Burna Boy will be cooking at the 2026 NFL Paris Game.
The Nigerian Afrobeats star will headline the halftime show as NFL comes to Stade de France on Sunday, Oct. 25, when the New Orleans Saints face the Pittsburgh Steelers.
With a knack for combining reggae and dancehall with Afro-fusion melodies, Burna Boy (real name: Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu) is no stranger to prime time.
To date, he has landed nine tracks on the Billboard Hot 100, including “Dai Dai,” his FIFA World Cup 2026 collaboration with Shakira, which topped Billboard’s Global Charts and recently passed one billion views on YouTube. In 2021, he won the Grammy Award for best global music album with Twice As Tall.
France, and its national stadium, holds a special place in Burna Boy’s heart. It’s his third most popular market for streams, behind the United States and the United Kingdom.
And on April 18, 2025, he made history as the first African artist to headline a solo concert at Stade de France, performing to a sold-out audience numbering more than 80,000.
“Paris gave me one of the biggest nights of my career, and to walk back into Stade de France for a moment like this means everything,” he comments in a statement. “The NFL is bringing something to France that has never happened here before, and I get to stand in the middle of it representing African music and I intend to give the people a show they will not forget.”
The 2026 NFL Paris Game will air in that market on France Télévisions and on beIN Sports, with L’Équipe broadcasting the event later the same evening.
The NFL is in full swing with its global expansion. The league will play a record nine games internationally this season, with Paris one of three cities hosting its first regular-season game (the others are Melbourne, Australia and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).
“The first NFL game in France deserves a halftime moment that matches the occasion, and there is no artist better suited to it than Burna Boy,” enthuses Tim Tubito, senior director of global game presentation, music and entertainment at the NFL. “Paris is one of the great cultural capitals of the world, and African music sits right at the heart of what the city listens to. Burna Boy has already made history in this stadium, and bringing him back to perform in front of a global audience gives us the chance to create something genuinely memorable.”
Kick off for the NFL Paris Game is Sunday, Oct. 25 at 9:30 a.m. ET (2:30 p.m. CEST).
