The Lion King — not the animated masterpiece from 1994, but the live-action remake from 2019 — made over $1.6 billion at the worldwide box office. It’s not unreasonable to think that at least a few million bucks of that total is from people who wanted to hear Beyoncé voice a lion. The “Texas Hold ‘Em” singer voiced Nala in the 2019 film, and she’ll be back for the prequel, Mufasa: The Lion King, directed by Oscar winner Barry Jenkins.
Last time, Beyoncé also released a tie-in soundtrack album, The Lion King: The Gift, featuring Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Childish Gambino, 070 Shake, Tierra Whack, and Pharrell Williams, among others. Is she planning on doing something similar for Mufasa: The Lion King?
Is Beyoncé On The Mufasa: The Lion King‘Soundtrack?
It doesn’t appear so.
Disney released the tracklist for Mufasa: The Lion King Original Soundtrack on Monday, and there’s no mention of Beyoncé. But cheer up: we get to hear Mads Mikkelsen, Keith David, and Rebel Ridge breakout Aaron Pierre sing!
“The Lion King has an incredible musical legacy with music from some the greatest songwriters around, and I’m humbled and proud to be a part of it,” Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the songs for the soundtrack, said in a statement. “It’s been a joy working alongside Barry Jenkins to bring Mufasa’s story to life, and we can’t wait for audiences to experience this film in theaters.”
You can see the tracklist and watch a video below.
Mufasa: The Lion King Original Soundtrack Tracklist
1. “Ngomso” by Lebo M
2. “Milele” by Anika Noni Rose and Keith David
3. “I Always Wanted A Brother” by Braelyn Rankins, Theo Somulo, Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison, Jr.
4. “Bye Bye” by Mads Mikkelsen, Joanna Jones and Folake Olowofoyeku
5. “We Go Together” by Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Tiffany Boone, Preston Nyman and Kagiso Lediga
6. “Tell Me It’s You” by Aaron Pierre and Tiffany Boone
7. “Brother Betrayed” by Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Mufasa: The Lion King Original Soundtrack comes out on December 13, followed by the movie on December 20.
Beyoncé‘s team has paused rumors about a “Cowboy Carter” tour, but she’s sharing a new art book inspired by her latest album. On Sunday, Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment unveiled the Cowboy Carter Art Book, available for preorder on the singer’s official website. The 136-page collection features exclusive, never-before-seen visuals drawn from the creative universe of Beyoncé’s eighth studio album, Cowboy Carter. Priced at $74, the limited-edition book promises to be a collector’s treasure for her devoted fan base.
Queen Bey’s latest album made waves earlier this year after its surprise debut during a Super Bowl commercial, accompanied by the release of singles “16 Carriages” and “Texas Hold ’Em.” The tracks ignited a frenzy online and set the stage for an album that shattered records while reshaping conversations around Black artists and the genre’s country roots. The Cowboy Carter era showcases Beyoncé’s innovation and artistry, highlighting her talent for building suspense. Fans eagerly await the halftime performance and the possibility of what’s next from this ever-evolving superstar.
Beyoncé will perform during the halftime show at the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans game on Christmas Day at NRG Stadium in her hometown of Houston. Bey returns to the Lone Star State after joining Presidential candidate Kamala Harris last month for her campaign rally. This performance will mark the first live rendition of tracks from Cowboy Carter. The announcement sparked widespread speculation about a potential tour, but Beyoncé’s publicist, Yvette Noel-Schure, was quick to dismiss the rumors. In a post on X (formerly Twitter), she clarified, “Untrue. Nothing to report here. Whenever there is news, you will hear it directly from the source.”
While a tour remains uncertain, fans can channel their anticipation into securing the art book, which promises a deeper look into Beyoncé’s groundbreaking project. Preorders will begin shipping on December 13, making it a must-have gift for the holiday season.
Today (December 1), Beyoncé announced visuals are officially on the way. Well, sort of. On the Grammy Award record holder Parkwood company’s X (formerly Twitter) page she confirmed that fans can get their hands on a special edition Cowboy Carter book on her website. For $74, purchasers will own dozens of “never-before seen imagery inspired the album,” among the 136 high gloss pages according to the site. However, there are a few stipulations.
