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

When the NFL prepared to kick off its 2026-2027 season with an opening game in Melbourne, Australia on Sept. 10, Tim Tubito was gearing up for the beginning of his own journey of a season. The NFL’s senior director of global game presentation and entertainment, Tubito had an ambitious slate ahead of him: the league was planning its most ambitious international slate of games ever, with its largest group of major halftime headliners taking stages around the world.

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So when the Jonas Brothers hit the halftime stage in Melbourne that day, it was the first of what will now become seven major halftime shows the NFL hosts in seven international cities on four different continents around the world, up from six shows in five cities last year, and marking the NFL’s major foray into this kind of event, having hosted the biggest stage in the world for decades in the annual Super Bowl Halftime Show.

“The success we had last year internationally, frankly, that was kind of a test run,” Tubito tells Billboard. “We were going to see how that was received, and it was received really well. And so, as the league expands, the idea is to continue to expand with it.”

With yesterday’s (Oct. 10) announcement that The Warning would be performing the game in Mexico City on Nov. 22, that expanded slate is now set: the Jonas Brothers played in Melbourne Sept. 10; Pedro Sampaio & Ricky Martin performed at the game in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Sept. 27; Ayra Starr headlined the game in London 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 round out the lineup. It’s a diverse, and global, array of stars, and helps to highlight the NFL’s further foray into the live music space, particularly as it expands around the globe.

And that expansion is not slowing down. Here, Tubito speaks about the NFL’s music strategy, the challenges and complications that can arise from hosting these types of events in venues not specially built for them, and how these performances differ from that vaunted Super Bowl stage. “Music connects to memory for people,” Tubito says. “It’s that nostalgia thing. Beyond just the halftime show itself, music plays such a big part in what we do at an NFL game.”

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The NFL started doing regular season halftime shows a few years ago. Why did that first get going?

Specifically for the international games, back when we were only doing games in London, we tested out some smaller local halftime shows. And I think the expectation with international fans, especially, is they watch the Super Bowl and they expect that spectacle to be a part of it. So we started to look into growing that. And for us, there’s certainly the entertainment value in engaging the fan and creating that experience in the stadium, but it’s also a way to engage the casual fan or someone who’s not necessarily familiar with football, which is both helpful domestically but certainly helpful internationally. 

The music itself and the artists we work with reach audiences that might not necessarily be tuning into a football game, and that happens for multiple reasons and multiple touch points. So there’s the show itself, but also the lead up, whether that is on the artist channels promoting the show or artists appearing on morning news shows where football or sports aren’t typically discussed, or even publications like Billboard where it’s more of a music listener. You’re now reaching fans who might not typically be tuning into a sports network or a football game. So the idea is certainly entertainment and engaging the fans first, but it’s bringing people in who might not necessarily watch the game, and then when they tune in for the music, they stick around for the game and fall in love with the game as well.

How much have you learned from the Super Bowl Halftime Show being so successful over the years, and been able to apply that to to these kinds of shows?

The scale that we’re able to do at the Super Bowl is very different. But I think at the core, it’s the same. It starts with the artist, and it starts with developing a great idea around the artist’s music. So we work with artists that are really looking to lean in and connect with that local audience. 

Just as you saw in the Super Bowl Halftime Show this year, music is also about the storytelling behind the music. The days of, “The band just gets up on stage and plays,” that’s still great, and you love that. But having that story behind it, it brings that second layer to it, where it really connects with people a bit deeper.

How do you choose performers?

We have a strategy behind it. It’s not just, “Let’s get the biggest name.” That’s not always the answer, especially for these international markets. We take a bunch of things into consideration: How do they resonate in the local market? And for the broadcast audience, how do they resonate globally? What kind of show do they put on? Is it a show that’s going to translate to a live audience? Because you can feel that in the broadcast if the energy in the stadium isn’t strong. So that’s a big part of it. And then their willingness to lean in with us and really create a year-round partnership, whether that’s through posting with us, attending events in the lead-up, promoting the game, promoting our causes, just being a part of things a little bit deeper.

For us, the next step has been, we get these performers, they put on a great show, we have a great experience with them, they have a great experience. We don’t want them to just leave and we never work with them again. We want that to be a kind of a year-round engagement. So that all plays a part in it, and certainly a key to it, which makes things a lot easier, is when you have artists who are authentic football fans and they care about the game as well. That really helps.

Are there particular genres that you try to go for?

It depends market by market. What resonates in Munich is certainly not the same in Mexico City, so that plays a factor in it. We’re still learning about the markets. We have great local offices who give us great intel, and we work with them. We do a lot of research on what resonates in those markets. So that’s where we start. We look at what’s resonating.

