Kendrick Lamar Brought a GNX to His Super Bowl Halftime Show

Kendrick Lamar’s most recent album is named after the most famous car, released in his birth year, 1987, and the sister car to the Buick Regal that his father brought him home from the hospital. Thus, it’s no surprise that he entered the Super Bowl for his halftime performance in a GNX.

The GNX becomes the symbol of a victory lap for Lamar, who won five Grammys last week for a diss track written in his ongoing battle with Canadian rapper Drake.

Now Kendrick sits atop one of the most American cars in history at America’s biggest sporting event.

In First Person Shooter, the song that started the beef, Drake called himself ‘bigger than the Super Bowl.’ Lamar proves that verse is entirely incorrect.

Taylor Swift’s Stardom Meets Political Legacy: A Cultural Collision

In the heart of New Orleans, where the jazz notes float like whispering winds through the French Quarter, Taylor Swift was spotted enjoying a culinary evening with the Haim sisters. The pop sensation — an emblem of modern music’s impact on cultural dialogue — donned a black Charlotte Simone coat adorned with an extravagant fluffy white collar. Trailing her like a shadow, a Dior handbag added a touch of luxury to her ensemble. Such sightings of Swift and her entourage have become routine yet endlessly fascinating for a public captivated by every thread of her personal tapestry.

Not far from this world of glitz and glamour, another narrative unfolds — that of Namibia’s Founding Father, Sam Nujoma. Nujoma, a beacon of resistance against apartheid, passed into the annals of history at 95. His life was a testament to the indomitable spirit of liberation — a struggle marked by exile and revolutionary fervor. Nujoma, through his South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), was instrumental in the arduous journey to Namibian independence in 1990. His story, entwined with that of neighboring liberation figures like Nelson Mandela, underscores a shared colonial legacy and a pursuit of sovereignty that resonated beyond borders. As Namibia reflects on its past and looks to the future, the legacy of Nujoma’s leadership — which straddled praise for national reconciliation and criticism for perpetuating one-party dominance — invites contemplation upon the longevity of power and its impact on nascent nations.

Elsewhere, in a quieter but no less significant moment, Robbie Williams, the British singer known for hits that defined an era, found himself bidding in a digital auction from the sun-drenched expanses of Los Angeles. His prize? The iconic glasses and pipe of Eric Morecambe, a luminary of British comedy. “I guess we all need friends-we-never-meet from off the telly,” Williams reflected, encapsulating a sentiment many share in an age where media figures become intimate strangers to countless fans. Morecambe — who, alongside his comedic partner Ernie Wise, brought laughter to millions during Britain’s post-war years — represents a golden age of entertainment that many fear is fading in today’s fast-paced digital consumption.

In this trio of tales, one finds threads that weave through the broader tapestry of society’s transformations. Taylor Swift’s burgeoning domestic life and potential “WAG” status with Travis Kelce illustrate modern celebrity’s fluidity and the complexities of balancing personal aspirations with public expectations. Sam Nujoma’s storied path from a sheep-herding youth in Ovamboland to Namibia’s first president reflects the enduring struggle for liberty, justice, and national identity in a post-colonial world. And Robbie Williams’ acquisition of Morecambe’s relics points to a yearning for nostalgia, a clinging to the vestiges of simpler, perhaps more heartfelt, times.

In a world where fashion, politics, and personal legacies continuously collide and intertwine, these stories prompt us to ponder — what remains constant amid the winds of change? They remind us of the values worth cherishing, the battles worth remembering, and the laughter worth immortalizing. From the vibrant streets of New Orleans to the vast Namib desert, and across the ether to Los Angeles, these lives and moments speak to the heart of our shared human experience.

Tom Robbins, literary prankster-philosopher, dies at 92, multiple outlets report

NEW YORK (AP) — Tom Robbins, the novelist and prankster-philosopher who charmed and addled millions of readers with such screwball adventures as “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” and “Jitterbug Perfume,” has died. He was 92.

