I had a friend whose company produced Super Bowl halftime shows. He told me that the show is not meant to appeal to football fans. They are watching the game anyway. It is meant to attract non-fans (including the non-sports-loving partners of football fans). That is why it is what it is.
September 30, 2025 @ 12:06 pm
This.
Bad Bunny is designed to further the NFL’s influence into Latin America.
Hardcore fans complain but the league knows they will still watch. Want change? Stop watching.
September 30, 2025 @ 12:28 pm
A lot of annoyed fans, believe me. I heard some rock/ metal guys lamenting that there will never be a Metallica halftime show. And given JayZs hands in this id say they would be right. Country music at the Superbowl is a never to be realized , so far in the distance you can’t see it with a deep space telescope, dream.
Nobodys heard of Bad Bunny BTW. And nobody cares about him either. Hah!
September 30, 2025 @ 3:52 pm
Metallica doesn’t grow them any fans. Metallica’s audience is 40-something and above (predominantly) men.
Bad Bunny – much like Kid Cudi the year prior – brings in a younger, diverse fan base. The NFL especially wants to continue to expand into Latin America and Bad Bunny is a massive, massive deal with Latin youth.
Would I prefer they (NFL) target ME with both their product AND half-time entertainment? Yes. But they also already have me. Adding Metallica would appease me, but all these companies are the same now. “Screw you, we have you, we want them” (gestures to group of people not currently diehard fans).
It sucks, but the Bad Bunny thing makes complete business sense for the NFL.
September 30, 2025 @ 5:00 pm
Mike. Soccer aka “Football” is the sport of Latin America. Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican. American football is not about to even begin to compete with soccer in any meaningful numbers. Culturally, soccer is the game and it runs deep in that culture. That is a fact. Outside of America, soccer is the global sport. I know quite a few Latino folks including some of the younger generation, and none of them are into American football. Not to say there isn’t a percentage who do in fact like it, but it’s just a percentage.
Im not sure why so many in this comments want to be defensive of the NFLs decision. Kyle has a perfectly rational reason to write this article. Historically, halftime shows chose giant names from American pop culture as the fans of American football can relate to them. Think of the names who’ve played halftime: The Stones, Taylor Swift, U2, ZZ Top, Springsteen, Beyoncé, Aerosmith, Prince and on and on. Its not unreasonable to think Country should theoretically be included.
I know it’s at this point highly unrealistic that will ever happen, but I agree with Kyle that ideally it should. That said I can’t remember the last halftime show I watched. Its been years.
October 1, 2025 @ 11:09 am
Nothing in PR comes close to baseball in terms of popularity, and soccer probably wouldn’t come next.
I’d like to see a country halftime show but as others have pointed out it mostly doesn’t lend itself to spectacle in the same way, and particularly not the kind of country most readers of this site prefer.
October 1, 2025 @ 1:13 pm
Lots of folks thought the NFL would never surpass MLB as the most popular sport in the U.S.
I agree that it is unlikely the NFL ever surpasses Soccer, but they clearly are devoting lots of money to grow the game both domestically, but also internationally in Latin America. We have no had back-to-back years where the NFL has played a regular season game in Brazil.
This is clearly an audience the NFL is thirsty to tap into – and Bad Bunny is a another way to do that.
October 1, 2025 @ 8:47 am
“Nobody’s heard of Bad Bunny” just may be the most ignorant statement I’ve heard this year outside of a White House press conference.
October 6, 2025 @ 7:04 am
Sooo predictable that the likes of you would come to the aid of some cross-dressing rapper.
September 30, 2025 @ 4:01 pm
The Super Bowl really isn’t about the game of football. It’s a cultural event and a de-facto national holiday. The non-sports entertainment, the commercials and the gambling have pushed the actual game aside.
September 30, 2025 @ 10:18 pm
But they still play football. And they play hard, and they play to win. Giving a shit who the halftime show is makes you the one caring about all the other shit. Why can’t it be something different for everyone. It sounds like you enjoy football. So do I. It’s why I watch the football. I don’t even go to a party typically. Used to watch alone or with a buddy or two. Now my wife and kids. I couldn’t imagine being put out by what half time show is. Sometimes I find it interesting, sometimes I don’t. It was awful last year. Imagine being bent out of shape cause Chris Stapleton isn’t up there. Sturgil Simpson is the closest artist I care about that could do it, and he’s a ways away. If the world revolved around me it would be James McMurtry. But I’m not gonna through a bitch fit cause it’s a queer. I’m not sure you are as tough or as much as a fan of football you claim to be.
If you got to pick the act which white, straight guy would it be? Cause the ones I’d choose have no shot anyhow. If I never hear Stapleton sing Tennessee whiskey or water again I’ll be fine.
