Ricky Martin and Pedro Sampaio to Headline NFL Rio Halftime Show at Maracanã
Ricky Martin and Pedro Sampaio will headline the halftime show at the NFL's first regular-season game in Rio de Janeiro, set for 27 September when the Baltimore Ravens face the Dallas Cowboys at Maracanã Stadium. Billboard announced the pairing exclusively on 17 August.
Kickoff is scheduled for 4:25 p.m. ET. The game marks the NFL's Rio debut after years of international expansion, and the halftime show slots into a record-setting global schedule: seven halftime shows across seven countries and four continents during the 2026 International Games, all presented by American Express. The Rio show is the second in that series. Earlier in September, the Jonas Brothers will perform at the NFL's Melbourne Game on 10 September at the Melbourne Cricket Ground — the first NFL game ever held in Australia.
For Sampaio, a Rio native, the venue carries deep personal weight. He called Maracanã a place "where history was made" and said performing there alongside Martin at the first NFL game in his hometown is a moment he will carry for the rest of his life. Martin, who has toured Brazil extensively, said the performance brings him back to one of his favourite places in the world and called sharing the stage with Sampaio "incredibly exciting."
The two artists bring very different career arcs to the same stage. Martin has sold more than 95 million albums worldwide across a three-decade career and hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 — the magazine's flagship singles chart — with "Livin' La Vida Loca" in 1999. In February, he joined Bad Bunny during the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show to perform the chorus of "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAIi." Sampaio, a younger star of Brazilian funk, has amassed more than 14 billion audio and video streams worldwide and more than 11 million monthly Spotify listeners, per a press release.
Tim Tubito, the NFL's senior director of global game presentation, music and entertainment, said the league has embraced the global power and cultural influence of Latin music over the past year. He credited both performers with a unique connection to fans across Brazil, Latin America and beyond.
In Brazil, the halftime show will be broadcast live on Globo's channels GETV and sportv. Limited-edition merchandise commemorating the Rio halftime show will be available at NFL Shops in the city.
For fans, the billing pairs a Puerto Rican pop star who helped open the mainstream door for Latin music at the turn of the millennium with a Brazilian artist riding the current global wave of funk and regional sounds. That they will share a stage at Maracanã — a stadium built for football of the round-ball kind — adds a layer of cultural crossover the NFL is clearly betting on as it plants its flag in Rio.