The New York Times and NPR are among the outlets that reported Robbins’ death Sunday. The Associated Press has left multiple messages seeking confirmation but none have yet been returned.

Pronouncing himself blessed with “crazy wisdom,” Robbins published eight novels and the memoir “Tibetan Peach Pie” and looked fondly upon his world of deadpan absurdity, authorial commentary and zig zag story lines. No one had a wilder imagination, whether giving us a wayward heroine with elongated thumbs in “Cowgirls” or landing the corpse of Jesus in a makeshift zoo in “Another Roadside Attraction.” And no one told odder jokes on himself: Robbins who once described his light, scratchy drawl as sounding “as if it’s been strained through Davy Crockett’s underwear.”

He could fathom almost anything except growing up. People magazine would label Robbins “the perennial flower child and wild blooming Peter Pan of American letters,” who “dips history’s pigtails in weird ink and splatters his graffiti over the face of modern fiction.”

A native of Blowing Rock, North Carolina who moved to Virginia and was named “Most Mischievous Boy” by his high school, Robbins could match any narrative in his books with one about his life. There was the time he had to see a proctologist and showed up wearing a duck mask. (The doctor and Robbins became friends). He liked to recall the food server in Texas who unbuttoned her top and revealed a faded autograph, his autograph.

Or that odd moment in the 1990s when the FBI sought clues to the Unabomber’s identity by reading Robbins’ novel “Still Life with Woodpecker.” Robbins would allege that two federal agents, both attractive women, were sent to interview him.

“The FBI is not stupid!” he liked to say. “They knew my weakness!”

He also managed to meet a few celebrities, thanks in part to the film adaptation of “Even Cowgirls,” which starred Uma Thurman and Keanu Reeves, and to appearances in such movies as “Breakfast of Champions” and “Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle.” He wrote of being Debra Winger’s date to the 1991 Academy Awards ceremony and nearly killing himself at an Oscars after-party when — hoping to impress Al Pacino — he swallowed a glass of cologne. He had happier memories of checking into a hotel and being recognized by a young, pretty clerk, who raved about his work and ignored the man standing next to him, Neil Young.

In Robbins’ novels, the quest was all and he helped capture the wide open spirit of the 1960s in part because he knew the life so well. He dropped acid, hitchhiked coast to coast, traveled from Tanzania to the Himalayas and carried on with friends and strangers in ways he had no right to survive. He didn’t rely on topical references to mark time, but on understanding the era from the inside.

“Faulkner had his inbred Southern gothic freak show, Hemingway his European battlefields and cafes, Melville his New England with its tall ships,” he wrote in his memoir, published in 2014. “I had, it finally dawned on me, a cultural phenomenon such as the world had not quite seen before, has not seen since; a psychic upheaval, a paradigm shift, a widespread if ultimately unsustainable egalitarian leap in consciousness. And it was all very up close and personal.”

His path to fiction writing had its own rambling, hallucinatory quality. He was a dropout from Washington and Lee University (Tom Wolfe was a classmate) who joined the Air Force because he didn’t know what else to do. He moved to the Pacific Northwest in the early ’60s and somehow was assigned to review an opera for the Seattle Times, becoming the first classical music critic to liken Rossini to Robert Mitchum. Robbins would soon find himself in a farcical meeting with conductor Milton Katims, making conversation by pretending he was working on his own libretto, “The Gypsy of Issaquah,” named for a Seattle suburb.

“You must admit it had an operatic ring,” Robbins insisted.

By the late 1960s, publishers were hearing about his antics and thought he might have a book in him. A Doubleday editor met with Robbins and agreed to pay $2,500 for what became “Another Roadside Attraction.” Published in 1971, Robbins’ debut novel sold little in hardcover despite praise from Graham Greene and Lawrence Ferlinghetti among others, but became a hit in paperback. “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” came out in 1976 and eventually sold more than 1 million copies.

“Read solemnly, with expectations of conventional coherence, ‘Even Cowgirls Get the Blues’ will disappoint,” Thomas LeClair wrote in The New York Times. “Entered like a garage sale, poked through and picked over, ‘Cowgirls’ is entertaining and, like the rippled mirror over there by the lawn mower, often instructive. Tom Robbins is one of our best practitioners of high foolishness.”