October 1, 2025 @ 7:58 am
I’m not claiming to be tough here. I like football, but there’s many things the NFL has done that have turned me off. I’ve turned the page on them and I don’t miss it. College football has become professional and I’m not into that either.
I don’t like the mainstreaming of the gender fluid, trans, etc. through the NFL, or any other mainstream entity for a number of reasons. That’s where I stand and I don’t apologize for that stance. It’s bigger than a ball game.
Having a country act perform would be good for the genre, but I’m not that invested in it.
Respectfully, I’m really not interested in going into this any deeper.
October 1, 2025 @ 8:49 am
You’re not interested in going into it any deeper because that would require defending your bigotry.
October 1, 2025 @ 11:06 am
Todd,
You made the post of the day.
October 1, 2025 @ 11:52 am
Yeah, It would be the kind of thing a tool like you would like, CK.
October 1, 2025 @ 12:44 pm
Thut up, you thissy.
October 2, 2025 @ 7:13 am
Bad Bunny isn’t making you his hoe, ID.
October 2, 2025 @ 6:17 pm
And Kid Rock isn’t going to make you his, CK, so…
September 30, 2025 @ 11:55 am
Beyonce will do her Cowboy Carter schtick in the next Super Bowl halftime show — so, no, Country Music isn’t being ignored by the NFL.
September 30, 2025 @ 1:11 pm
Beyonce already did that – she did the Cowboy Carter act at last year’s Christmas day game.
September 30, 2025 @ 3:24 pm
She be doin’ it again, yo.
She da queen bee.
September 30, 2025 @ 5:59 pm
Beyonce doing her Cowboy Carter schtick would still be ignoring coutry music.
September 30, 2025 @ 12:00 pm
So, obviously, as long as Jay Z is booking the acts, there won’t be any country.
Also, to some degree, country music fans and NFL fans intersect. If the goal is to please the existing audience, then sure a country act is fine. But if the goal is to get people who otherwise wouldn’t be watching to tune on, I don’t think a country act is particularly helpful.
For all the moaning about the hip hop half time shows, the Rianna performance was the highest rated halftime show in history (and I recall reading somewhere it had better rating than the game itself).
September 30, 2025 @ 6:11 pm
The SB halftime entertainment is not aimed at NFL fans. Quite the opposite.
September 30, 2025 @ 12:18 pm
I mean no one you mentioned is even in the stratosphere of Bad Bunny. Like JF mentioned, they know people are going to be watching the game but now they are trying to appeal the show to those who normally wouldn’t even consider it. Mark my words, Bad Bunny will be the most watched halftime show ever.
September 30, 2025 @ 3:46 pm
I don’t take issue with Bad Bunny. Don’t know his music. I’m sure he’s a popular guy. It just seems strange to me that country music seems to be completely off limits for this opportunity. If the shoe was on the other foot and they never featured a hip-hop performer, you can imagine what the press would be saying.
September 30, 2025 @ 4:54 pm
But you do realize Bad Bunny is arguably the biggest artist in the world right? Like bigger than Taylor Swift. If you have that opportunity as a business to get someone like that over Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, etc. you’re going to do that 100 times out of 100 to expand your base
September 30, 2025 @ 5:06 pm
The Super Bowl is a world wide event. While not a fan of Reggaeton i can recognize Bad Bunny does it well and he is the 2nd most popular artist in the United States and the World. Only Taylor Swift is bigger right now. From what I can tell he is a good guy who gives lots to the community. Other than HEB his foundation has been the biggest contributor to support the families affected in Uvalde. It will probably be a big fun show with lots of guests performances which is kind of right in line with the Super Bowl Halftime show.
Sure are there artists that are more my taste absolutely, so I think they would have been a better pick for this event, no.
October 2, 2025 @ 12:30 am
It’s strange to you that they chose a guy whose music has been streamed literally ten times more than the country alternatives you mentioned? Why would it be strange that they choose artists who are *far* more popular?
October 2, 2025 @ 7:00 am
As I have said multiple times now, including in the comment you are responding to, that I take no issue with the Bad Bunny pick. This isn’t about slagging Bad Bunny or saying he doesn’t deserve it. I physically can’t emphasize this point any more, yet people continue to push that in my face as if I’m being irrational as if that’s the point being made in this article when it clearly isn’t. What’s irrational is that country music hasn’t been featured in the halftime performance in 32 years. You want to talk about stats and numbers, that’s an INSANE stat.
Also, are we just going to choose who the Super Bowl halftime performer is based solely off of current popularity? If so, why did they book Usher in 2024? Why didn’t they book Taylor Swift in 2025? There should be more thought that goes into this process, including saying, “Huh. There hasn’t been a country performer in 32 years. Maybe we should rectify that.”
