Rihanna will headline the 2023 Super Bowl halftime show after turning down the offer in 2019. Here are 6 times musicians declined the coveted performance spot. (2024)

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Rihanna will headline the 2023 Super Bowl halftime show after she previously declined to perform. In a 2019 interview with Vogue, Rihanna confirmed that she turned down the offer.

Rihanna told Vogue in an October 2019 cover story that she rejected the halftime show due to political differences. The decision was an act of support for former NFL player and activist Colin Kaepernick, who peacefully protested police brutality in 2016 by taking a knee during the national anthem.

"I just couldn't be a sellout. I couldn't be an enabler," the pop star told the outlet. "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," she continued.

In September 2022, the "Work" singer confirmed via Instagram that she will headline the 2023 Super Bowl halftime show sponsored by Apple Music.

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In September 2022 Variety reported that Taylor Swift was in the running to perform at the 2023 Super Bowl. However, People and TMZ confirmed that the pop star would not be hitting the stage.

Rumors about a potential Swift performance at this year's Super Bowl began in September 2022 after the NFL announced Apple Music would be taking over as the show's sponsor. According to Variety, fans speculated that Swift's ties to Apple, and her October 2022 "Midnights" album drop, meant that the pop singer would be performing.

According to sources who spoke with TMZ, Swift was offered the spot but declined in order to focus on re-recording her first six albums. So far, Swift has re-recorded and released two albums, "Red" and "Fearless," in order to own her masters after a public fallout with famed celebrity manager Scooter Braun.

Billboard reported that Braun purchased Swift's masters after acquiring her former record label Big Machine Records in 2019. In 2020, Braun sold the master rights to Swift's first six albums to the private equity company Shamrock Holdings, according to Variety.

Correction: February 7, 2023— An earlier version of this story misidentified Scooter Braun's relationship to Taylor Swift. Braun sold the rights to Swift's masters in 2020 after acquiring her former record label Big Machine Records. He was never Swift's manager.

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Though Jay-Z produced the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show starring J-Lo and Shakira, the rapper rejected the offer.

In a 2020 interview with The New York Times, the rapper revealed that he turned down the opportunity because the NFL wanted control over who he could bring out for the performance.

Jay-Z said he was specifically asked to perform his 2009 hit "Run This Town" with Kanye West and Rihanna.

"I said, 'No, you get me.' That is not how you go about it, telling someone that they're going to do the halftime show contingent on who they bring," he told the outlet. "I said forget it. It was a principle thing."

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After Pink's 2018 Super Bowl National Anthem performance, the NFL reportedly offered her the halftime gig for the following year, but she declined.

Pink opened up about her decision to turn down the halftime show to Billboard in 2019, citing the potential for backlash amid her personal politics. "Everybody that does it gets so persecuted," she told the outlet.

The singer was also adamant about protesting the NFL's treatment of Kaepernick, stating "I'd probably take a knee and get carried out."

"They should only give it, because of the controversy, to African-American or Latina women for a while," Pink added.

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In 2019, Cardi B told The Associated Press that she declined the offer with "mixed feelings."

Cardi B told the outlet that she felt like she owed it to Kaepernick to say no."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 said.

In the interview, the rapper also talked about her husband Offset and his complicated relationship with football due to his politics.

"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," she continued.

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Adele talked about turning down the halftime show during a 2016 concert in Los Angeles, per Billboard.

After rumors swirled that Adele would perform at the 2017 Super Bowl, she told a crowd at a 2016 concert in Los Angeles that she rejected the offer.

"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," Adele told the audience according to Billboard.

The day after the 2016 concert, the NFL and Pepsi released a statement asserting that they never "extended a formal offer to Adele or anyone else."

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According to Big Boi, Outkast was asked to perform at the 2004 Super Bowl but turned it down because André 3000 "didn't want to cut the songs" for time purposes.

In 2015, rapper Big Boi opened up about Outkast's invitation to perform at the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show on ESPN's "The Dan LeBatard Show."He revealed that it was the other half of the beloved duo that refused to perform.

"[Andre] didn't want to cut the songs, he wanted to do the full songs. It was like, 'Nah, can't do it,'" Big Boi said.

Big Boi tried to convince André 3000 to agree, but he couldn't imagine cutting their hit songs "Hey Ya!"and"The Way You Move," according to the interview.