Domestic stability was another prolonged adventure; one ex-girlfriend complained “The trouble with you, Tom, is that you have too much fun.” He was married and divorced twice, and had two children, before settling down with his third wife, Alexa d’Avalon, who appeared in the film version of “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.”

Robbins’ other books included “Half Asleep in Frogs Pajamas,” “Fierce Invalids Home from Home Climates,” “Villa Incognito.” One ex-girlfriend complained “The trouble with you, Tom, is that you have too much fun” — had three children. His honors included the Bumbershoot Golden Umbrella Award for Lifetime Achievement and being named by Writer’s Digest as among the 100 best authors of the 20th century. But he cherished no praise more than a letter received from an unnamed woman.

“Your books make me laugh, they make think, they make me horny,” his fan informed him, “and they make me aware of all the wonder in the world.”

Kendrick Lamar Gets Slammed For His “Reverse Racism” During Super Bowl Performance

Kendrick Lamar performs at Super Bowl 2025 (Image Source: YouTube/NFL)

The Super Bowl is technically about the football match between two teams. But what most non-sports fans wanted to see was Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl half-time show.

For Super Bowl LIX, the football match between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs ended with the Eagles beating the Chiefs by 40-22. However, that’s not what people are talking about.

People are still stuck on Kendrick Lamar’s performance during the halftime show, which featured a guest appearance from SZA and Serena Williams. Everyone attuned to the music industry knew Lamar would sign “Not Like Us”, a song which won him multiple Grammys.

The song, the performance, and even the guest — This whole halftime was a dig at Drake, who reportedly had a brief affair with Serena Williams. But this is not all that people saw. What people saw was only color and no white performer in Lamar’s Troop.

In the last few years, all the super bowl performances have been Black or artists of color though the entourage looked like America with dancers from all ethnicities. Kendrick Lamar, however, pushed the envelope a little too far without any white performer. This looked too much like reverse racism. These details irked the internet and people were quick to show their annoyance on X.

Calling out Kendrick Lamar and saying DEI would only take you so far, people also mentioned that had the tables been turned and a white performer had only white dancers, the retaliation and criticism would have been immense. They are not wrong though. This looked like a deliberate attempt to pass on some message which no one was taking.

Netizens also called this the most boring halftime show. After fantastic shows by J.Lo & Shakira, Rihanna and Usher, Lamar failed to get the crowd on its feet. He was called out for focusing too much on Drake and not planning his show properly.

Another flub of the evening was a shirt that Lamar wore. At the end of the performance, when the camera panned on to Kendric Lamar, his shirt said- “KEEP THEM AWAY FROM ME”. Ironically, no one really knows what it meant. This also irritated people. ” What are you even saying?” asked one of the X users.

Was this another dig at Drake or was Lamar trying to say something to the government on the lie of the recently defunct DEI program? No one knows at this point.

Everyone knows that Lamar has probably smiled enough at his feud with Drake. Lamar performed a similar set during his Juneteenth show. He won Grammys, talked about the songs, and now performs at the Super Bowl. Maybe it’s time to let go of this.

Drake and him have been on for the last few months. As much as everyone enjoys the songs and feud, it’s getting old now. Kendrick Lamar called Drake a “paedophile”. The Canadian rapper accused Universal Music Group of promoting the “false and malicious narrative” that he is a paedophile in a federal defamation case that was filed earlier this month.

After all the hoopla, parties and preparation, Super Bowl LIX is finally here, New Orleans

Louisiana National Guard Airmen Callihan, center, and Moss, left, watch traffic drive through their checkpoint in the French Quarter on Wednesday, February 5, 2025.

Are you ready for some football?

At approximately 5:30 p.m. Sunday, either a Kansas City Chief or a Philadelphia Eagle will kick off Super Bowl LIX in the Caesars Superdome.