September 30, 2025 @ 12:30 pm
Ryan Bingham is horrible. You get in Yellowstone and you’re a big time singer? Can’t sing. Cant write better then the average joe. Fix this saving country music. If you want to save it don’t mention people who have no business being in the business. If you can’t sing and can’t write, your out. That’s how it once was. I’m sure his band mates now how bad he is they just go for the ride.
September 30, 2025 @ 3:51 pm
lol wowzers
September 30, 2025 @ 8:43 pm
I cannot disagree with you more. All choked up again is one of the coolest songs out since Waylon and Merle. Stop being a hater.
October 1, 2025 @ 3:01 pm
Music sounds pretty good on that song.. but Horrible singing and a ton of people you’ll never hear already wrote that song. I like singers
September 30, 2025 @ 10:21 pm
Yellowstone sucks. Have you listened to mescalito?
October 1, 2025 @ 10:07 am
I think you got that backwards. His first album came out in 2007.
September 30, 2025 @ 12:38 pm
Sounds from what i’ve read that they were more interested in booking an anti-Trump act than caring about what type of music is it, and country music doesn’t fit their agenda.
September 30, 2025 @ 12:44 pm
Yeah, kinda doubt it was an “anti-Trump act” as the motive. First off, Goodell and Jay Z were both recently hanging out at the White House and/or with Trump schmoozing for their business interests.
Secondly, this whole narrative that “big business is against Trump” is a joke. That may have been true in Trump 1.0, but in Trump 2.0 they have overwhelmingly placated him. FFS, Apple is giving him Gold figurines to try and avoid tariffs on their phones. Google just settled for millions for banning his YouTube channel 5 years ago. The list goes on.
Trump isn’t fighting with big business. Big business is happily kissing the ring this time around. Any attempt to say otherwise is simply not based in facts.
Bad Bunny is a major act with the young, Latino audience the NFL is courting. That’s why he is booked. Full stop.
September 30, 2025 @ 12:49 pm
And where did you rerad that at? I can’t wait, this should be good.
September 30, 2025 @ 12:58 pm
Actually kind of excited for Bad Bunny since it’s a little different than the past few years.
September 30, 2025 @ 12:59 pm
The NFL is trying to reach a global audience. The typical country fan already watches the NFL. Honestly, Zach Bryan or MW would be a snooze fest.
Latin music, along with country, has grown in popularity. Check Bad Bunny’s streaming numbers on YouTube, some views are in the billions.
Bad Bunny has participated in WrestleMania so it’s not like he’s unknown to some sports fans (yes I know it’s “professional” wrestling).
September 30, 2025 @ 1:17 pm
Exactly, I think lot of people don’t realize how big globally Bad Bunny is. There’s no one in country that is even half as popular as he is. Plus no one else in country has won a San Juan Street Fight
September 30, 2025 @ 8:15 pm
Not even Gavin Adcock??
September 30, 2025 @ 1:31 pm
There will obviously be big production with multiple celebs peppered into the dance crew again – just like last time.
September 30, 2025 @ 1:16 pm
I agree with your sentiment Trigger: country music deserves commensurate representation in Super Bowl halftime (and other public square events). However, the Zach Bryan appeal is mystifying. Emo folk music isn’t exactly what I consider good country music, and I don’t think he would fit the moment of a Super Bowl half time show.
September 30, 2025 @ 8:48 pm
Totally disagree. The audience singing back all night revival would be epic. What, you think he is selling out huge stadiums because he is a snooze fest, give me a break. Obviously, you don’t care for him but if you haven’t seen one of his shows live don’t comment, makes you look ridiculous
October 1, 2025 @ 2:01 pm
Oh no, the singing, spare me from the singers…
I only heard it at Tyler Childers but apparently its all the young alt acts.
This isn’t singing because you’re happy like when wagon wheel was new. This is singing because you need everyone to know that you know every word.
September 30, 2025 @ 1:41 pm
I don’t think there is a half time super bowl show I have ever cared for. Maybe the first one, when I think it was just a high school band. What they should do is have Taylor Swift do the show. After all she will probably be there anyway.
September 30, 2025 @ 4:56 pm
Bad Bunny is a bigger artist than Taylor. Also the internet talk was that the NFL and Taylor couldn’t come to terms for the show
September 30, 2025 @ 1:49 pm
I was hoping for Taylor Swift
September 30, 2025 @ 2:05 pm
You must be a Chiefs fan.
October 1, 2025 @ 12:52 pm
Fairweather Panthers Fan
September 30, 2025 @ 2:01 pm
American men: stop giving the NFL your time and attention. They have told you a thousand times and a thousand ways that they hate you, and yet you guys still watch. Stop.
September 30, 2025 @ 2:14 pm
How have they done that?