In the item’s footnotes, viewers are told that the Cowboy Carter art book’s preorders can only be shipped to US addresses. Also, there is a ten book limit per customer. To further fans’ anticipation no promotional photographs were shared along with the announcement. But the book’s cover, which seems to feature Cowboy Carter artwork outtake. When Beyoncé initially unveiled her Cowboy Carter artwork it sparked a viral response from users online. So, this collector’s item is sure to continue that conversation.
The Cowboy Carter art book will begin shipping out on December 13. Find more information here.
Beyonce is definitely in her prestige era. The singer dominated the 2000s, but the 2010s and beyond have seen her release increasingly experimental and sonically rich albums. Cowboy Carter is one such example. The album sees Beyonce foray into country music, and fans and critics alike have praised her sophisticated approach. Queen Bey’s live show is a huge part of her appeal as an artist, though, so the fans are eager to find out when she plans to go on tour. And her publicist finally gave an update on Nov. 27.
Yvette Noel-Schure, Beyonce’s longtime publicist, responded to a tweet on Wednesday evening. The social media account Pop Tingz claimed that the singer was going out on tour at the top of 2025. “[It’s] set to kick off with her halftime performance at the NFL Christmas Game,” the outlet claimed. Beyonce’s publicist quickly shut this allegation down. “Untrue,” Noel-Schure tweeted back. “Nothing to report here. Whenever there is any news, you will hear it directly from the source first.” This is not the first time that Yvette Noel-Schure has had to contend with rumors about a Beyonce tour.
A source told The Daily Mail that Beyonce was prepping “to unveil a series of UK stadium gigs for next summer.” These dates were alleged to include five shows at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. It has been firmly refuted by Noel-Schure’s tweet, however. Beyonce may not be hitting the road at any point in the near future, but fans will get a chance to see her in action at the aforementioned Christmas Game. Beyonce confirmed she will be performing during halftime for the Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans game. The game will air on Dec. 25 via Netflix. It will mark the first time Queen Bey plays songs from Cowboy Carter in public.
Beyonce’s lack of promotion regarding the album has not hurt it in terms of accolades. Cowboy Carter has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. This sizable number brings Beyonce’s total count of Grammy nominations to 99. This means she is the most recognized artist in the organization’s history. Hopefully fans will get a chance to see Bey for themselves at some point in 2025.
It’s a week before Thanksgiving, which can only mean one thing: Year-end list season is upon us. Some lists have already dropped, more will pop up next week, and then there will be a deluge of retrospective ranking throughout December. It’s the most wonderful time of the year, especially if you like seeing numbers next to pithy paragraphs.
I make my own list every year, and I contribute to the Uproxx list that will post here in a few weeks. But I also pay attention to all the other lists, and like music nerds everywhere I’m curious about which records will emerge as “Album Of The Year” contenders according to the critical consensus.
Some years it’s hard to predict which albums will achieve that distinction. And then there are years like 2024, which (I expect) will be pretty predictable. With that in mind, I decided to do some sports book-style speculation on this year’s AOTY crop. These are not necessarily the albums that I think are the best; they’re the ones I think critics overall will love the most. This is not about personal taste. I am acting as a cold-blooded prognosticator.
How is consensus determined? You can look at things like Uproxx’s annual critics poll (which arrives in January) or my friend Rob Mitchum’s less formal compilation of year-end lists. You can also chuck science out the window and simply go with your gut, i.e. these are the same damn albums I see at the top of every list!
Whatever the case is, here are eight serious AOTY challengers as I see them, along with odds that they will ultimately be the consensus No. 1.
Charli XCX, Brat
Odds: -1200
Pros: It’s hers to lose. She captured the zeitgeist. (The whole Brat summer thing, etc.) She dominated music media coverage for months. She currently has the highest score on Metacritic. And there’s an ocean of goodwill from critics, who have been calling her “the future of pop” for more than 10 years. There’s a sense from the commentariat that they really want to crown her, and Brat has the cultural heft to make that crowning a foregone conclusion. Practically foregone, anyway.