The 11th Super Bowl hosted by New Orleans is finally at hand after years of planning and months of feverishly fixing up the French Quarter and downtown.

New Orleans’ pre-Super Bowl scramble was like a last-minute, city-wide house cleaning before company arrives. The disruption of January’s once-in-a-century snowstorm didn’t help.

As hosts, we can only hope that our guests have so much fun that they don’t notice – or don’t remember – what wasn’t finished.

When it’s go-time for a good time, New Orleans shines, as the past few days of wall-to-wall parties, concerts and special events have demonstrated.

As with Mardi Gras, it’s possible to escape the big event by sticking to certain parts of the city. But downtown, the Super Bowl dominates.

Back in November, Mayor LaToya Cantrell gave homegrown rap star Lil Wayne an honorary key to the city. This week, New Orleans essentially tossed the keys to the NFL and said, “Here you go. The city is yours. Enjoy.”

A Super Bowl inevitably inconveniences locals, with street closures being one of the biggest disruptions.

But the confluence of sports, pop culture, corporate wealth and international media is a unique opportunity and experience for the host city.

With more NFL cities than ever vying for a Super Bowl, the game won’t circle back to New Orleans again for years.

So enjoy the hoopla as best you can.

Celebrities abound

Super Bowl LIX is, after all, that rare event that both President Trump and Taylor Swift will attend.

This is the only week you’ll see Eagles fanatic and Hollywood leading man Bradley Cooper serving Philly cheesesteaks from a food truck in the CBD.

And Lady Gaga and Gayle Benson taping a New Orleans tribute in the middle of the night on Bourbon Street.

And Jelly Roll singing his hit “Need A Favor” at Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop.

And the St. Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo and the Presbytère digitally “painted” with Louisiana artworks in eye-popping laser-light projections.

Not one but two super-yachts are docked along the Mississippi riverfront this week while the Lakefront Airport parked a fleet of private jets.

All that money swirling around didn’t necessarily trickle down. Some bars and restaurants have reported business this week was at, or even below, what is normal this time of year. Some local musicians – more, it seems, than when the Super Bowl was last here in 2013 – say they didn’t score any extra gigs.

But other segments of the local economy clearly cashed in.

It was a good week to own a hotel, a short-term rental or a nice restaurant, or to be in the business of renting out stage, sound and lighting gear.

Beyond the marquee musicians brought in – Chris Stapleton, Post Malone, Megan Thee Stallion, Blink-182, Travis Scott, Jelly Roll, Seal, etc. – some local acts were especially busy.

Cowboy Mouth and Better Than Ezra were hired for multiple corporate events. The Soul Rebels’ half-dozen gigs included the Super Bowl Opening Night at the Dome and the NFL team owners’ party.

And Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews was scheduled to work a total of eight gigs on Friday and Saturday, before joining Lauren Daigle for “America the Beautiful” during the Super Bowl pregame show on Sunday.

That all-Louisiana segment of the Fox telecast also includes Jon Batiste’s interpretation of the national anthem and New Orleans-born contemporary R&B vocalist Ledisi animating “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

Locked down and locked in

Super Bowl security is always tight. It was beefed up even more following the deadly terrorist attack on Bourbon Street early on Jan. 1.

All week, Canal, Bourbon and adjacent streets have blinked blue, occupied by a who’s who of police departments and military units. New Orleans hasn’t seen so many troops with so much firepower on the street since the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago.

To some, the massive show of force may be off-putting. But New Orleans may well have had the safest downtown anywhere in the world this week.

With a sitting president attending a Super Bowl for the first time on Sunday, Superdome security will be even more enhanced.

And if the Dome’s power supply doesn’t flicker like it did during the 2013 Super Bowl, everyone should be able to relax and enjoy the game.

Yes, a football game must still be played.

On Monday, players from both teams wore matching cream-colored sweatsuits and spotless white sneakers as they mingled among thousands of media members on the Superdome sidelines during Opening Night. They joked around, answered silly questions, and signed shirts and footballs tossed down from the stands by fans.