September 30, 2025 @ 10:26 pm
The kneeling 10 years ago. Left a lot of scars. They keep having rappers do the halftime show. Bad bunny is queer. They took the full length mirror out of the steeler locker room so Aaron Rodgers can no longer jerk off. It’s just one injustice after another.
September 30, 2025 @ 2:17 pm
College football caters more to country music and I’m fine with that as I watch less and less NFL every season.
I’ve always preferred the wider hash marks in college which gets your best offensive players in space. But with the new gimmicky NFL kick off landing zone rules and with over 1/2 the NFL stadiums becoming domed (there no such thing as retractable roofs) in the next few years, I don’t know what I’m watching anymore.
And I have no idea what a bad rabbit does. Nor do I care.
September 30, 2025 @ 4:41 pm
He has a bad hare day, of course.
October 1, 2025 @ 7:22 am
Hey ho!
Peter Rabbit was the original bad bunny!
September 30, 2025 @ 5:55 pm
I’d rather see Bad Bunny (Who I know nothing about) or pretty much anyone before Zach Bryan, Morgan Wallen, Jelly Roll etc as that’s who they’d probably have.
September 30, 2025 @ 7:04 pm
Bad Bunny, and Jelly Bean, SB ’26.
September 30, 2025 @ 7:50 pm
Several country artists have song the National Anthem. Charley Pride was the first in 1974, then Garth Brooks in 1993, Faith Hill in 2000, Carrie Underwood in 2009. Luke Bryan in 2017, Eric Church and Jazmine Sullivan in 2021, Mickey Guyton sang in 2022, and Chris Stapleton did his rendition in 2023.
The one band that should have but will likely never, even though the next Super Bowl is at the San Francisco 49ers stadium is Metallica.
September 30, 2025 @ 9:44 pm
Tyler Childers, Luke Combs & Cody Jinks should find a streaming service and do a live show at the same time – see how many people we can get to turn off the crap the NFL is shoveling us…I would watch!
September 30, 2025 @ 9:49 pm
You want a good halftime show that would please a crowd? It should be:
Turnpike Troubadors/ A Tornado Warning
Alabama Shakes / Don’t Wanna Fight
Kings of Leon / Sex on Fire
Zach Bryan / Nine Ball
Zach and Kacey / I Remember Everything
Kacey Musgraves / High Horse
September 30, 2025 @ 9:54 pm
Sturgill / Call to Arms
Gary Clark Jr / This is My Land
Maren Morris / Dancing with Myself
Childers / Cuttin Teeth
…would also fit well….
September 30, 2025 @ 11:46 pm
The Super Bowl is not about music genres being “represented.”
You can ignore the elephant in the room. I did a search for the word “black” and it appears exactly once on this page–and that’s in reference to Clint Black.
The NFL (and the NBA) are majority black leagues….and their most exciting and spectacular players are overwhelmingly black.The culture of the leagues–the music, the art–is influenced by and celebrates black culture. I’m sure if you went into an NFL training facility the music being played in the weight room while 350-pound linemen are doing squats with 500 pounds on their shoulders is all hip-hop.
Anyway, for about 15 years in the 1990s and 200s, SB half-time show was a veritable who’s-who of classic rock. The Who, of course, but also the Stones, McCartney (Beatles), Phil Collins, Springsteen, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Aerosmith. I guess no-one is clamoring to hear Foreigner
October 1, 2025 @ 2:56 pm
And yet not one team is black owned.
NFL= postbellum slavery
October 1, 2025 @ 7:21 pm
Yeah, if getting paid a salary in the top 0.01% of the populatiion and being a free agent when your contract expires is slavery.
October 1, 2025 @ 3:34 am
Country music is in a weird space. Like, Zach Bryan is considered Americana in some regards, but he’s also regarded as country when it suits an argument like this. Maybe he’s country adjacent or something.
Wouldn’t want Morgan Wallen up there at the Super Bowl Halftime, that would be platforming the wrong guy and then people would have the wrong idea about country music. Wouldn’t want Gavin Adcock up there, either. Certainly wouldn’t want Shaboozey up there cause he’s not real country but he’s better than Beyonce, I bet. Can’t have Post Malone doing country stuff cause that’s not the real deal, either.
But those would all be more acceptable than Bad Bunny, right?
Bad Bunny has billions and billions of streams and not a single one of them has come from me. I can’t tell you the first thing about him other than I’m not his target audience. That means I’ll probably use the Super Bowl Halftime to make a sandwich and/or listen to my parents whine about Bad Bunny and wonder why they think the Super Bowl Halftime should revolve around THEM and their boomer tastes…they’ll be grumbles about how they should have the Rolling Stones or ZZ Top or something.
But that’s the thing about The Stones, you can’t always get what you want and sometimes that means you’re not always the intended audience.
