The NFL doesn’t have the best track record with choosing performers for the Super Bowl halftime show — performances by Maroon 5 or the Black Eyed Peas come to mind — but it’s not for lack of trying.
Multiple artists who would have put on a great show have been asked to perform for the 100 million-plus people watching the big game but, for various reasons, have reportedly turned it down.
While the NFL has gotten it right for the last few years (see: Bad Bunny, Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Usher, Dr. Dre and friends, and The Weeknd), we’d like to see these artists take on the Super Bowl, even if they’ve reportedly declined in the past.
Adele
Adele said during a concert in August 2016 that she had been asked to perform at the 2017 halftime show but turned it down.
“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,” she said, after the British tabloid The Sun reported on rumors she was set to take the stage.
However, the NFL and Pepsi told Billboard a different story.
“The NFL and Pepsi are big fans of Adele. We have had conversations with several artists about the Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show. However, we have not at this point extended a formal offer to Adele or anyone else,” they said in a joint statement, per Billboard.
The honor instead went to Lady Gaga.
Pink
Pink’s love of aerial stunts and plethora of bops make her an easy suggestion for the halftime show — in fact, she has performed at the big game, albeit to sing the national anthem in 2018.
However, when the NFL asked her to play the halftime show in 2019, she turned it down.
She told Billboard in 2019 that she was reluctant to play for a couple of reasons. First, “everybody that does it gets so persecuted,” she said.
Then she added that the NFL probably wouldn’t appreciate her support of Colin Kaepernick, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback who famously kneeled during the national anthem to protest racial injustice, a move that sparked both support and criticism.
“I’d probably take a knee and get carried out,” Pink said.
“They should only give it, because of the controversy, to African-American or Latina women for a while,” she continued.
Maroon 5 went on to headline the show, joined by Travis Scott and Big Boi.
In 2018, the NFL league banned on-field kneel protests.
In 2020, four years after Kaepernick first kneeled, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell apologized to Black players in the league.
“We the National Football League admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier, and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest,” he said in a statement. “We the National Football League believe Black lives matter. I personally protest with you, and want to be part of the much-needed change in this country.”
Jay-Z
Since 2020, when Jennifer Lopez and Shakira headlined the show, Jay-Z and Roc Nation have produced the halftime show. Yet the “99 Problems” rapper has never appeared himself, even though his wife, Beyoncé, has appeared twice.
During a 2020 interview with The New York Times, he said he’d been offered the halftime show at one point — as long as he brought out Kanye West and Rihanna to perform their hit “Run This Town.”
“That is not how you go about it, telling someone that they’re going to do the halftime show contingent on who they bring. I said, ‘Forget it.’ It was a principle thing,” he said.
Taylor Swift
Swift was reportedly offered the stage at the 2023 Super Bowl, per Variety.
However, TMZ reported that she declined the opportunity to instead focus on re-recording her first six albums and, though we didn’t know it at the time, to prepare for her multi-billion-dollar, world-spanning Eras Tour.
Rihanna went on to perform.
Of course, that year, Swift was at the Super Bowl, but as a spectator to watch her fiancé (and Kansas City Chiefs tight end) Travis Kelce win. She popped up again in 2025, but the Chiefs lost to the Eagles.
In October 2025, Swift denied she’d ever been officially offered the show, but said it had been floated to her by Jay-Z and RocNation.
During an episode of “The Tonight Show,” she said, “The whole season, I am locked in on” what Kelce is doing on the field.
“Can you imagine if he’s out there, every single week, doing this very dangerous, very high-pressure, high-intensity sport and I’m like: ‘I wonder what my choreography should be,'” she continued.
Outkast
According to Big Boi, he and André 3000 were asked to perform at the halftime show, but André turned the NFL down on behalf of Outkast.
During a 2015 episode of “The Dan Le Batard Show” on ESPN, Big Boi said his other half “didn’t want to cut the songs, he wanted to do the full songs. It was like, ‘Nah, can’t do it.'”
In particular, he didn’t want to shorten “Hey Ya!” and “The Way You Move.” These song choices can help narrow down the year — this all potentially happened ahead of the 2004 Super Bowl, as the album “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below” was released in September 2003.
Instead, a large group of musicians performed that year: Jessica Simpson, Ocean Soul, Spirit of Houston, Diddy, Kid Rock, Nelly, and, infamously, Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson.
Big Boi performed in 2019, though André 3000 was nowhere to be found.
Cardi B
The “Bodak Yellow” rapper told the Associated Press she had declined the offer to perform at the 2019 Super Bowl with “mixed feelings” due to her conflicting love of football and her desire to support Colin Kaepernick.
“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,” she said.
She also addressed criticisms of her decision to perform at Super Bowl parties.
“I hear people saying like ‘Oh, y’all are saying all this stuff about the Super Bowl, but you’re doing all these parties. And it’s like, well, if the NFL could benefit off from us, then I’m going to benefit off y’all,” she continued.
But perhaps Cardi’s mind could be changed in the future. Rihanna voiced similar concerns in 2019 before going on to headline the show in 2023.
“There’s still a lot of mending to be done in my eyes, but it’s powerful to break those doors, and have representation at such a high, high level and a consistent level,” Rihanna told British Vogue.
Dolly Parton
In November 2023, Parton told The Hollywood Reporter she’d turned down the Super Bowl — and not just once.
“Oh, sure. I’ve been offered that many times. 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,” she said. “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.”
Backstreet Boys
In 2021, Nick Carter told Entertainment Tonight that the Backstreet Boys had been offered the show in 2001, but opted to perform the national anthem instead.
“At the time we came from the era of, we loved the Whitney Houston rendition of the national anthem. And for us, we got the choice and we passed on the halftime,” he said.
Carter added that he would be interested in doing it in the future to go “back to the era we came from, the late ’90s. It was a really beautiful time and I think everybody wants that again.”
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