Entertainment

Burna Boy to headline NFL Paris Game halftime show on Oct. 25

Kiran MachadoPublished 2d ago3 min readBased on 3 sources
Burna Boy to headline NFL Paris Game halftime show on Oct. 25
Photo by David Kernan / CC BY 4.0

Burna Boy will headline the halftime show at the NFL's first regular-season game in Paris on Sunday, Oct. 25.

The game pits the New Orleans Saints against the Pittsburgh Steelers at Stade de France, with kick-off at 9:30 a.m. ET, or 2:30 p.m. CEST for fans in France, Billboard reported on Sept. 17. The league has booked the Nigerian singer, whose real name is Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu, to play the break in the historic fixture.

In a statement included in Billboard's report, Burna Boy said Paris gave him one of the biggest nights of his career and that he would represent African music on the NFL stage. Tim Tubito, senior director of global game presentation, music and entertainment at the NFL, is credited in the same report with a supporting statement on his selection.

The booking builds on a strong French following. France is Burna Boy's third most popular market for streams, behind the United States and the United Kingdom. He has placed nine tracks on the Billboard Hot 100, the US singles chart, and won the 2021 Grammy Award for best global music album with Twice As Tall.

He already has history at the venue. On April 18, 2025, Burna Boy became the first African artist to headline a solo concert at Stade de France, playing to a sold-out crowd of more than 80,000. That night is part of why the NFL date matters. He returns to the same stadium, this time to a split crowd of American football fans and music fans.

Viewers in France will be able to watch on France Télévisions and on beIN Sports, with L'Équipe showing the event later the same evening. The Paris game is one of a record nine international games the NFL will play this season. Paris, Melbourne in Australia and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil are all hosting their first regular-season games.

For fans, this means two global sports stages in quick succession. Burna Boy released "Dai Dai", his FIFA World Cup 2026 collaboration with Shakira, which topped Billboard's Global Charts and passed one billion views on YouTube. Shakira is also named among the headliners for the first-ever World Cup final halftime show at MetLife Stadium, alongside Madonna and K-pop group BTS, according to Reuters. Justin Bieber and Burna Boy were later added to that line-up, the NY Daily News reported in July.

The Paris performance comes first. Kick-off is Oct. 25 in Saint-Denis.

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