October 1, 2025 @ 6:35 am
I take no issue with Bad Bunny. I take no issue with the NFL booking one of the most popular artists on the planet for their halftime show. I didn’t say anything negative about Bad Bunny in this article. I am simply pointing out that it seems like an extremely, extremely strange anomaly that one specific popular genre of American music has not been represented during the Super Bowl in 32 years. That seems like an exceptional statistic, and as someone whose job is to advocate for country music, it seems something worth pointing out. And I will continue to point that out until it is addressed.
October 1, 2025 @ 7:27 am
You’re right, you didn’t say anything negative about Bad Bunny and my fault for implying that you did.
Why do you think country music hasn’t been featured in 32 years? I have my suspicions but would want to hear yours.
October 1, 2025 @ 7:32 am
We likely won’t see a Country artist ever play the Super Bowl Halftime show again because 1# it would likely be a white male Country performer, and the last thing the NFL will do is make a pick that will be perceived to be for white/rural America.
October 1, 2025 @ 9:51 am
You havent missed anything. Bad Bunny’s music was played at our local bar where one of the young ladies kept putting his songs on the Jukebox. It is crap and I listened to hip hop back in the day.
October 1, 2025 @ 5:20 am
New year, same story. As long as Jay Z is in charge of selecting the halftime artist you might as well just copy this article for pasting at this time next year.
October 1, 2025 @ 5:33 am
Anyone making fun of this post by Trigger: why are you visiting this website? to poke fun? Who else runs a website as important to saving country music outside of Trigger? This website is great, and it is run by a guy who is not getting rich from it, his heart is in it. Why are you so shallow?
October 1, 2025 @ 7:31 am
Im wondering the same thing Adam.
If your for Country music, and you are here, Trigs article shouldn’t be that offensive to you. Of course we know the NFL is about money, but that doesn’t mean we can’t question the halftime entertainment choices made by Jay Z and the NFL. The continuing trend to ignore other genres is troubling.
October 1, 2025 @ 6:10 am
America’s musical tastes are so severely fractured today that there are few “mass appeal” musical acts anymore. Most people only listen to music within their own silos and even those are further fractured into sub-genres. Country fans like me that prefer a traditional sound cannot tolerate today’s shallow acts that are “country” in name only.
Super Bowl halftime has become the time to either mute the TV sound or channel surf until the game resumes. Maybe it’s time that one (or more) of the cable/streaming channels should offer alternative musical halftime shows to give viewers a choice. For starters country, classic pop and metal could be a few possibilities
October 1, 2025 @ 7:53 am
Or maybe the halftime show should go totally old school and just have marching bands and equestrian acts. That would be a spectacle with broad appeal.
October 1, 2025 @ 8:44 am
The games themselves have so much “technology” on the screens displaying the scores, and replays, and close ups it’s insane compared to the 90’s and 2000’s. The technology enchroachment in the viewer experience is so over-the-top it’s obvious that the halftime show has to surpass that. There is no way a performer with an acoustic guitar and a simple band behind him will match that experience they are going for.
October 1, 2025 @ 8:17 am
Meanwhile, in Canada, we’ve had three country music halftime shows at the Grey Cup in the last eight years. Shania Twain in 2017, Keith Urban in 2019, then Tyler Hubbard, Jordan Davis, and Josh Ross in 2022.
October 1, 2025 @ 11:07 am
So, the Grey Cup had zero country shows.
October 1, 2025 @ 8:33 am
Bad Bunny a Puerto Rican rapper, singer, record producer, and actor and dubbed the “King of Latin Trap”, is credited with helping Spanish-language rap music achieve mainstream popularity in the worldwide market. I don’t think his playing the Super Bowl halftime show is a personal snub at county music but another step by the NFL to expand its market beyond the USA. Taylor Swift is the most-streamed artist ever on Spotify, while Bad Bunny is currently the second most-streamed. So this is strictly a business decision in my opinion.
October 1, 2025 @ 8:43 am
I still think there’s a good chance there will be country when Nashville gets a Super Bowl (likely 2029)
October 1, 2025 @ 11:15 am
This is a great point. The city is trying to get the Super Bowl in Nashville in 2029 after the completion of the new stadium and it would be weird to not have any Country artists in a Nashville Super Bowl.
October 1, 2025 @ 8:52 am
“Making the Super Bowl halftime show exclusively the domain of hip-hop seems like a disservice to every other genre. At this point, the question isn’t whether a hip-hop performer will be chosen, but which one.”
Trigger, just for the sake of accuracy I think it’s worth pointing out that you’re incorrect here. Since Jay-Z/ROC Nation took over starting with the 2020 Super Bowl, half the acts have been hip-hop (counting Bad Bunny) and half have been pop/R&B. If you’re going to specifically blame Jay-Z for the lack of country, which is a bit odd since ROC Nation has only been involved for the last six selections but you point out that it’s a 32-year drought, you should at least be accurate in who he’s selecting instead.