Cons: My friend and podcast partner Ian Cohen recently posited an interesting counter-theory about how the election might affect how Brat is perceived. The thinking goes like this: “Kamala is Brat” is an extremely obvious and ingrained signifier of the various factors that made the ultimate result of the 2024 presidential campaign turn out as it did, particularly the mistaken belief that putting stock in celebrities and ephemeral pop-culture trends would be more important than, say, making a convincing case to the electorate that alleviating inflation is best handled by someone who is not a convicted felon. Put another way: Brat could potentially be tied inextricably to the most embarrassing parts of 2024, which none of us will want to remember one second after 2025 commences, similar to how nobody since 2016 has dared to play “Sensual Pantsuit Anthem” or “I’m With Her”.
I think there’s some truth to that, though Brat clearly is way less cringy and overtly political than those Hilary era songs. I just don’t think this feeling will truly set in until well after list season ends. For now, I’ll make a sports analogy: Brat has that thing Michael Jordan had in the nineties and Patrick Mahomes has now — victory feels, no matter what, inevitable.
Beyoncé, Cowboy Carter
Odds: 4-to-1
Pros: It’s Beyoncé. She’s the S&P 500 of contemporary critical favor — betting on her to do well on a year-end list has to be the safest and most reliable investment there is. She’s like Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s, Radiohead in the late 1990s and early aughts, or Kanye West pre-The Life Of Pablo. Music writers just never get sick of writing about how great she is. At the same time, incredibly, she has an underdog narrative: Cowboy Carter could be her first LP to win the Grammy for Album Of The Year. Expect the music press to lead the cheering section if that happens.
Cons: Hey Beyhive, is that Queen Bey and Jay doing something incredibly glamorous and expensive in the far distance? You better go take a look!
[whispers while the Stan army is temporarily distracted]
Let’s be real: Cowboy Carter is way too long. And the conversation about it died down dramatically within a week or two of the release. Of the albums she’s put out during her “prestige” era — which began with 2013’s Beyoncé and peaked in cultural relevance with 2016’s Lemonade — Cowboy Carter must be counted as the weakest and least impactful. It will definitely get some year-end list love regardless, but that feels more like muscle memory than genuine enthusiasm.
MJ Lenderman, Manning Fireworks
Odds: 8-to-1
Pros: Feels like the leading “indie rock” AOTY candidate. The people who like him tend to love him. And those that love him view him as a generational talent in the process of creating an all-time body of work. Weirdly, given his unassuming nature, he also has a cult of personality that feels like the flipside of Charli XCX — in both instances, however, fans like the idea of hanging out with the artist as much as listening to their music. Never underestimate the power of parasocial charisma on allegedly high-minded music critics. It’s a potent intoxicant!
Cons: He’s way less famous than the artists I’ve already mentioned, which sadly must be counted as a negative. Also, there is a significant number of writers who will always be skeptical of the “White Male Guitar-Playing Critics Darling” archetype, partly as a delayed reaction (and “correction”) to the aforementioned praise once lavished on the Springsteens and Radioheads of the world. Lenderman is the first artist in a while who fits that description, and it is definitely a double-edged sword.
Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department
Odds: 10-to-1
Pros: She is the most brilliant songwriter of our time. Her run of albums is virtually unparalleled in music history. Anything she does is automatically era defining. Taylor Swift is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life. Am I saying this while blind-folded and tied to a chair in a pitch-black basement at an undisclosed location? Of course not! Just please don’t hurt me!
Cons: If I were not tied to this chair, and I was doing an impersonation of a meanie music critic, I would say this: By Taylor Swift standards, The Tortured Poets Departmentwas not terribly well reviewed. Nor did it deserve to be: It is a long, monotonous, and frankly boring record. Plus, her relentless self-promotion and ruthless grade-grubbing on the album charts finally registered as craven to at least some segments of the music press, which otherwise has rubber-stamped much of her work lately.
Nevertheless: She still has plenty of fans in the critical community, so you can’t ever count her out. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m about to water-boarded.
Cindy Lee, Diamond Jubilee
Odds: 15-to-1
Pros: Hands down the year’s most appealing indie-rock underdog story. A double album composed of 32 spooky and expertly written retro pop songs is posted to an obscure Geocities site by a mysterious composer and guitarist who performs in drag, and within weeks it becomes one of the best reviewed releases of 2024. The music is alluring and magnetic, but the circumstances inevitably make cynical media people feel warmly nostalgic about a less corporate era of the internet. (I am talking about myself but not only myself.)
