Beyonce Is Teaming Up With The NFL For Christmas

If you’re a Beyonce fan, your Christmas wish is now fulfilled. Yesterday, Netflix announced that the superstar will perform during the NFL Christmas Gameday on December 25. Beyonce, who is a native of Texas, will perform during halftime of the Houston Texans vs. Baltimore Ravens match.

For the first time, Beyonce will debut her most recent album, Cowboy Carter to live to a crowd. The album features nearly an hour and a half of music broken down into 27 songs. It was nominated for 11 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. It is a “concept album” which gained great reviews, both critically and with her fan base landing at the top of the US Billboard Chart.

Typically a pop and rap performer, Cowboy Carter is the first foray into a new genre for Beyonce as she digs into her Texas roots and country music. Country greats like Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire have praised Beyonce for pushing outside of the norm. Her performance during the halftime show will most likely include some special guests who are featured on the album. Those guests have not yet been announced.

The NFL is hosting a double-header on Christmas Day, the Texans and Ravens game being the second of the two with kickoff at 4:30 EST. The first game will pit the Super Bowl LVII Champs Kansas City Chiefs against the Pittsburgh Steelers at 1pm EST. No word on who will perform during that game.

Netflix and the NFL teaming up for this game could mean big viewership. Last year, the league’s games that were played on Christmas Day averaged nearly 29 million viewers, which was up 23% from the year prior. Playing on December 25 has been a tradition since 1971. The games were part of the Divisional Playoff Round between the Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings with the second game happening between the Miami Dolphins and the Kansas City Chiefs. That second game was the longest game in NFL history, with double overtime and over 80 minutes of game time. The NFL has played games on Thanksgiving Day since its inception in 1920.

This performance is hoping to become a new tradition for the streaming company. They have already announced games for 2025 and 2026. And, Beyonce may be starting her own tradition with the NFL as she performed during Super Bowl XLVII with Destiny’s Child in 2013. Three years later, she took part in one of the most-watched halftime shows ever as she shared the stage with Coldplay and Bruno Mars. Some 115 million households tuned in for that performance.

You don’t necessarily need a Netflix account to watch the games as they will be on broadcast TV in the competing team’s cities and on NFL+.

The NFL is wise to enlist the influence of a superstar such as Beyonce. They may be taking a page from their own playbook as they saw incredible numbers with Taylor Swift watching boyfriend Travis Kelce from the suites. Since their dating began, the NFL enjoyed an average of 25 million viewers in the late Sunday games but with their popularity, specifically amongst Swifties, the league saw an increase of nearly 18 million viewers. Kelce’s jersey sales blew up by 400%.