Country music fans are some of the biggest football fans in the world, so when they announced Usher was going to be playing the 2024 Super Bowl Halftime show, no doubt many country die-hard fans were disappointed. I’m sure many wondered: Why, once again, will we not see a country superstar on the halftime show? Especially when country superstars today have been selling out multiple nights at many football stadiums all over the country in 2023.
In 2003, Shania Twain played the Halftime show at the Super Bowl, and since then, country music has not been part of the event. While many country stars, including Carrie Underwood, Faith Hill, Eric Church, and Luke Bryan, have performed the National Anthem at the Super Bowl, the Halftime show has excluded country stars for the most part.
No one can forget the reaction to Chris Stapleton’s 2023 Super Bowl National Anthem that had some people on social media quipping, “I hear there was a football game at the Chris Stapleton National Anthem performance.”
As we wrote in February, Stapleton did not disappoint with his version of the National Anthem before Super Bowl LVII at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, near Phoenix. Wearing all black and sunglasses, Chris played a soulful guitar without his trademark hat as he sang. During his performance, the camera shot went to many of both teams’ players, some of whom were brought to tears. Philadelphia Eagles’ head coach Nick Sirianni was visibly crying while Stapleton sang.
And Dolly Parton, well her halftime performance at the Dallas Cowboys Red Kettle Kickoff game on Thanksgiving Day was epic and in advance of the performance, she surprised Dallas Cowboys’ Charlotte Jones with a donation of $1 million dollars to the Salvation Army. Parton’s appearance in the game helped it become the third most-viewed regular-season game in NFL history, with a 44 million viewership peak.
So, in 2024, it would have been great to see country music shine at the big game. Here are five country superstars who we believe should be a Super Bowl Halftime show sometime in the near future.