Cons:Diamond Jubilee came out in late March, and not long after Cindy Lee canceled a nationwide tour midway through. Aside from a beguiling collaboration with Panda Bear, it’s been radio silence ever since. That silence makes Diamond Jubilee feel distinctly like an early 2024 phenomenon, which might as well be a whole different year. Even those who love this record might have trouble remembering it in light of more recent and visible releases.
Waxahatchee, Tigers Blood
Odds: 16-to-1
Pros: In the indie realm, Waxahatchee has Beyoncé-levels of critical esteem. It’s just hard to imagine Katie Crutchfield not doing very well on a year-end list, no matter the album or the year. She’s even crossed over to “nominated for an Americana Grammy” status. (It helps that she delivers consistently good albums, of course.)
Cons: I’m not sure I can quantify this, but anecdotally I get the feeling that Tigers Blood is viewed as a worthy and well-made but ultimately lesser sequel to the previous Waxahatchee record, 2020’s Saint Cloud, one of the finest and most beloved indie releases of the decade so far. There’s also the matter of MJ Lenderman — who appears throughout Tigers Blood, including the standout single “Right Back To It” — and whether Manning Fireworks will undermine the Waxahatchee voting bloc.
Billie Eilish, Hit Me Hard And Soft
Odds: 16-to-1
Pros: Of all the big superstar pop albums I have already mentioned, Hit Me Hard And Soft feels like the least heralded. But in terms of album reviews, it actually performed nearly as well as Brat and Cowboy Carter, and significantly better than the Taylor Swift record. For years, Eilish was the pop star to which rock-minded people gravitated — if Dave Grohl or Billie Joe Armstrong or Eddie Vedder namechecked a recent hitmaker in an interview, it was bound to be her. She’s moving out of that category now (Olivia Rodrigo and Chappel Roan have now assumed that role) but Eilish still seems like the pop star of choice for those who don’t take other pop stars seriously.
Cons: Are there really many critics (or any critics) who don’t take pop stars seriously at this point? Note that I said that Hit Me Hard And Soft was “nearly” as loved by critics as Brat and Cowboy Carter. That means it drags ever so slightly behind, which I would expect to also be true on year-end lists.
Sturgill Simpson/Johnny Blue Skies, Passage du Desir
Odds: 18-to-1
Pros: In 2009, Chuck Eddy of The Village Voice bemoaned what he saw as too many indie records at the top of the newspaper’s annual “Pazz and Jop” poll by making up a cruel-but-funny MOR caricature he called Kevin McFrench. This person was “a fake daily-paper hack from Ohio with the corniest, rootsiest, stodgiest, most clichéd and clueless white-bread biz-sucking middle-aged middlebrow Midwestern Springsteen-to-Wilco do-gooder dad-rock critical tastes you ever saw.” Funny enough, Eddy was complaining that there weren’t enough of these writers represented in the poll. (That’s how much he disliked Animal Collective, I guess.)
Anyway: The modern version of Kevin McFrench — with whom I am aligned musically and philosophically in many ways, shoutout to daily-paper hacks from flyover country — would definitely love the Johnny Blue Skies record. (Jack White’s No Name could also go in this slot.)
Cons: If 2009 had a shortage of Kevin McFrench’s, 2024 likely will have a full-on McFrench drought.
Conservative commentator Candace Owens found herself at odds with Beyoncé and her mother, Ms. Tina Knowles, following Owens’ claim last week questioning whether Kamala Harris’ campaign paid for Beyoncé’s endorsement. The controversy escalated after Meta removed Owens’ post, prompting Ms. Knowles to address the claims directly on Instagram.
Owens wasted no time firing back in the comments, accusing Beyoncé of deflecting criticism. “Beyoncé needs to stop posting from her burner account,” Owens wrote. She defended her original post, noting it used the term “allegedly” and cited multiple publications that sought confirmation from both Beyoncé’s team and the Harris campaign but received no response.
