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Bad Bunny, Becky G, Seal, Ludacris and more musical stars appeared in ads during the big game.
If you’re planning to see Jack White and hoping for a marathon effort from the musician, it might be time to temper your expectations.
White took to Instagram on Saturday (Feb. 8) to reflect on the attitudes he’s noticed regarding the lengths of the sets he has performed. According to sites such as Setlist.fm, White has an average performance time of 90 minutes, with recent sets ranging from 16 to 22 songs.
“Been hearing a lot of chatter throughout the year of this glorious electric touring about how long our sets are ‘supposed to be’ on stage,” he began. “As if the length of a show determines how ‘good’ it is. I know that we’re living in a current era where people like to say ‘so and so played for 3 hours last night!’, and brag about it the next day hahaha, I’ll let our fans know now that my mind has no intention of ‘impressing’ y’all in that context.
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“The Beatles and Ramones played 30 minute (ish) sets, and If I could, I would do the same at this moment in my performing life,” he added. “That’s actually the kind of show I’d like to put on right now. But there becomes this chatter that the cost of a ticket ‘entitles’ people to some kind of extra long show…uh…ok (hahaha) so I’m bridging the gap. I’m not sure y’all are knowing (or maybe remembering?) what a real rock or punk show is like though if you’re thinking that way, I think you’re talking about an arena laser light show with pyro, huge screens with premade videos, singers flying over the crowd, t shirt cannons, etc, that’s not the kind of shows we’re performing.”
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White’s own history as a touring musician has been peppered with shows of varying lengths. Famously, on July 16, 2007, as a member of The White Stripes, Jack and Meg White performed the shortest show of their career so as to fulfill their goal of playing every province and territory of Canada. The one-note show in St. Johns, Newfoundland was denied inclusion into the Guinness Book of Records, sadly.
However, this short concert is in line with White’s own critique of expectations from audiences. While artists such as Bruce Springsteen may average three-hour sets, and Phish and Dead & Company might be creeping towards four hours on average, White explains it’s all about what best suits the audience gathered before him.
“I’ve seen a plethora of rock and roll gigs that lasted 45 minutes and blew my mind and inspired me beyond belief,” he explained. “Read the room, leave everyone exhausted and inspired (hopefully) and most of all wanting more, without needing 3 hours to do it. That’s like saying a film is supposed to be better cause they spent 300 trillion making it, well I’ve never seen that movie.
“Love to all of our fans, I see your faces every night and you can be assured I’ve never phoned it in in my life, whether its 20 minutes or 2 hours, I’m giving the room what the room is prompting me to do and share and that doesn’t mean if people cheer louder it’s going to be longer either! haha. There’s no setlist, and it’s not a Marvel movie, or a Vegas residency, it’s rock and roll and it’s a living breathing organism.”
White is currently in the midst of a lengthy global tour that began in 2024 in support of his latest solo album, No Name. Much like the length of his live sets, White had initially planned for the majority of his touring plans to be relatively impromptu, though a more concrete run of dates was detailed in November.
As soon as the NFL announced Kendrick Lamar as the Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show headliner, fans and haters alike began to surmise just what the Compton MC would do with the 10 to 15 minutes allotted to him. Would he take time to honor some of rap legends who hailed from the Super Bowl host city of New Orleans? A small contingent believed Lil Wayne should have gotten the tap instead of Lamar, so, some thought, perhaps Lamar would bring out 504’s own as a show of respect.
Or would Lamar go the complete other direction and take time to really beef up his pop-star bonafides by bringing out some friends who are much more famous than he is? After learning that Jack Antonoff helped to produce his latest album, GNX, some thought maybe Taylor Swift would make her way down from the Chiefs box to the field. But, nah. What we got instead was an unadulterated Kendrick Lamar show. That is to say: Over 120 million people were treated to the first ever real and true rap concert masquerading as a Super Bowl Halftime Show.
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During his Apple Music interview with Ebro Darden and Nadeska Alexis, Lamar said all the success of the past year was “just a continuum of who I am.” And if you’ve somehow missed out on what happened in rap in 2024, here’s a quick rundown: On the first of Future and Metro Boomin’s two collaboration albums, Kendrick Lamar hopped on a tracked called “Like That” and called out Drake, and, to a lesser extent, J. Cole for claiming to be the best. The song went No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reignited a long simmering beef with Drake that resulted in over six diss tracks between the two. The highlight of the battle was the DJ Mustard-produced “Not Like Us,” which also went No. 1 on the Hot 100 and saw Lamar cap off the beef with an incredible West Coast-tinged party track that garnered him five Grammys.
