Nigerian music star, Burna Boy, will headline the halftime show at the National Football League’s first regular season game in France, the league announced on Thursday, sending the Grammy winner back to a stadium where he has already made history.

The performance will take place on October 25 at the Stade de France, when the Pittsburgh Steelers meet the New Orleans Saints in Paris. Kickoff is set for 2:30 pm local time, which is 9:30 am Eastern in the United States.

The announcement was made on Good Morning America. In France, the halftime show will be broadcast live and free to air on France Télévisions and beIN Sports, while L’Équipe will show the full game later the same evening.

For Burna Boy, the booking is a homecoming of sorts. In April 2025 he became the first African artist to headline the Stade de France, drawing a sold out crowd of more than 80,000 people. France is also one of his strongest markets, ranking third for his streams behind the United States and the United Kingdom.

The singer, whose real name is Damini Ogulu, has been nominated for a Grammy 13 times and was the first African act to perform on the main Grammy Awards telecast.

Speaking about the assignment, Burna Boy said Paris gave him “one of the biggest nights of my career” and that he intends to deliver a show the audience will not forget while representing African music. The NFL’s senior director of global game presentation, music and entertainment, Tim Tubito, said the league wanted a halftime act worthy of its first game in France and believed no one suited the moment better, pointing to the singer’s history at the venue and the strong following African music enjoys in the French capital.

The Paris show is one of a record seven halftime performances the league has lined up across its international games this season, spread over seven countries and four continents. Another Nigerian star, Ayra Starr, is billed for the London game on October 11, while the Jonas Brothers have already performed in Melbourne, with Ricky Martin and Pedro Sampaio due in Rio de Janeiro on September 27.

Cage the Elephant will play in Munich and The Warning in Mexico City, which underlines how far African music has travelled onto some of the biggest sporting stages in the world.

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