Celebrities Who Turned Down Super Bowl Appearances: Gloria Estefan, Rihanna, Jay Z, More

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Celebrities Who Turned Down Super Bowl Appearances: Gloria Estefan, Rihanna, Jay Z, More

Hard pass. Though many musicians would jump at the chance to perform at the Super Bowl Halftime Show, Gloria Estefan just couldn't be bothered to deal with all of the preparation involved. "I didn’t want to go on a diet in December," the "Get On Your Feet" singer joked during a June 2022 appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen after confirming that she turned down the chance to perform with Jennifer Lopez and Shakira two years earlier. Estefan's comments came shortly after the "Lets Get Loud" singer made headlines by expressing her frustration at co-headlining the event in the Netflix documentary, Halftime. “We have six f—king minutes. We have 30 seconds of a song, and if we take a minute, that’s it, we’ve got five left. But there’s got to be certain songs that we sing, though. We have to have our singing moments. It’s not going to be a dance f—king revue,” Lopez said in the film. “We have to sing our message. … This is the worst idea in the world to have two people do the Super Bowl. It was the worst idea in the world.” On WWHL, Estefan explained that she understood why the NFL decided to ask both singers to perform at the big game. “Look, this is the bottom line. You have very little time, like 12 minutes or something, to get things on and off the set,” she said at the time. “So, could you do it with one person? Yes, but I think they wanted to throw a Miami and Latin extravaganza and they tried to pack it as much as possible." The Grammy winner continued: “OK, and imagine what J.Lo would have said if I was the third [performer]! I literally would come out, done ‘Shake Your Body’ [and ‘Conga’] and out. It was their moment." [jwplayer 1MzoQS5u-zhNYySv2] Estefan is far from the first performer to speak out about skipping the ceremony. In February 2020, Jay Z revealed that he had previously been asked to perform at the halftime show — provided that he include "Run This Town" in his set and invite both Kanye West and Rihanna onstage with him. “Of course I would have [asked them],” he told The New York Times at the time, "but 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. I said forget it. It was a principle thing." He continued: “The problem with the N.F.L. is [they] all think hip-hop is still a fad when hip-hop has been the dominant music form around the world for 20 years." Even after he was brought on by the league to be the official Live Music Entertainment Strategist in 2019, Jay Z has continued to call out the NFL for the way they approach the Halftime Show. "We love each other. Like, not secretly, like publicly, we love each other," Snoop Dogg, who performed in February 2022 alongside Dr. Dre, said in a March interview with Tidal, revealing that the "99 Problems" rapper stepped in when censors threatened the planned show. "For him to go to bat for us and tell the NFL, ‘F--k that. They perform or I quit,’ that was the most gangster s--t out of everything." Keep scrolling to see more stars who have turned down the Super Bowl: [podcast_block]

Credit: Shutterstock (3)

Celebrities Who Turned Down Super Bowl Appearances: Gloria Estefan, Rihanna, Jay Z, More