But, as Kendrick said, this was just a continuum of who he is. Almost more than any other rapper working today, Lamar embodies the ethos of hip-hop. He works to make each album and song count — making sure they not only make a statement about the times and the people living them, but say something different than the ones that came before them. He realizes the power of the position he holds and tries to make the most of the opportunities afforded to him. So it wasn’t a surprise to see Kendrick Lamar put on the most hip-hop halftime show we’ve ever seen. Only Kendrick Lamar would start a show on the biggest stage in the world with a verse from an unreleased song, a verse that ended with him rapping, “the revolution about to be televised, you picked the right time, but the wrong guy,” a bar that gives a wink and a nod to the situation at hand: Lamar being the first rapper to headline the Super Bowl Halftime Show on his own.
After performing “Squabble Up,” Samuel L. Jackson, playing an Uncle Sam character, chastised Lamar for making his performance “too ghetto” and asked him if he really knew “how to play the game.” The rapper answered by performing two of his other Hot 100 chart toppers, “Humble” and “DNA” before going straight into “Euphoria.”
The conversation leading up to the show was whether or not Lamar would perform “Not Like Us.” In the months since its release, Drake has sued Universal Music Group — Kendrick Lamar and Drake’s record label — for allegedly defaming him by releasing and promoting a song that claims he fraternizes with pedophiles. Very few people thought for a moment that he would perform “Euphoria,” despite the release reaching No. 3 on the Hot 100. But he did, with a group of dancers stepping to impeccable choreography. From there he went into a GNX medley including “Man at the Garden” and “Peekaboo” before telling the audience, “I want to perform their favorite song, but you know they love to sue” as the beat for “Not Like Us” quickly pulsated in and out.
He took the temperature down by instead going into his and SZA’s most recent hit “Luther” from GNX, and their former hit “All the Stars” from the Black Panther soundtrack. “Tell me what you gone do to me, confrontation is nothing new to me,” he rapped before SZA belted the cinematic chorus. As that wrapped, Uncle Sam popped back up, pleased that Lamar opted for a more pop-oriented direction. It was then that Kendrick began to freestyle a call-and-response verse with some of the dancers asking him, “You really about to do it?” and Lamar answering, “They tried to rig the game, but you can’t fake influence.”
Then, the moment millions were waiting for: Kendrick Lamar performed “Not Like Us” to over 100 million people around the world. There was a lot to take in as this was all happening: The dancers draped in the colors of the American flag all stepping in metronomic precision. The camerawork reminiscent of his “Pop Out” concert from last year. Serena Williams crip walking. Or Lamar looking directly at the camera as he rapped, “Say, Drake, I hear you like ‘em young.” After months of speculation, it felt like an incredible cap on an incredible run that started nearly a year ago.
Was it a perfect halftime performance? Perhaps not. Despite him seemingly rapping without a backing track, playing a few of his chart-topping hits and bringing out a fellow chart-topper in SZA, the set would have benefited from a real and true surprise — something that would have made even the most hardened Kendrick hater say “wow.” But even without pulling a rabbit out of a hat, Kendrick Lamar managed to pull of the rarest feat: He brought an unfiltered hip-hop show to the Super Bowl. Who knows when we’ll see something like this again.
Ed Sheeran might be in love with the shape of you, but police in the Indian city of Bengaluru weren’t in love with the sound of him, shutting down a recent street performance from the musician.
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Sheeran, who has been in the midst of a run of dates in India since Jan. 30, found himself in Bengaluru over the weekend, where he was performing two shows at the city’s NICE Grounds. On Sunday (Feb. 9), however, a seemingly-impromptu street performance from the English chart-topper was shut down by local law enforcement, with The Times of India reporting it was due to a lack of requisite permissions.
In footage of the incident shared to social media, police can be seen interrupting Sheeran’s performance of “Shape of You” by unplugging his instruments. “We have permission to be here, but this policeman is shutting it down,” Sheeran can be heard telling the crowd. “See you later!”
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Responding to the incident, the Church Street and Rest House Association’s president Sanjay Kumar explained that local police were within their right to intervene as they did. “Even abroad, performances require permission,” Kumar explained. “Sheeran’s team could have approached us, and we would have arranged a private space in a restaurant or an open venue for Bengaluru to enjoy.”
Despite Sheeran’s claim in videos of the performances, police from Bengaluru’s Cubbon Park denied that permission had been given. “No one can perform on the footpaths or roads as it causes inconvenience to others,” they explained. “Our team asked them to stop, and when they didn’t comply, the officers at the spot unplugged the mic connection.”