I wish you’d spend more time in this now-annual article articulating why exactly you think country is being shut out. You blame Jay-Z on the one hand, but that doesn’t account for the 26 previous years. I suspect you know there are plenty of valid reasons – both market-based and spectacle-based – why the NFL keeps going the directions it goes, but you focus instead on this victim narrative. I know that you’re trying to advocate for country music, but this article frankly always seems to be more just complaining than actually seeking to explain as a journalist.
I would be much more interested in your more thorough breakdown of why you think this is happening instead of your laundry list of rehashed, clickbait complaints that lead to the same stale back-and-forths in the comments.
October 1, 2025 @ 9:04 am
Pat C,
It states expressly in this article that the NFL partnered with Jay-Z in 2019. So even though you attempt in this comment, twice, to say that I’m blaming Jay-Z for the 32-year drought, that’s not what I’m doing at all, and I’m not sure how anyone could draw that conclusion.
I agree this argument has been rehashed over and over. Why? Because the NFL continues to ignore country music for its halftime show. Don’t want to see this article again? Book a country performer. Part of the point of these articles is to be the squeaky wheel.
I don’t know why the NFL continues to ignore one of the most popular genres of American music. My guess is over the last few years, Jay-Z not being fond of it probably doesn’t help. But there is still a sentiment out there that country music is for dumb hicks and not fit for prime time. That probably has a lot to do with it.
October 1, 2025 @ 10:45 am
Trigger,
I think you actually need to read my comment more carefully instead of saying I misread your article. But I may not have made my point clearly enough, so let me try to restate it here:
I was pointing out that the only reason for country’s exclusion that you mentioned was Jay-Z/Roc Nation’s role. You acknowledge, as I said twice, country’s 32-year absence but only offer up a six year old explanation for the “huge barrier” to country. My point, which I think is a perfectly reasonable one, is that it would be helpful to hear more of an explanation from you, and specifically one that addresses the full 32 years and not just the last six. If Jay-Z is the huge barrier now, what was the barrier prior to his role in helping select the halftime act?
I think the (fairly frequent) inclusion of country acts during the pregame and for the National Anthem heavily calls into question your claim that country’s being excluded because of “a sentiment out there that country music is for dumb hicks and not fit for prime time.” The Anthem is very much in prime time.
Knowing how much you think about and spend time on this issue is why I wish you spent some more time actually delving into explanations and trying to understand why country might be getting shut out. I’d think that, if you really wanted to push the issue forward and make a compelling case for country’s inclusion, you’d want to start with understanding the issue instead of just playing the victim. Working towards understanding and action, and bringing your loyal audience along for that journey, seems like it would be more productive to me.
And while it may not be obvious since I’m disagreeing with your angle on this article, I very much count myself a member of that loyal audience, love your work, and have huge respect for what you do! And I appreciate your willingness to engage with those who disagree with you.
October 1, 2025 @ 9:29 am
“What this all illustrates is the incredible popularity of country and country-adjacent artists currently”
Does it? Really? Or does it illustrate the incredible popularity of Zach Bryan right now. Can you think of another country or country-adjacent artist who could come close to doing this? Maybe George Strait somewhere in TX in a one-off designed to break the record.
So, yes, let’s celebrate the fact that country and country-adjacent music is popular. But let’s not pretend there any many artists, country or country-adjacent who could sell that many tickets to a show.
Oasis is playing arguably the biggest tour in the world this year and sold out multiple nights at 80,000-90,000 seat places so maybe they could. In fact, the could and have. They did 2 nights at Knebworth in 1996 and sold 125,000 tickets/night and could have done a couple of more nights.
FWIW, Bryan’s show ranks 32nd in terms of most tickets sold for a single concert. The most was also this year by Thompson who sold a reported 485,430 tickets to a concert in Zagreb, Croatia.
This “nobody likes our music” thing is getting old. Who gives a fuck. If being good was related to crowd size Morgan Wallen would be playing to 12 inbred meth-heads at the Butt Fuck Inn in Bristol every Saturday night and the Drive-By Truckers would be selling out the Grand Canyon.
Let’s enjoy the great music we are getting out of so many great artists. I don’t want the people Silverada rails against in “Eagle Rare” screwing things up.
October 1, 2025 @ 11:51 am
Zach Bryan, George Strait (twice), and Garth Brooks own four of the Top 5 records in largest ticketed events, with the Grateful Dead spoiling the country music party. It’s simply an illustration that country music can be put on a big stage and succeed. Nobody is suggesting Morgan Wallen play the Super Bowl except Morgan Wallen fans. George Strait, Zach Bryan, and Garth Brooks would be a place to start. Chris Stapleton and Luke Combs would be other options.