Hard pass. Though many musicians would jump at the chance to perform at the Super Bowl Halftime Show, Gloria Estefan just couldn't be bothered to deal with all of the preparation involved. "I didn’t want to go on a diet in December," the "Get On Your Feet" singer joked during a June 2022 appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen after confirming that she turned down the chance to perform with Jennifer Lopez and Shakira two years earlier. Estefan's comments came shortly after the "Lets Get Loud" singer made headlines by expressing her frustration at co-headlining the event in the Netflix documentary, Halftime. “We have six f—king minutes. We have 30 seconds of a song, and if we take a minute, that’s it, we’ve got five left. But there’s got to be certain songs that we sing, though. We have to have our singing moments. It’s not going to be a dance f—king revue,” Lopez said in the film. “We have to sing our message. … This is the worst idea in the world to have two people do the Super Bowl. It was the worst idea in the world.” On WWHL, Estefan explained that she understood why the NFL decided to ask both singers to perform at the big game. “Look, this is the bottom line. You have very little time, like 12 minutes or something, to get things on and off the set,” she said at the time. “So, could you do it with one person? Yes, but I think they wanted to throw a Miami and Latin extravaganza and they tried to pack it as much as possible." The Grammy winner continued: “OK, and imagine what J.Lo would have said if I was the third [performer]! I literally would come out, done ‘Shake Your Body’ [and ‘Conga’] and out. It was their moment." [jwplayer 1MzoQS5u-zhNYySv2] Estefan is far from the first performer to speak out about skipping the ceremony. In February 2020, Jay Z revealed that he had previously been asked to perform at the halftime show — provided that he include "Run This Town" in his set and invite both Kanye West and Rihanna onstage with him. “Of course I would have [asked them],” he told The New York Times at the time, "but 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. I said forget it. It was a principle thing." He continued: “The problem with the N.F.L. is [they] all think hip-hop is still a fad when hip-hop has been the dominant music form around the world for 20 years." Even after he was brought on by the league to be the official Live Music Entertainment Strategist in 2019, Jay Z has continued to call out the NFL for the way they approach the Halftime Show. "We love each other. Like, not secretly, like publicly, we love each other," Snoop Dogg, who performed in February 2022 alongside Dr. Dre, said in a March interview with Tidal, revealing that the "99 Problems" rapper stepped in when censors threatened the planned show. "For him to go to bat for us and tell the NFL, ‘F--k that. They perform or I quit,’ that was the most gangster s--t out of everything." Keep scrolling to see more stars who have turned down the Super Bowl: [podcast_block]

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Gloria Estefan

"I literally would come out, done ‘Shake Your Body’ [and ‘Conga’] and [be] out," Estefan explained when asked why she chose not to join Lopez and Shakira onstage in 2020. "Plus, I didn’t want to go on a diet in December."

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Rihanna

In October 2018, a source told Us Weekly exclusively that Rihanna turned down an offer to headline the Super Bowl LIII Halftime Show because she was upset with the way Colin Kaepernick was treated by the league. “The NFL and CBS really wanted Rihanna to be next year’s performer in Atlanta,” the insider said at the time. “They offered it to her, but she said no because of the kneeling controversy. She doesn’t agree with the NFL’s stance.” Maroon 5 ultimately performed that year.

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Cardi B

After Maroon 5 was confirmed as the 2019 headliners, the NFL asked Cardi B if she would join the band — who she collaborated with on the single "Girls Like You" — during halftime. “My husband, he loves football. His kids play football. It’s really hard for him. … 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," the New York native told the Associated Press in February 2019 after turning down the gig in support of Kaepernick. "You have to sacrifice that. 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."

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Jay Z

Before he agreed to work with the NFL, the "Encore" rapper was open about his dislike of the league. "I said no to the Superbowl / You need me, I don't need you," he famously rapped in his 2018 single "Apes--t," which he released with wife Beyoncé as The Carters. "Every night we in the endzone / Tell the NFL we in stadiums too."

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Adele

“First of all, I’m not doing the Super Bowl," the England native told fans at a Los Angeles concert in August 2016. "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." The NFL and halftime show sponsor Pepsi later clarified that they never extended her a formal offer, but her opinion seemingly remains unchanged.

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OutKast

Fans of the legendary hip hop group were outraged when they weren't chosen to headline in 2017, as the game was held in OutKast's hometown of Atlanta. However, the duo had previously been asked to perform at the Super Bowl, but André 3000 turned it down when the group was asked to shorten their songs. “He said, ‘Nah, can’t do it,'” Big Boi said during a November 2015 appearance on ESPN’s The Dan LeBatard Show. “Hopefully they invite us back." (Big Boi did make a brief appearance during Maroon 5's set two years later.)

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Pink

Despite singing the National Anthem at the 2018 Super Bowl, Pink revealed in November 2019 that she turned down an offer to headline the halftime show. "Everybody that does it gets so persecuted," she told Billboard at the time, before adding that she also stood with Kaepernick. "I'd probably take a knee and get carried out."

Pink even offered up a few alternative suggestions that she felt would be a better fit than her. "They should give it to Janet Jackson," she said. "That's who should be doing the Super Bowl . . . they should only give it, because of the controversy, to African-American or Latina women for a while."