Owens also called out Beyoncé’s decision to remain silent, contrasting it with Cardi B’s approach when facing questions in the past. “People share untrue reports on me all the time—do I call Mark Zuckerberg?” Owens remarked, criticizing the apparent involvement of Meta in removing her commentary. She ended her rebuttal with a pointed critique: “Sending your literal mama to defend you as opposed to just responding to journalists asking questions… is childish af.”
The dispute has since sparked intense reactions across social media, with fans and critics weighing in on the exchange. While Beyoncé has yet to respond directly, the exchange underscores the heightened tension between public figures navigating political and cultural debates.
Candace Owens and Beyonce are on polar opposite sides of the political aisle. Owens is a Republican, and Beyonce has repeatedly endorsed Democratic nominees throughout her career. Her endorsement of Kamala Harris, however, has Owens particularly irritated. The political commentator took to her self-titled show to blast Beyonce for her Harris endorsement. She also threw shots at the singer’s husband, JAY-Z, and her mother, Tina Knowles. It was not a pretty sight.
There’s some context worth providing before we get to the insults. Candace Owens previously implied that Beyonce was paid to attend Kamala Harris’ campaign rally. The singer attended a rally in her native Houston and endorsed Harris in an impassioned speech. Owens’ comments were met with denial from Beyonce’s mother, Tina Knowles, who wrote “fake news” under Owens’ video. Instead of putting an end to the exchange, however, Knowles’ comments opened the floodgates. Candace Owens went off on the Queen Bey during her November 18 show. She dubbed the singer “annoying” and claimed that Beyonce does not hold the cultural weight she did a decade ago.
“Telling us who to vote for is annoying,” Candace Owens asserted. “You don’t gotta text from your mommy’s burner account on Instagram.” The commentator proceeded to drag JAY-Z into her rant, and implied that the Brooklyn rapper might have ties to Diddy. “If you wanna start with being authentic,” she said. “Maybe give us some answers about Diddy’s parties. Your husband’s been close with him.” This is not the first time a Republican commentator has attacked Beyonce on the basis of her political ties. She was mocked for the sales of her last album, shortly after appearing at the aforementioned Harris rally.
“Beyonce doesn’t need to be doing that,” Xaviaer Durousseau told a FOX News analyst. “[She] needs to focus on keeping her album on the charts because it’s already gone.” The alleged ties to Diddy have also surfaced multiple times. Jaguar Wright tried to link Beyonce and JAY-Z to the disgraced mogul during an interview with Piers Morgan. The couple’s lawyer sent a cease and desist to Morgan, and the host subsequently edited the interview. He later apologized to Beyonce and JAY-Z on the air.
For years, Christmas Day has been the NBA’s biggest single day on the regular season calendar. The league builds its schedule around putting five marquee matchups on Christmas, and for a long time, they only faced NFL competition when Dec. 25 fell on a Sunday.
However, the NFL has played games on Christmas each of the past four years, and the big ratings they received were too tantalizing to go back to the way things were. After insisting that they wouldn’t put games on Christmas when it lands on a Tuesday or Wednesday, the NFL changed course when Netflix came calling, offering hundreds of millions of dollars to broadcast a pair of NFL Christmas games each of the next three years. That was the NFL officially ending their détente with the NBA over Christmas, and making clear that they weren’t going to cede the holiday back to basketball.
If that wasn’t enough, the NFL decided to run up the score on the NBA over the weekend, announcing late Sunday night that Beyoncé will perform at halftime of the Ravens-Texans game in her hometown of Houston. The one thing the NBA has going for it over the NFL on Christmas is that they are on linear television, with games on ABC and ESPN, while the NFL is on a streamer (albeit the largest one there is). As we have seen with Thursday Night Football and playoff games on Peacock, there is a pretty sizable drop-off in viewership for similar marquee NFL games from linear TV to streaming. However, the way to get more people over there is to give the non-football fans a reason to want to tune-in, and a Beyoncé halftime show is a sure-fire way to add some serious attention.
NBA fans and media have called on the league to fight back and reclaim their place as the Christmas headliner, but the truth is, there’s just nothing to do when the NFL decides to plant its flag. The NBA could put together its absolute best teams and have every star healthy, get Drake and Kendrick Lamar to squash their beef at midcourt during halftime, and they would barely put a dent in the ratings for the worst possible NFL game. Add in the fact that the NFL has a pair of really good games this year — Chiefs-Steelers and Ravens-Texans — and there’s just no chance for the NBA to get its corner fully back.
