Inside the Halftime Music Strategy For the NFL’s International Games: ‘The Biggest Challenge Is Expectation’

When the NFL prepared to begin its 2026-2027 season with an opening video game in Melbourne, Australia on Sept. 10, Tim Tubito was getting ready for the start of his own journey of a season. The NFL’s senior director of international video game discussion and home entertainment, Tubito had an enthusiastic slate ahead of him: the league was preparing its most enthusiastic global slate of video games ever, with its biggest group of significant halftime headliners taking phases worldwide.

When the Jonas Brothers struck the halftime phase in Melbourne that day, it was the very first of what will now end up being 7 significant halftime reveals the NFL hosts in 7 worldwide cities on 4 various continents around the world, up from 6 programs in 5 cities last year, and marking the NFL’s significant venture into this kind of occasion, having actually hosted the greatest phase in the world for years in the yearly Super Bowl Halftime Show.

“The success we had in 2015 worldwide, honestly, that was type of a trial run,”Tubito informs Signboard“We were visiting how that was gotten, and it was gotten truly well. Therefore, as the league broadens, the concept is to continue to broaden with it.”

With the other day’s (Oct. 10) statement that The Warning would be carrying out the video game in Mexico City on Nov. 22, that broadened slate is now set: the Jonas Brothers played in Melbourne Sept. 10; Pedro Sampaio & & Ricky Martin carried out at the video game in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Sept. 27; Ayra Starr headlined the video game in London in between the Philadelphia Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars earlier today (Oct. 11); and Burna Boy (Paris, Oct. 25), Manuel Turizo (Madrid, Nov. 8) and Cage the Elephant (Munich, Germany, Nov. 15) will complete the lineup. It’s a varied, and international, variety of stars, and assists to highlight the NFL’s more venture into the live music area, especially as it broadens around the world.

Which growth is not decreasing. Here, Tubito discusses the NFL’s music method, the obstacles and issues that can occur from hosting these kinds of occasions in locations not specifically constructed for them, and how these efficiencies vary from that vaunted Super Bowl phase. “Music links to memory for individuals,” Tubito states. “It’s that fond memories thing. Beyond simply the halftime program itself, music plays such a huge part in what we do at an NFL video game.”

The NFL began doing routine season halftime reveals a couple of years earlier. Why did that very first start?

Particularly for the worldwide video games, back when we were just doing video games in London, we checked out some smaller sized regional halftime programs. And I believe the expectation with worldwide fans, specifically, is they enjoy the Super Bowl and they anticipate that phenomenon to be a part of it. We began to look into growing that. And for us, there’s definitely the home entertainment worth in engaging the fan and developing that experience in the arena, however it’s likewise a method to engage the casual fan or somebody who’s not always acquainted with football, which is both useful locally however definitely useful worldwide.

The music itself and the artists we deal with reach audiences that may not always be tuning into a football video game, which occurs for several factors and numerous touch points. There’s the program itself, however likewise the lead up, whether that is on the artist channels promoting the program or artists appearing on early morning news programs where football or sports aren’t normally gone over, or even publications like Signboard where it’s more of a music listener. You’re now reaching fans who may not usually be tuning into a sports network or a football video game. The concept is definitely home entertainment and engaging the fans initially, however it’s bringing individuals in who may not always see the video game, and then when they tune in for the music, they stick around for the video game and fall in love with the video game.

Just how much have you gained from the Super Bowl Halftime Show being so effective for many years, and had the ability to use that to these sort of programs?

The scale that we’re able to do at the Super Bowl is really various. I believe at the core, it’s the exact same. It begins with the artist, and it begins with establishing a terrific concept around the artist’s music. We work with artists that are actually looking to lean in and link with that regional audience.

Simply as you saw in the Super Bowl Halftime Show this year, music is likewise about the storytelling behind the music. The days of, “The band simply gets up on phase and plays,” that’s still terrific, and you like that. Having that story behind it, it brings that 2nd layer to it, where it actually links with individuals a bit deeper.

How do you select entertainers?

We have a technique behind it. It’s not simply, “Let’s get the most significant name.” That’s not constantly the response, specifically for these worldwide markets. We take a lot of things into factor to consider: How do they resonate in the regional market? And for the broadcast audience, how do they resonate internationally? What type of program do they place on? Is it a program that’s going to equate to a live audience? Since you can feel that in the broadcast if the energy in the arena isn’t strong. That’s a huge part of it. And after that their desire to lean in with us and truly develop a year-round collaboration, whether that’s through publishing with us, participating in occasions in the lead-up, promoting the video game, promoting our causes, simply belonging of things a bit much deeper.

For us, the next action has actually been, we get these entertainers, they place on a fantastic program, we have an excellent experience with them, they have a fantastic experience. We do not desire them to simply leave and we never ever deal with them once again. We desire that to be a type of a year-round engagement. That all plays a part in it, and definitely a crucial to it, which makes things a lot much easier, is when you have artists who are genuine football fans and they care about the video game. That actually assists.