I get if people don’t care about this matter. I am surprised so many people are repulsed by the discussion. Not having a country artist play the biggest event all year in the United States in 32 years seems a bit strange, no? I’m not threatening anyone’s mother here, I’m just pointing out an anomaly.
“This “nobody likes our music” thing is getting old. Who gives a fuck.”
I agree it’s old. Not 100% sure what it has to do with this discussion.
October 1, 2025 @ 6:26 pm
Don’t be such a censor.
October 1, 2025 @ 6:40 pm
Stop trying to instigate a race war in my comments section.
October 1, 2025 @ 6:45 pm
Go to college, dumbass. Take history,
October 2, 2025 @ 11:09 am
Point taken. The five largest ticketed shows in the *US* were country artists. Global events are not a fair comparison.
And, yes, it seems odd that country acts have not played the Super Bowl particularly given that I imagine a large portion of the NFL’s fanbase listens to country music more than they do Bad Bunny.
But therein lies the rub.The NFL doesn’t care about who plays the halftime show for the music, they care about it from a marketing perspective. People who listen to Zach Bryan will be watching, but probably not people who listen to Kendrick Lamar or Bad Bunny. It’s October and people will be talking about this until the show. From that perspective it makes perfect sense. Still, you could throw those who watch regularly a bone and have a country artist.
As to the “poor little country music,” sorry, it did come off that way. At least to me.
October 2, 2025 @ 11:38 am
WTF,
Agree that maybe they could ” toss us a bone”. Yeah, NFL, you at one time had halftime shows that seemingly were for the ” people”, namely the ones who fill your stadium seats, buying season tickets to your games, the ones who spend billions on team merch, spend billions on food and overpriced beers at your stadiums, the same fans who have made sure they can stream the NFL network into their homes and so on. The fans who watch Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football etc. Yeah, those people. Remember them? The people paying your lavish salaries?
Whatever happened to the concept of ” dance with the one that brung ya.” ?
Yet the comments section here, purportedly full of ” country music fans” seem to think that instead of featuring music for the actual financially invested supporters, they ought to instead ” court a new fanbase” by featuring acts most of their existing fanbase barely know or understand. Huh???? Yes my comment above regarding Bad Bunny is hyperbole and intentionally so, to illustrate that The NFL is ignoring their base constituency. Seems counter- productive to me. Just saying. Im in the minority in this comment thread as one who agrees with Kyle Coroneos apparently hot take.
Ok, Rant over. Back to your regularly scheduled programming.
October 1, 2025 @ 5:32 pm
Cody Jinks is my halftime pipe dream pick.
October 2, 2025 @ 6:34 am
I would like to see Hank Jr. and Skynyrd.
October 2, 2025 @ 11:11 am
Why not Hank Sr and Skynyrd? Just as much of a chance given that no original members of Skynyrd are still alive.
October 2, 2025 @ 9:15 am
Thanks for the article Trigger. I offer a few thoughts not to be argumentative, but just as a slightly different perspective.
I really prefer that our music is counter-cultural. I understand that sounds pretentious, and is also wildly unfair to everyone working hard in the industry to make it.
But part of the appeal of a honky-tonk band in a gritty bar is that everyone there can kind of wink at each other and know that we are the fortunate few who understand the great appeal of this music and lifestyle.
Pop is just short for popular. One of the main premises of this website as I understand it is that country isn’t supposed to be pop. Country is for the rest of us, and maybe even for those of us that wince at the contemporary consumer landscape that the NFL seems to very much be a part of.
Let them have their music at the super bowl, and let us have ours free of some of the influences that would necessarily come with that spectacle.
October 2, 2025 @ 5:55 pm
Did I fall asleep and wake up in a world where Chris Stapleton didnt just play the national anthem at the superbowl like 1 or 2 years ago?
October 2, 2025 @ 6:22 pm
Yes, Stapleton did a great job on the National Anthem a few years ago. All the more reason to book him as the halftime performer.
October 3, 2025 @ 2:08 am
…if lee greenwood wouldn’t have gone so single-mindedly?
October 3, 2025 @ 3:06 am
Ultimately, instead of rewarding and honoring the most popular genre of the last few years, a Genre that built all the other genres, a genre that houses the top commercially successful artists not named Taylor Swift, we got a woke dude who wears dresses and doesn’t sing any songs in English . It’s like the nfl started from a position of “who can we pick that would alienate literally half the country”. Cross dresser? Yes please. Hates trump? Oh yeah! Has boycotted the United States and is currently boycotting our nation right now? For sure! Has a video where he literally mocks Trump? Yes more, more! An artist that is pro illegal immigration? Sign us up! An artist who in the biggest sporting event in North America beloved by truckers, conservatives and red blooded American men is in the main stage yet doesn’t sing in English at all? Oh yeah!