Being able to add a Super Bowl-caliber halftime performer (Beyoncé literally did one back in 2013) to the Christmas slate is just another example of the NFL’s embarrassment of riches. Could the NBA try and do more to add some cultural cache to their Christmas games? Sure, they could look at adding a performer in one of the marquee games, but halftime in NBA games is shorter than in the NFL, limiting the time on a performance (and for a performance set-up). That limits what you can do, and they’re just not going to get someone at the level of Beyoncé in that same spot — it doesn’t hurt the NFL that Beyoncé’s husband, Jay-Z curates the NFL’s Super Bowl halftime shows.
The reality is, the NBA can’t consider the NFL a direct competitor and instead needs to figure out how they can best serve the audience that would pick watching basketball over football. There is nowhere to hide from the NFL at this point. If there is money to be made and ratings to be had, the NFL has made it very clear they will be there to scoop up as much cash and as many eyeballs as they can. The NBA has tried moving off Thursdays until the NFL season ends, and held off on marquee showcase games on weekends until after football — it’s just not worth trying to challenge the NFL’s ratings superiority, particularly when there are nights when the NFL doesn’t air games. The question for the NBA now has to be, will they let their Christmas schedule become the latest casualty?
They still have some advantages in being on ABC and ESPN rather than Netflix, but the NFL moving off TV also makes it harder to benefit from the potential for fans to bounce back-and-forth because that involves the added barrier of exiting one app and opening another. As such, the best way forward isn’t to try and beat the NFL at their own game, as that’s not possible. Instead, the NBA has to keep looking at how to create the best basketball product and present that to their audience, while figuring out how to sustainably build their fan base.
The NFL, put simply, doesn’t have to worry about the same things the NBA does right now. They can send a Giants-Panthers game, featuring two of the worst teams in the league, overseas and sell it out while millions stateside wake up and tune in. They can withstand injuries and star absences and still clean up, as tens of millions of people are going to watch Cooper Rush vs. Tommy DeVito on Thanksgiving, while the NBA faces huge backlash for the same thing.
That’s because football is king in the United States. For as much as people want to come up with a magic fix that will make the NBA suddenly explode in popularity to be alongside the NFL, that just doesn’t exist because they aren’t playing football. As such, all they can do is focus on themselves and figure out what they can do to make the product as appealing as they can, with a focus on those who want to watch basketball. They can still go up against the NFL and do well on Christmas — last year was the least-watched NBA Christmas on record, and it was still their biggest viewership day of the season. The real challenge is how they build their basketball base, because you aren’t going to win a battle for casual eyeballs going up against the NFL, and especially the NFL plus Beyoncé.
As such, the NBA has to ignore the proverbial scoreboard between them and the NFL on Christmas. It’s a fight they will never win, but also, it doesn’t have to be viewed as a fight, even though on Dec. 26, there will inevitably be dozens of posts about how the NFL dusted the NBA in ratings, with a massive peak surely coming around the time of Beyoncé’s performance. But the NBA just can’t worry about that, because the NFL beats everyone and everything in the ratings game.
Instead, they have to keep the focus on the basketball and what they can do to get the best product on the court, all while accepting that the NFL is a ratings behemoth and adjusting expectations accordingly. There isn’t a quick fix that suddenly closes that gap, but one also shouldn’t be seen as necessary from the league’s point of view, because they have an 11-year, $76 billion national TV deal locked in. ESPN will certainly want to explore avenues to boost viewership — that’s their job — but the league should be taking the long view here, and that means ignoring the idea that they should be competing in the same weight class as the NFL and figuring out instead how to entertain basketball fans.
Once the NFL season ends, the NBA still becomes the biggest game in town. It doesn’t pull in football numbers (because, again, nothing does), but the Finals still pull in 10+ million viewers a game even in a down year, and there’s plenty of interest in the playoffs. I’m loathe to agree with arguments that the sky is falling and the NBA is in some terrible position in terms of people not wanting to watch basketball anymore. That said, if they are going to keep an 82-game schedule (which naturally makes each game less intriguing than a 17-game schedule like the NFL has where, every game feels vital to your chances at the playoffs) that starts in football season, they have to figure out how to raise the value of those games for the viewer, and that starts with raising their value to the players.