Players partook of New Orleans nightlife and cuisine. Several Chiefs teammates ate steak at Doris Metropolitan in the French Quarter. Quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tight end Travis Kelce dined with their significant others – that would be, respectively, Brittany Mahomes and Taylor Swift – at Lilette on Magazine Street.

The players must set aside all the silliness and socializing come Sunday. It’s game day. Time to lock in.

Will Mahomes and company claim the first-ever Super Bowl three-peat and cement their dynasty status?

Will Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore, possibly the next Saints head coach, exit Philadelphia with a win?

Will Kendrick Lamar spotlight “Not Like Us,” his omnipresent, Grammy-winning “diss” track takedown of rival Drake, in his halftime show?

The answers will be revealed Sunday in the Superdome.

We’re ready for some football.

Super Bowl half-time show as it happened: Kendrick Lamar headlines as Taylor Swift and Donald Trump take VIP positions

Hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar delivered a striking half-time show at the Super Bowl on Sunday night, teasing and then performing his controversial ‘diss’ track Not Like Us to a cheering stadium.

At the Superdome in New Orleans, Lamar was introduced by actor Samuel L. Jackson dressed in a top hat as Uncle Sam.

He then opened with Squabble Up, followed by his three-time Grammy-winning hit Humble, which featured a group of dancers in red, white and blue, forming an American flag.

He went on to perform Toxic Love with SZA and DNA, from his album DAMN.

After teasing it at the beginning of his set, Lamar then dove on into his Drake ‘diss’ track Not Like Us. He made sure to look into the camera as he name-dropped Drake.

Lamar’s hit Not Like Us, which won five Grammy awards a week ago, is part of a longstanding feud between him and Drake.

There had been speculation that the hip-hop artist might skip the controversial song altogether at the Super Bowl, after Drake filed a defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group, claiming the song, which labelled him a “paedophile”, had put him and his family in danger.

But Lamar went ahead with it, instead omitting the contentious line.

Tennis champion Serena Williams also made a surprise appearance during the show, showing off her fancy feet as she joined the dancers.

Lamar’s appearance on the biggest stage in music follows big stars in music, from Beyoncé to Prince, Madonna, Lady Gaga and the Rolling Stones.

The Super Bowl typically draws more than 100 million live US viewers and is known to have the largest TV audience of the year.

Dozens of celebrities were in attendance this year, including US President Donald Trump, who became the first sitting president ever to attend the Super Bowl.

Taylor Swift, who is dating Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce, watched the game from a VIP box with his family.

Other celebrities spotted at the game included British pop star Louis Tomlinson, actor Bradley Cooper, actress Anne Hathaway, Paul McCartney, Lionel Messi and Jay-Z.

Thank you for following our live blog on the half-time show at the Super Bowl.

03:41 AM GMT

David Beckham and ‘long-lost twin brother’ in amusing Stella Artois ad

In an ad for Stella Artois, David Beckham learns he has a ‘long-lost twin brother’, who his parents called “the Other David”.

“The Other David” is played by Matt Damon.

“You have a twin brother we never told you about … left him in America,” Beckham’s father says in the ad.

David Beckham replies: “I always knew there was something missing.”

The commercial was released ahead of the Bowl on Sunday, and is called “David & Dave: The Other David.”

03:27 AM GMT

Kendrick Lamar’s feud with Drake takes centre stage

Forget the Kansas City Chiefs v the Philadelphia Eagles or Taylor Swift and Donald Trump. As the Super Bowl half-time show commenced in New Orleans, the match-up on everyone’s minds was the feud between rappers Kendrick Lamar and Drake, writes Ed Power.

Lamar, perhaps the most critically-lauded hip-hop artist of the last decade, was headlining the highest-profile 12 minutes in music, and the big question was whether he would perform Not Like Us, his chart-topping, Grammy-bagging “dis” track about Drake, which took years of mutual bad blood to the next level over the summer.

More to the point, would he include the contentious reference to a “certified paedophile” – a line which has led Drake to initiate legal proceedings? That guessing game was part of the fun during a visually stunning and musically adventurous set that had the courage not to pander to the expectations of the Super Bowl organisers.