ICE will be in attendance as per the DHS spokesman. They will be arresting illegals in the crowd. And they have my total approval to do so. I encourage it. I don’t want illegals attending or in my country or at a super bowl. ICE should deport them.
Bad bunny represents woke and Marxist ideology, pro trans and lgbtq indoctrination and pro illegal aliens horseshit.
We all may have to suffer through this unless he backs down from worries about himself being arrested by ice at his own performance. But suffice if to say. his music and message and Ilk promote an ideology and we are supposed to swallow that bullshit like it’s true. Let us suffice it to say it fits in line with everything we’ve ever been told about lgbtq, woke, dei, pro immigration, sjw, racial grievance politics: bullshit..bullshit.
October 3, 2025 @ 8:00 am
Seems to me that the “ICE at the Super Bowl” threat is mostly just more propaganda from the administration. Tickets for that game cost thousands of dollars. So exactly how many illegal immigrants can afford that? However they may be looking to round up illegals working on the food service or maintenance staffs. In that case no tears for the ultra-rich in the luxury boxes that could have dirty bathrooms or not enough servers to bring them more caviar and refill their champagne glasses.
Seems to me the NFL is not looking for the best “mass appeal” half-time act. My guess is that they may be looking for an act that will bring additional NEW viewers to the game that may not be watching otherwise. Younger non-sports fans and Hispanic soccer fans that don’t usually watch American football may be their likely target.
First, foremost and above all else the NFL is all about the $$$$$.
October 4, 2025 @ 6:57 am
I find the argument that having Bad Bunny the NFL will draw a new audience. Sure, some additional people will tune in–just for the halftime show. Then they’ll turn it off. I suppose that has some value in terms of advertising dollars, but let’s not kid ourselves that the NFL will now have a legion of new fans.
October 4, 2025 @ 8:31 am
In fact they might lose fans if the show includes a political diatribe, as seems likely.
October 4, 2025 @ 11:25 am
Ratings are computed based upon the total number of viewers that tune in to at least some portion of the broadcast. Whether or not they stay for the entire game or become new converts to NFL football really does not matter. Attracting more eyeballs to the broadcast even for a short period is their primary goal. If that happens it’s an even bigger win for the NFL.
If the Bad Bunny performance includes a political diatribe do you truly believe that massive numbers of viewers will then switch off the second half of the game? Or that the fans in the stands will abandon their ultra-expensive seats and walk out? Sure seems highly unlikely to me. But it would surely give some folks one more thing to endlessly whine about on social media.
October 5, 2025 @ 6:28 am
I don’t know about “massive” numbers, but I think some will, and they will be the repeat consumers the NFL can’t do without. The reason I believe that’s possible is that there is a cultural shift under way. I see two things happening:
1. Many people are getting damn tired of having political slop shoved in their faces 24/7. Things like sporting events and music are places many of us go to get a little respite from the political noise. But the people pushing “The Message” have decided that they don’t want us to get so much as five minutes respite. There is a real fatigue over this.
2. People are seeing that they can push back. They are less afraid of being labelled and they are seeing that sometimes the pushback gets actual results (think of the crazy kerfluffle over Cracker Barrel).
I hope that Bad Bunny can stick to music. I don’t know his music but I’m told it’s pretty good if you like that sort of thing. He could put on a fine show if he can resist the urge to piss on Middle America.
October 5, 2025 @ 4:15 am
As long as JZ is in charge you can forget having a white artist headline again. Doesn’t matter rock, rap, pop or country.
October 5, 2025 @ 8:01 am
Ppls saying B.B. is second biggest artist- you just don’t get it. You know what’s not in those stands in droves at the stadium- tranny Latinos. Whats the #1 sect of Americans that buy a ticket? Go look it up. It ain’t them. So forgive us for calling bullsh*t on this whole “oh he’s so big rn tho!” narrative.
It’s shutout culture from JayZ, plain and simple. Quite frankly, I bet he wouldn’t even put on a BLACK country artist (hootie and the blowfish guy).
Let’s call a spade a spade- it’s racist. It’s racism. It’s blatant.
F J, his culture vulture wife, Roc N’ and anything they’re involved in.
I hope ICE is openly going to be present and they have to put someone else in bc B.B. won’t come if they are there (supposedly)
We’re not racist- We’re fed up.
The left drew the line in the sand with Charlie, and now we’re finally drawing the line everywhere else.
October 6, 2025 @ 9:12 am
A large presence of ICE would be funny indeed.
October 6, 2025 @ 11:46 am
Don’t worry, we’ll get Shaboozey next year.