The NBA Cup is a great example of that, as they’ve gotten the buy-in from the players necessary to give November and December basketball some stakes that it previously lacked, and the result has been really fun basketball. The Christmas Day games also still matter to players, even if they’re no longer in a complete standalone spot on the sports calendar, but the truth is, the NBA has to be even smarter about who they put on the Christmas schedule. They can’t risk a repeat of last year’s Heat-Sixers game without Joel Embiid or Jimmy Butler, which made that the least-watched Christmas game in history, and this year they seem to have learned a lesson, pairing a team whose interest is driven by a single star (the Spurs with Victor Wembanyama) against a legacy franchise (the Knicks) that have a built-in floor for viewership.
I also think the NBA can look at this as an opportunity now to take some swings, knowing the NFL is going to hold casual eyeballs, and give some up-and-coming teams (say, the Thunder) a little bit of shine in hopes of delivering better games. Bank on better basketball to bring people in, rather than just hoping for star power, especially as the generation led by LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant that has always been able to bring in eyeballs ages out. And of course, try to provide a highly-competitive game for your basketball diehards to enjoy, because who knows? If the NFL game is a dud, you might even get people flipping over once Beyoncé steps off the stage.
Beyoncé will headline Netflix’s inaugural NFL Christmas Gameday this Christmas with a special live performance during the second of the platform’s two marquee games. The Houston Texans will host the Baltimore Ravens at NRG Stadium at 4:30 PM ET on December 25, setting the stage for a hometown performance by the global icon.
The event, produced by Parkwood Entertainment and Jesse Collins Entertainment, will feature the first live renditions of songs from Beyoncé’s groundbreaking and record-breaking album, COWBOY CARTER. Recently earning 11 Grammy nominations, the album is now the most-nominated project by a female artist in Grammy history.
Trailer for Beyoncé’s NFL Halftime Show at the Ravens vs Texans game on Christmas Day. pic.twitter.com/RRdo0N10m6
Beyoncé’s NFL appearances are already legendary, including her 2013 Super Bowl XLVII halftime show, where she reunited with Destiny’s Child in a performance that became the second-most-watched halftime show of its time. She returned in 2016 for Super Bowl 50, joining Coldplay and Bruno Mars in a show watched by 115.5 million viewers.
The Netflix Christmas Gameday begins a new holiday tradition, with the streaming platform announcing NFL games for 2025 and 2026. The first game will feature the Kansas City Chiefs facing the Pittsburgh Steelers at 1 PM ET, followed by the Texans-Ravens matchup.
While details of Beyoncé’s performance remain secret, fans can expect appearances from special guests featured on COWBOY CARTER. The event will be available to stream globally on Netflix, while local broadcasts and NFL+ will carry the games in the competing team cities.
With Netflix, the NFL, and Beyoncé joining forces, this Christmas promises an unforgettable blend of sports and entertainment.
The NFL has started to have a larger and larger presence on Christmas Day over the years. This season, the league will put a pair of marquee games on Dec. 25, as the Kansas City Chiefs will travel to Pittsburgh to Take on the Steelers in the 1 p.m window, while the Houston Texans will play host to the Baltimore Ravens at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Late on Sunday night, the NFL decided to announce that it has something special up its sleeve for the late afternoon game, as it was revealed that Beyonce will perform at halftime in her hometown.
There’s no word on whether the league has a similarly huge name lined up for the early game, but lining up Beyonce — who headlined the Super Bowl halftime show back in 2013 — for a performance during a showcase game like this makes a ton of sense.
Of course, there is a potential problem that will be monitored throughout the Christmas Day schedule, as the games will be aired on Netflix, which just struggled mightily with its broadcast of the boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. Adding Beyonce to what will already be a highly-anticipated NFL game should only bring more eyeballs onto the platform, and there’s going to be a whole lot of interest in whether or not Netflix will be able to keep up with the demand.