This was a Kendrick Lamar headliner, first and foremost, and while the rapper took advantage of the scale of the setting, he never allowed the occasion to overwhelm his music. For a breathtaking moment, the Super Bowl shape-shifted into something thrilling, glittering and daring.

Ben Affleck in Dunkin’ Donuts ad and ‘movie’ version

A 60-second Dunkin’ Donuts ad, featuring Ben Affleck and his brother Casey, as well as Succession star Jeremy Strong, was among the first ads aired during the Super Bowl.

The chain also released a seven-minute movie version of the ad, where Affleck and his ‘DunKings’ battle against other coffee brands.

American rapper and singer Post Malone has starred in a comical ad for Bud Light beer, along with Peyton Manning and comedian Shane Gillis.

Grammy-nominated star Shaboozey featured in a colourful Super Bowl ad for Nerds gummy clusters, singing It’s A Wonderful World.

The tennis champion made a surprise appearance during Kendrick Lamar’s show, dancing in a blue-and-white outfit.

She posted on her Instagram moments before joining Lamar onstage…

A pro-Palestine protester was tackled by security after rushing the pitch during the half-time show.

A video posted on X appeared to show the moment the man, dressed in all black, unfurled a Palestine flag before sprinting across the half-time stage.

He was quickly tackled by security and dragged off the field.

As Kendrick Lamar performed his hit Not Like Us, he appeared to omit the line where he labels Drake a “certified paedophile”.

It comes as Drake has filed a defamation lawsuit against Universal Music Group, the record label he and Lamar share, over the track.

01:50 AM GMT

In pictures: Lamar headlines half-time show with SZA

Lamar teased Not Like Us a number times before launching into his hit track.

“They tried to rig the game but you can’t fake influence.”

Lamar has performed Humble, which featured a group of dancers in red, white and blue, forming an American flag, in a striking image.

American actor Samuel “Uncle Sam” Jackson introduced Kendrick Lamar, who kicked off the show with a cappella on a GNX.

Up next: Kendrick Lamar performs in half-time show

Lamar is about to take to the stage for his half-time performance.

Taylor Swift was sitting in a VIP box with a number of celebrities, as well as Travis Kelce’s father, Ed, and his mother, Donna.

Swift’s close friend Ashley Avignone was also in the private box, as well as Haim sisters, Alana, Danielle and Est, who are a pop-rock trio.

A number of A-list celebrities are at the game, including British pop star Louis Tomlinson.

Others in attendance include actor Bradley Cooper and hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, who was pictured with his two children Blue Ivy Carter and Rumi Carter.

Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce was pictured arriving at the Superdome in a chic burnt-orange suit, which he paired with sunglasses.

Taylor Swift, who was also in attendance when the Chiefs won the NFL title game in Las Vegas a year ago, watched the game and her boyfriend Travis Kelce, as she stood inside a private box at the Superdome.

She appeared to sit with Ice Spice, Ashley Avignone.

Mr Trump arrived at the Superdome to a mix of cheers and boos, walking straight into the stadium to meet with the “honorary coin toss participants,” including family members of victims of the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans as well as police officers and emergency workers.

The largest cheer of the night so far came when President Donald Trump appeared on the big screen during the national anthem.

12:12 AM GMT

Trump becomes first sitting president to attend Super Bowl

Donald Trump is watching the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles in the Superdome in New Orleans, becoming the first sitting president to do so in person.

All eyes will be on the field and, no doubt some, on his reactions.

His visit, roughly three weeks after he launched his second term at the White House with executive orders to crack down on immigration and end government diversity programs, will put the Republican president at the scene of a classic American pastime that connects people of all political ideologies.

It also highlights the contrast between Mr Trump’s order to eliminate government diversity, equity and inclusion efforts with the NFL’s decision to stick with its own initiatives to promote inclusion.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who could come into contact with Mr Trump at the game, said on Monday he had no plans to scale back NFL diversity programs.