When we look at Europe or even Australia, you wouldn’t think country music, internationally, is as big as it is, but it’s tremendous. And then we’ve leaned in heavy to Latin over the past couple of years, both with halftime at the Super Bowl, but also what we did last year in some of these different markets, with Latin music exploding internationally. So I think we take those all into consideration when we go with genre. But when we do lay out the games, we do try to cross every genre. We want the music to be as diverse as our audience. 

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What are some of the challenges that you have in putting these together?

The biggest challenge is expectation. The expectation is Super Bowl Halftime. What we’re able to put behind all these games is not the same as Super Bowl Halftime. But we still put out an amazing product in what we do. So it’s a little bit of managing the expectations, because we also don’t have the luxury of an extended halftime at these games. 

The second part is going into stadiums that are not built for football to start with, and then layering a concert on top of it. I’m in Melbourne right now, and we’re preparing for that game and trying to prepare a concert. And we do the entire entertainment for the game halfway around the world and working with the local team. That can be challenging at times. But first and foremost, it’s protecting the field, because it is about the football game and protecting the integrity of the game.

Take [soccer giants] Real Madrid for example. When they bring in concerts, they lift the seats to bring in the stages. Obviously, for a halftime show in Madrid, we can’t lift the seats because people are in them. So we have to find a way to store the stage around the field during the game and not obstruct views. Those are the types of challenges you come across in these different stadiums that aren’t exactly designed for an NFL football game, and they’re not designed for an NFL football game with a live concert in the middle of it. 

There’s a whole suite of entertainment programming that you guys are doing. How does music fit into all of that?

Every stadium has their sing-along songs. There’s a soundtrack to the game that enhances the experience. A big touchdown happens, hitting the right track after it to keep that energy going is such a critical subliminal part of the game. If a big play happens and you come in with something soft, you’re automatically taking the audience down. You want to take that energy and lift it up. So, music plays such a big part in everything we do.

Even with the Super Bowl, when we present the Vince Lombardi Trophy, we have the Vince Lombardi soundtrack. But a couple years ago, we used Aerosmith’s “Dream On” to tell the story of the Lombardi Trophy through the season up to the team winning. So everything we do, we keep music on the forefront of the storytelling and the highlights that we play and the moments in games.

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What did you think of the World Cup Final having a halftime show this year?

It’s great. I think anytime sports are bringing in entertainment — and the lineup they had was amazing — it’s a plus for everyone. You’re seeing it across so many sports doing larger halftimes, whether that’s the NWSL or MLB. I think there’s that natural connection between sports and music, and the more you see it, the more opportunities there are for artists, the better. And it gives them an understanding of what it’s like to perform in these environments when it’s not a touring concert and you have to quickly come in and come out. I think it’s a great thing. 

How important would you say that music is to the NFL as a whole?

It’s at the forefront of everything we do, on social and digital, from little bump ins and bump outs on broadcast. Some of the networks just do such a great job of being in touch with what is modern, what connects to the game. And then we play so much music in stadium. It’s just a critical component. I can’t imagine sitting in a stadium with no music. Even in a sport like soccer, where they don’t have those natural breaks to play music, fans sing the entire time. Music is just such a critical part of sports. It’s just a natural connection.

Do you see an appetite for this being a part of every regular season game at some point?

I think it’s tougher domestically for clubs to do it every week. Unlike the international games where we get one crack at it, I think clubs have a bigger challenge. They have to vary that every week and change the entertainment approach. And there’s other things that they have to do within their community, whether that’s honoring a legend or honoring local heroes and things like that. You get to a point where if you do too many, you might water it down. There are only so many artists in the world that can do it and rise to that occasion. 

But I think there are other opportunities to make sure that music is included in a game. It’s not always about the big spectacle of halftime. It’s sometimes just giving that audience some live, different entertainment to incorporate the music into the show. 

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Is there anything that you would like to do that you haven’t been able to do yet? 

I have some kind of pie in the sky dreams of things I would love to do to bring multiple artists together on the stage, kind of like those old tributes that you would see on the Video Music Awards, where you have like six of the greatest guitarists on stage together across generations. I think it’s about bringing a show together that’s larger than life. When you can look at the stage and say, “I can’t believe this person is on stage with that person,” and creating a real musical moment — those are things we strive for in all the shows. Whether that’s six of the best guitarists on stage, six of the best vocalists, cross genres, just bringing those worlds together, that’s kind of a dream scenario for me.