Ayra Starr is no stranger to pioneering movements, and once again, she is about to do something no Afrobeats act has done before. This Sunday, October 11, the Nigerian star takes over halftime at the NFL London Game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, becoming the first Afrobeats artist ever to headline an NFL International Games halftime show.
Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. BST, with her performance landing mid-game. UK viewers can catch it free to air on Channel 5 and on Sky Sports, which means the audience goes well beyond the stadium crowd.
The booking is part of a bigger story. The league is staging a record seven halftime shows this season, presented by American Express, spread across seven countries and four continents. Ayra joins a lineup that includes the Jonas Brothers in Melbourne, plus Ricky Martin and Pedro Sampaio at other stops. Being the name chosen for London, one of the NFL’s most established international markets, says a lot about where African pop now sits in the global entertainment conversation.
NFL senior director of global game presentation, music and entertainment Tim Tubito called her a generational talent with a real connection to fans in the UK. That connection is not hard to understand. Born Oyinkansola Sarah Aderibigbe, Ayra has built a reputation as one of the defining voices of a new generation coming out of Africa. Since her 2021 debut, she has racked up more than seven billion global streams and over one billion YouTube views. She is a two-time GRAMMY nominee for Best African Music Performance, a BET Award winner for Best International Act, and has already stood on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.
The timing could hardly be better. Her third studio album, Starrgirl, arrived on August 14 to strong reviews and debuted at No. 4 on Billboard’s World Albums chart. Sunday gives her a chance to carry that new body of work onto one of the biggest stages the sport has to offer. She has said London is one of her favourite places in the world and that bringing Starrgirl to the NFL’s global stage is a dream come true.
For Afrobeats, this is another door pushed open. Over the past few years, the genre has moved from stadium tours and festival headline slots to sporting events and brand-led global moments. Davido, Tems, Burna Boy, Wizkid and Rema have all had major stage moments of their own, and Ayra now adds an NFL first to that growing list.
For Nigerian fans watching from home, it is also a reminder of how far the sound has travelled. A young woman from Lagos is set to hold the attention of an NFL crowd, and millions more on television, with songs rooted in home. Set an alarm for Sunday, because this one is going into the history books.