Who is Super Bowl 59 halftime show performer? What to know about Kendrick Lamar

You won't want to turn the "tv off" on the Super Bowl 59 halftime show.

Grammy award-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar is set to headline the 2025 Apple Music Super Bowl halftime show at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Feb. 9. Despite Lamar's selection drawing both praise and controversy — more on that later — the 37-year-old rapper assured he's the "right one" for the job.

"Rap music is still the most impactful genre to date," Lamar said in September, when he was first announced as the headliner. "I'll be there to remind the world why. They got the right one."

This is not Lamar's first rodeo. He made a guest appearance in the Super Bowl 56 halftime show, headlined by fellow Los Angeles-based rappers Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California in 2022.

Here's everything you need to know about the Super Bowl 59 halftime show performer:

SUPER BOWL HALFTIME SHOW: Every performer by year as Kendrick Lamar is tapped for 2025

Who is performing at the Super Bowl 2025?

Although the Super Bowl matchup is not yet set, the halftime musical act is: Kendrick Lamar.

Lamar is a 17-time Grammy Award and Pulitzer Prize winner who has released six studio albums, including his critically-acclaimed 2017 album "Damn," which Rolling Stone dubbed the 175th greatest album of all time.

He's topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart five times in his career: "Bad Blood" (2015), a collaboration with Taylor Swift; "Humble" (2017); "Like That" featuring Future and Metro Boomin (2024); "Not Like Us" (2024), a diss track aimed at fellow rapper Drake; and "Squabble Up" (2024). More Grammys may be on the way for the 37-year-old rapper. His hit "Not Like Us" earned five Grammy nominations, including record and song of the year.

What songs will Kendrick Lamar perform at Super Bowl?

The Super Bowl halftime show set list is usually a closely guarded secret up until showtime, so we likely won't know what Lamar will perform ahead of time. But we're willing to bet that Lamar will rap his Grammy-nominated record "Not Like Us," which he performed five consecutive times during his "The Pop Out: Ken & Friends" concert on Juneteenth last year. As for special guests, Lamar has collaborated with the likes of SZA, Taylor Swift, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Travis Scott and Rihanna, so any of them can pop out at any time.

Lamar previously performed "M.A.A.D City" and "Alright" at Super Bowl 56 in 2022.

How long is the Super Bowl halftime show?

A regular NFL halftime normally lasts 13 minutes, but a Super Bowl halftime lasts longer to accommodate for the show, setup and take-down, in addition to teams' on-field warmups.

Kendrick Lamar's selection sparked controversy

The announcement that Lamar would headline the halftime show drew mixed reactions, with some expressing disappointment over the alleged snub of rapper Lil Wayne, a native New Orleans, home of Super Bowl 59. In recent years, artists with ties to the Super Bowl's location have been selected to headline. (Los Angeles-based rappers Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg headlined Super Bowl 56 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California in 2022, alongside co-headliners Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Lamar.)

Many thought Lil Wayne was a shoo-in for the halftime show, including the rapper himself. "I blame myself for not being mentally prepared for a letdown and for just automatically mentally putting myself in that position. I thought there was nothing better than that spot, that stage, that platform, in my city. So it hurt, it hurt a whole lot," Lil Wayne said in September.

Lamar later addressed the controversy in his 2024 single, "Wacced out Murals:"

"Used to bump Tha Carter 3, I held my Rollie chain proud / Irony, I think my hard work let Lil Wayne down / Whatever, though, call me crazy, everybody questionable / Turn me to an Eskimo, I drew the line and decimals

"Won the Super Bowl and Nas the only one congratulate me / All these (expletive) aggitated, I’m just glad they showed they faces / Quite frankly, plenty artists but they outdated / Old-(expletive) flows, tryna convince me that you they favorite / This is not for lyricists, I swear it’s not the sentiments / (expletive) a double entendre, I want y’all to feel this (expletive).”