Sheeran has since responded to the shuttered performance, taking to his Instagram Stories to again assert that permission had been arranged. “We had permission to busk btw, hence us playing in that exact spot, was planned out before, it wasn’t just us randomly turning up,” he wrote. “All good though. See ya at the show tonight x.”
Indeed, Sheeran went ahead with his second performance of the weekend in Bengaluru that same night, with his remaining performances in India scheduled for Feb. 12 in Shillong, and Delhi on Feb. 15. He’ll head to China for six dates later in the month.
In December, Sheeran revealed to Variety that he had finished his forthcoming record, shot two music videos, and was planning to complete two more in 2025 during his travels to India, China and the Middle East. It’s unclear, however, if his axed performance was being filmed for inclusion in a potential video.

In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, fans have been wondering whether or not Kendrick Lamar would perform his Grammy Award-winning Drake diss “Not Like Us.” Not only did K.Dot perform a section of the track during his set, but he may have thrown a little extra shade at Drizzy. During Lamar’s fiery […]
There were a lot of messages woven throughout Kendrick Lamar‘s Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday night (Feb. 9). But the main message social media commentators took away from the spectacle was: Don’t mess with Kendrick Lamar. Leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, a lot was made about whether Lamar would perform his Billboard Hot […]

Nearly 400 Taco Bell fans are the stars of the brand’s 2025 Super Bowl commercial, even though the familiar faces of Doja Cat and LeBron James make an appearance.
The 30-second, Dave Meyers-directed ad, which aired during the third quarter of the game Sunday (Feb. 9), is part of the company’s “Live Más at Taco Bell” campaign. More than 3,000 customers went through the Taco Bell drive-thru, and that footage was whittled down to the final Super Bowl Sunday cut. Just barely making the cut, it seems, were Doja and LeBron.
“Behold: A bunch of randos, not famous people,” a voice announces as screenshots of people at the Taco Bell drive-thru are shown.
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“Wait, what?” LeBron says.
“But I’m Doja—!” adds the rapper, popping her head out from her trailer.
“Yeah, but celebs don’t make Taco Bell Taco Bell. Fans do,” says the voice.
“How about now?” says Doja, who looks to be devouring a Mexican Pizza, only to be told, “Yeah, no.”
“Big Game commercials tend to only lean on big-name celebrities, but we decided to flip the approach knowing very well the best Taco Bell moments don’t need a script,” said Taco Bell chief marketing officer Taylor Montgomery in a statement released on Sunday. “Our fans bring incredible Live Más spirit to the drive-thru every day, with families, pets and celebrations in tow, so we’re putting them in the spotlight as a reminder that the most authentic representation of our brand isn’t staged — it’s lived.”
The celebs might have been upstaged in this particular clip, but it’s all good. They’re still into Taco Bell.
In 2022, Doja helped bring back Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza after she petitioned for the item to return to menu on social media and beyond.
“I’ve already made history with Taco Bell — you’re welcome for the Mexican Pizza comeback — so when I heard Taco Bell was featuring its biggest fans, I assumed that I would be part of the action,” Doja said back in January, when a teaser for the2025 Super Bowl commercial was released. “Don’t get me wrong, I should be the star, but my fellow Taco Bell fans really showed out … I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens during the Big Game.”
Watch Taco Bell’s Super Bowl ad starring Doja Cat and LeBron James below:
Ye‘s wife, Bianca Censori, is apparently worried about the rapper, who’s been spewing out more hate-filled and inappropriate posts on X over the weekend — many of which have continued to express antisemitic views.
“Lord, I lift up my husband to You with love & concern,” she wrote on X late Saturday night (Feb. 8). “Soften his heart, guide his words, and fill him with wisdom and kindness. Protect him from trouble & lead him toward understanding & respect for all people. Despite our differences, I love him unconditionally. Strengthen our bond & help me be a source of patience & encouragement. I trust in Your grace to work in his heart. God Bless Israel and All The Good Jewish Pple. Amen.”
“Well, this confirms it’s him writing everything,” a follower commented on the statement. Censori replied with a sad face emoji.
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On Feb. 7, Censori posted another message that appeared to address Ye: “I respect that we may see things differently, but I personally cannot align with those antisemitic views. I believe in kindness and inclusivity for all people. I got you even in your worst moments.”
Ye’s most recent stream of thoughts on X have included praise of Hitler; a T-shirt design with a swastika, which he called his “greatest performance art piece thus far”; clips of his favorite pornographic videos, which autoplay and are uncensored on his feed; and posts about how “they are making an example out of Puff.” (He’s even selling a shirt with the name Sean John, in reference to Sean “Diddy” Combs.)
