In an interview with SiriusXM, Ed Sheeran says he’s not Super Bowl Halftime show material. Here’s the latest.
After reports surfaced that Lizzo was out of the running for consideration this year, speculation has run amok over who will perform for the 2024 show. Sheeran says he believes the event is ‘too American’ for him to pull off.
“I think it’s an American thing,” Sheeran shared during an interview with SiriusXM. “You watch Prince; you watch Michael Jackson; you watch Katy Perry; you watch Lady Gaga; you watch Rihanna; you watch Beyonce, all of these amazing performers—I’m just not that.”
“I’m not gonna have dancers on stage, I’m not gonna have fireworks and blah blah. I just can’t, that’s not me,” Sheeran continues. “I don’t think that anyone wants to see me do the Super Bowl either, he continues. Sheeran shares there had been talk of him joining Coldplay on stage in 2016 to perform “Thinking Out Loud,” but that ultimately Beyonce and Bruno Mars provided the necessary oomph for the show.
Sheeran says at most, he would perform in the ‘guest’ role, so he could say he did the Super Bowl with “whoever.” So if an Ed Sheeran Super Bowl Halftime Show is to happen, it would have to be with him a guest role. That’s not too unimaginable, especially considering how many guest performers have shown up in recent shows.
Taylor Swift has also gone on record as declining an offer to perform at Super Bowl 2024, presumably busy with the rest of her Eras tour and the release of 1989 (Taylor’s version), which is dropping in October.
Rihanna performed at the Super Bowl while pregnant, setting a new bar for performers to meet. The rise of country music this year might provide an interesting setting for Ed Sheeran to guest if he’s serious about doing the Super Bowl Halftime show as a guest rather than the main attraction.