Exist specific categories that you attempt to choose?

It depends market by market. What resonates in Munich is definitely not the exact same in Mexico City, so that plays a consider it. We’re still learning more about the marketplaces. We have fantastic regional workplaces who offer us excellent intel, and we deal with them. We do a great deal of research study on what resonates in those markets. That’s where we begin. We take a look at what’s resonating.

When we take a look at Europe and even Australia, you would not believe c and w, worldwide, is as huge as it is, however it’s significant. And after that we’ve leaned in heavy to Latin over the previous number of years, both with halftime at the Super Bowl, however likewise what we did in 2015 in a few of these various markets, with Latin music blowing up worldwide. I believe we take those all into factor to consider when we go with category. When we do lay out the video games, we do attempt to cross every category. We desire the music to be as varied as our audience.

What are a few of the difficulties that you have in putting these together?

The greatest obstacle is expectation. The expectation is Super Bowl Halftime. What we’re able to put behind all these video games is not the like Super Bowl Halftime. We still put out a fantastic item in what we do. It’s a little bit of handling the expectations, since we likewise do not have the high-end of a prolonged halftime at these video games.

The 2nd part is entering into arenas that are not constructed for football to begin with, and after that layering a show on top of it. I’m in Melbourne today, and we’re getting ready for that video game and attempting to prepare a show. And we do the whole home entertainment for the video game midway around the globe and dealing with the regional group. That can be challenging sometimes. Very first and primary, it’s safeguarding the field, due to the fact that it is about the football video game and securing the stability of the video game.

Take Real Madrid. When they generate performances, they raise the seats to generate the phases. Clearly, for a halftime program in Madrid, we can’t raise the seats due to the fact that individuals remain in them. We have to discover a method to keep the phase around the field throughout the video game and not block views. Those are the kinds of obstacles you stumble upon in these various arenas that aren’t precisely developed for an NFL football video game, and they’re not created for an NFL football video game with a live performance in the middle of it.

There’s an entire suite of home entertainment programs that you guys are doing. How does music fit into all of that?

Every arena has their sing-along tunes. There’s a soundtrack to the video game that improves the experience. A huge goal occurs, striking the best track after it to keep that energy going is such an important subliminal part of the video game. If a huge play takes place and you can be found in with something soft, you’re instantly taking the audience down. You wish to take that energy and raise it up. Music plays such a huge part in whatever we do.

Even with the Super Bowl, when we provide the Vince Lombardi Trophy, we have the Vince Lombardi soundtrack. A couple years back, we utilized Aerosmith’s “Dream On” to inform the story of the Lombardi Trophy through the season up to the group winning. Whatever we do, we keep music on the leading edge of the storytelling and the highlights that we play and the minutes in video games.

What did you consider the World Cup Final having a halftime program this year?

It’s fantastic. I believe anytime sports are generating home entertainment– and the lineup they had was incredible– it’s a plus for everybody. You’re seeing it throughout many sports doing bigger halftimes, whether that’s the NWSL or MLB. I believe there’s that natural connection in between sports and music, and the more you see it, the more chances there are for artists, the much better. And it provides an understanding of what it resembles to carry out in these environments when it’s not an exploring performance and you need to rapidly be available in and come out. I believe it’s an excellent thing.

How crucial would you state that music is to the NFL as a whole?

It’s at the leading edge of whatever we do, on social and digital, from little bump ins and bump outs on broadcast. A few of the networks simply do such a fantastic task of being in touch with what is modern-day, what links to the video game. And after that we play a lot music in arena. It’s simply an important element. I can’t picture being in an arena without any music. Even in a sport like soccer, where they do not have those natural breaks to play music, fans sing the whole time. Music is simply such a crucial part of sports. It’s simply a natural connection.

Do you see a cravings for this belonging of every routine season video game eventually?

I believe it’s harder locally for clubs to do it weekly. Unlike the worldwide video games where we get one fracture at it, I believe clubs have a larger difficulty. They need to differ that each week and alter the home entertainment method. And there’s other things that they need to do within their neighborhood, whether that’s honoring a legend or honoring regional heroes and things like that. You get to a point where if you do a lot of, you may water it down. There are just a lot of artists worldwide that can do it and increase to that celebration.

I believe there are other chances to make sure that music is consisted of in a video game. It’s not constantly about the huge phenomenon of halftime. It’s in some cases simply considering that audience some live, various home entertainment to include the music into the program.

Is there anything that you would like to do that you have not been able to do?

I have some type of castle in the air imagine things I would enjoy to do to bring numerous artists together on the phase, type of like those old homages that you would see on the Video Music Awards, where you have like 6 of the best guitar players on phase together throughout generations. I believe it’s about bringing a program together that’s bigger than life. When you can take a look at the phase and state, “I can’t think this individual is on phase with that individual,” and producing a genuine musical minute– those are things we pursue in all the programs. Whether that’s 6 of the very best guitar players on phase, 6 of the very best singers, cross categories, simply bringing those worlds together, that’s type of a dream situation for me.