Sounds good to me.
With the news that Nashville will be hosting Super Bowl LXIV in 2030, it’s been widely-anticipated that Music City would be awarded a Super Bowl soon after the completion of the new Nissan Stadium, which is set to open in 2027.
Leading up to the announcement, NFL executive vice president of events Peter O’Reilly and Commissioner Roger Goodell, have both openly talked about how excited they are that the Tennessee Titans are getting an upgraded stadium, with Goodell previously describing Nashville as a “Super Bowl ready city” following the success of the 2019 NFL Draft in Music City.
In announcing Nashville as the 2030 host, Goodell even called the 2019 Draft “one of the greatest events” in league history:
“The 2019 NFL Draft in Nashville was one of the greatest fan events in our history. Super Bowl LXIV at the new stadium is the next step in this remarkable football journey. The vision of Amy Adams Strunk and the Tennessee Titans helped make this moment possible. With great partners at the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp. and Tennessee Titans, we can’t wait to put on an unforgettable show in 2030.”
Well obviously with the Super Bowl confirmed to be coming to Music City, the major question now is: Will we finally be getting a country music halftime show?
It’s been since 2003 that we’ve had a country music halftime headliner, when Shania Twain co-headlined alongside No Doubt. And the last time we had an all-country music halftime show was all the way back in 1994, when Clint Black, Tanya Tucker, Travis Tritt, and The Judds headlined Super Bowl XXVIII at the Georgia Dome.
Since 2020 the Super Bowl halftime show has been produced by Jay-Z’s production company Roc Nation, and in that time has mainly featured current artists from the pop and rap genres. There haven’t really been any “legacy” artists like the Super Bowl turned to in the late 2000s/early 2010s with Madonna, Bruce Springsteen and The Who, and the NFL has made a push for a global audience with the selection of artists like Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, and the 2026 headliner Bad Bunny.
But in my humble opinion, we’re LONG overdue for a country headliner, and during an interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast, FOX Sports NFL sideline reporter and broadcaster Erin Andrews talked about some of her favorite Super Bowl halftime shows she’s seen, as she’s had the best seat in the house for so many of them over the years.
She noted that she loved Shakira and Lady GaGa, but her all-time favorite halftime show performance wasn’t actually a Super Bowl show… it was Dolly Parton’s 2023 Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving halftime show, where she shocked the world by coming out in a DCC outfit too:
“I thought Shakira was amazing, I thought Lady Gaga was amazing, but I have to be honest, Dolly Parton at the Thanksgiving game in Dallas.
And I was so jealous because we weren’t there for that, I’m a huge Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader fan and the fact the girls got to dance with her, and the fact that she came out in the DCC outfit, and now the latest news, I’m just… royalty.”
I wholeheartedly agree… nothing will ever top this:
Dolly Parton FULL Thanksgiving Halftime Show#NFL #AmericanFootball pic.twitter.com/hC6v38fa2v
— Crypto.Man (@hoangcrab_) November 24, 2023
And when asked about who she thinks might be a great Super Bowl halftime performer, Erin, like many of us, thinks it’s past time to have a country act. her idea was to have icons from even the 60s (though I’m not sure how many options we have from that decade), then go on to every other decade up until now with current stars:
“I wanted an all-country Super Bowl act, and I thought it would be cool to start from, like speaking of Dolly, like the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, have the bangers, and then have like a current country come out. I think that’d be sick.”
It’s an interesting idea, it’s always fun to see different artists perform together, but in some ways, I would love to see one artist from country hold their own and go out there and crush it. Then again, country music is special in that the history of the genre is so important and central to its identity that something like that would make a lot of sense.
Right now, country music is as popular as it has ever been, and with options like Luke Combs, Post Malone, and Morgan Wallen, as well as Ella Langley and Zach Bryan, I think there are plenty of great options who could realistically put on a show that connects with a majority of the 100+ million Super Bowl viewers. Carrie already does the Sunday Night Football theme, Chris Stapleton dropped jaws at the Super Bowl one year… there’s so many options.
Luke has already said he wants to do it, I think he would be an obvious pick, and a fantastic one, but regardless of who ends up with the gig, or even if it ‘s a number of different artists, the NFL really shouldn’t screw this up. Depending on who they picked and how they did it, it could be a disaster or an all-time great show, but I don’t think anyone is arguing that when the Super Bowl heads to Nashville, it better be a country affair.
Erin is one of my favorites, I love her work, and the NFL and whoever else is involved in deciding who headlines the Super Bowl halftime show would be wise to take her advice.
