Headlining the Super Bowl is a huge moment for a musican. As the Super Bowl is the most-watched televised event of the year, it has had incredible, legendary artists perform for the halftime show. As we recently reported, Rihanna will headline Super Bowl LVII at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona this coming February. Fans of RiRi are hoping this is her way of announcing new music is on the way, or it may be a one-off performance.

Rihanna famously turned down the Super Bowl in 2019. She’s not the only artist to do that. But who are some others musical artists that have been offered the gig and turned it down? We have made a list of those who said “no” to performing on Game Day below:

• Kanye West

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  Kanye West was under consideration, but apparently his financial demands were too much for even the Super Bowl to handle.

• Nicki Minaj

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  Nicki Minaj joined headliner Madonna onstage in 2012, but the rapper was approached once again in 2019 to join Maroon 5 and she turned that opportunity down.

• Dolly Parton

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  When Katy Perry asked Dolly Parton to make a surprise appearance during the 2015 halftime show, Parton declined. “At the time, my husband was not doing good," Dolly later said. "He was kind of puny and I couldn’t leave him, so I couldn't do it."
• Backstreet Boys

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  The Backstreet Boys turned down an offer to headline the 2001 halftime show, opting 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," Nick Carter said. "And for us, we got the choice and we passed on the halftime." After the Backstreet Boys declined, NSYNC took their spot, performing alongside Aerosmith, Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige and Nelly.

• Outkast

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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. 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."

• Adele

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  After rumors swirled in 2016 that Adele would perform at the 2017 Super Bowl, she told fans at a concert that she had to reject 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." The next day, the NFL and Pepsi released a statement asserting that they never "extended a formal offer to Adele or anyone else."
• Cardi B

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  Cardi B said that after being approached to perform at the Super Bowl in 2019, she struggled with the decision before ultimately turning the NFL down. “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, referring to Colin Kaepernick.

• Pink

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

• Jay-Z

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  Jay-Z said he turned down the 2020 halftime show after the NFL told him he had to bring Rihanna and Kanye West on stage to perform their 2009 collab of "Run This Town." He said, "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."
• Taylor Swift

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  Rumors about a potential Swift performance at the 2023 Super Bowl began before the announcement of Rihanna signing on 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 upcoming album drop, meant that the pop singer would be performing. Swift says she was offered the spot but declined in order to focus on her ongoing project of rerecording her first six albums.

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