He’d previously posted in support of Diddy, who is currently in jail awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Censori and Ye had a controversial walk on the red carpet at the Grammys on Feb. 2. The model wore an extremely sheer, essentially transparent, dress that Ye described as a “Custom Couture Grammy dress for the most beautiful woman ever My love my best friend My wife” in an Instagram post the night of the awards show.
Days later, Ye added they’d “beat” the Grammys, and that “my wife is the most Googled person on the planet called Earth.” In another post, he said he’s “so lucky” to have a wife like Censori wearing an “invisible dress.”
“My wife’s first red carpet opened a whole new world. I keep staring at this photo like I was staring in admiration that night Thinking wow I am so lucky to have a wife that is so smart talented brave and hot,” Ye wrote on Feb. 6, alongside a photo of the transparent garment. “She took a break from shooting her first film to make a movie in real life We Tailored that invisible dress 6 times And just like magic poof we disappeared Thank you to all the outlets who recognized us and gave us back the energy we put in.”
Meanwhile, Censori posted the hashtag #PowerCouple and wrote on her X account, “When love shakes the internet, you know it’s real.”

After a triumphant Grammys night on Feb. 2 during which he clinched five awards — including the coveted record and song of the year for “Not Like Us” — hip-hop powerhouse Kendrick Lamar made his way to the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday (Feb. 9) to bask in his well-deserved victory lap at the Super Bowl 2025 Halftime Show.
As the Philadelphia Eagles unexpectedly surged ahead of the Kansas City Chiefs with a resounding 24-0 halftime lead, the stage was set for Lamar to electrify. With a birds-eye view of the stage, a massive tic-tac-toe board awaited viewers as they were greeted by Uncle Sam — well, Samuel L. Jackson. Dressed in a patriotic ensemble, the actor welcomed fans to “The Great American Game.”
Lamar began his lyrical exhibition by rapping to “Bodies” on top of a GNX. A frenetic Lamar is swarmed by an army of dancers dressed in red and white before segueing into his Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper “Squabble Up.” Flanked by his dancers, Lamar’s surgical precision and breath control remained on par until he reached the hook and is interrupted by Jackson. “No, no, no. Too loud, too reckless, too ghetto,” declared Jackson. “Mr. Lamar, do you really know how to play the game? Then tighten up.”
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Lamar took heed of Jackson’s words of wisdom and entered a quick medley of 2015’s DAMN, during which he dishes out “Humble” and “DNA.” Lamar continued to blitz fans with surprises, mainly when he performed “Euphoria,” his searing diss track against Drake, which also doubles as a subtle sign that maybe he’d detonate “Not Like Us.” Shortly after, Lamar veered to a pseudo-street corner, where he rapped “Man in the Garden” in front of his homies to the disdain of Jackson.
“I see you brought your homeboys with you,” sneered the actor. “The old culture cheat code. Scorekeeper, deduct one life.”
Lamar kept the GNX buzz intact as the stage shapeshifted again, this time into the form of an X, where he performed “peekaboo.” “Ladies, I wanna make a move,” Lamar rapped to his female dancers before tantalizing them with “their favorite song.” The instrumental for “Not Like Us” hummed through the speakers. Instead of succumbing to the pressure, Lamar slowed things down and brought out his one-time TDE compatriot SZA for “Luther” and “All the Stars.”
“That’s what I’m talking about. That’s what America wants,” cheered Jackson. You’re almost there. Don’t mess this up.”
Jackson’s cautionary warning came on the heels of “Not Like Us,” as Lamar gave an impromptu freestyle, positioning his reasoning for ultimately performing the song. “You really ’bout to do it?/ Yeah, they tried to fake the game, but you can’t fake influence,” said Lamar before pressing go on “Not Like Us.” With the cameras focused on Lamar’s face, he didn’t lose eye contact and delivered the controversial verse with fury, name-dropping Drake and having the crowd rap back the now popular “a minor” line with fervor.
After “Not Like Us,” Lamar seamlessly pivoted to “TV Off,” with the song’s producer, Mustard, alongside him. The now-classic yell of “Mustard” reverberated through Caesars Superdome, allowing the rapper to cap off a monumental set with a lit-up sign reading “Game Over” set up in the crowd, punctuating his efforts.
The impact of Lamar’s performance is indisputable, leaving hip-hop and pop culture awestruck once again.
The world of SZA‘s SOS just keeps getting bigger, with the hitmaker adding four new tracks to her sophomore album’s Lana deluxe edition Sunday (Feb. 9) — just before her Super Bowl Halftime Show performance with Kendrick Lamar. Tacked onto disc 1 of SOS Deluxe: Lana, the four new songs include “Joni” — a collaboration […]