President Trump is one of many celebrities at the game. Superstar singer Taylor Swift, who is dating Chiefs player Travis Kelce, is also watching in the VIP section. She endorsed Harris in the 2024 election.

We will be bringing you the latest on the half-time show at the Super Bowl.

Follow our live blog as Kendrick Lamar takes to the stage as the headline act.

Plus, all the key celebrity ads and brand new trailers unveiled.

Chiefs try for Super Bowl three-peat; Eagles up early in 2nd

The Kansas City Chiefs are trying to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls as they face the Philadelphia Eagles in the Superdome. It’s a rematch from two years ago when Jalen Hurts nearly led Philadelphia to a championship only to watch Patrick Mahomes snatch it away by rallying Kansas City to a 38-35 win. Mahomes lifted the Chiefs to an overtime win against San Francisco in another Super Bowl rematch last year. Now, they’re poised for a three-peat.

Super Bowl 59 is underway, with the Kansas City Chiefs facing a familiar foe, the Philadelphia Eagles, hoping to win the Lombardi Trophy for a record third year in a row.

Eagles 7, Chiefs 0

The extra point is good and Philadelphia leads 7-0 with 6:15 left in the first quarter.

That 1-yard rush by Hurts made him the fifth player with four Super Bowl rushing touchdowns in a career. Emmitt Smith has the most, with five. Thurman Thomas, Franco Harris, John Elway and now Hurts all have four.

TOUCHDOWN: Hurts opens the scoring at Super Bowl

Philadelphia has struck first in the Super Bowl, with Jalen Hurts — thanks to the Eagles’ famed tush push, where the offensive line just bullies their way into the end zone and Hurts follows the crowd — scoring the game’s first touchdown.

Now it’s the Chiefs fans complaining about the officials

Kansas City appeared to get a third-down stop against Philadelphia, but Trent McDuffie was called for a personal foul for making contact with Dallas Goedert’s face mask.

Tom Brady didn’t like this call, either.

It’s not just Messi at the Super Bowl. He’s with friends

Lionel Messi isn’t the only Inter Miami star at the Super Bowl.

Teammates Jordi Alba, Sergio Busquets and Luis Suarez are there with him, taking a break from the preseason before resuming training in South Florida later this week.

The group famously were all teammates at Barcelona a decade ago, before reuniting to play in MLS with Inter Miami.

Fans inside Superdome boo Taylor Swift, Ice Spice

The fans inside the Superdome booed when Taylor Swift was shown alongside Ice Spice on the big screens during a break in the first quarter.

Swift has drawn the ire of many NFL fans, who say that TV broadcasts show too much of her. She has been dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce since early last season.

Swift was shown just after the cameras panned among actors Rob McElhenney, Adam Sandler and Paul Rudd. She gave a bit of a side-eye when she realized she was getting booed on the big screens, and kind of wrinkled her nose a bit.

Dunkin’ snags first ad spot

Dunkin’ snagged the first ad spot of the game — with the Massachusetts-based chain again enlisting Ben Affleck to represent “The DunKings.”

“The DunKings” were introduced at the Super Bowl ad last year, with Affleck and stars like Tom Brady and Matt Damon showing off their Boston (and Dunkin’) pride through a boy-band like performance. But it appears the team has changed some since.

In Dunkin’s ad this year, Affleck’s brother Casey, Bill Belichick and Jeremy Strong are new members of the group.

The first big penalty of the game went in Kansas City’s favor.

The Eagles were going for it on fourth-and-2 from midfield and appeared to convert a 30-yard completion. But a flag came out for Brown putting his hand on cornerback Trent McDuffie’s face, leading to the questionable penalty.

A big topic heading into the game was perceived bias for officials in favor of the Chiefs. Commissioner Roger Goodell called it “ridiculous” but those complaints will only grow louder after that first penalty.

Fox breaks out new scorebug for Super Bowl

It’s a different look showing time and score at the bottom of your screen for the Super Bowl.

And social media isn’t loving what Fox is doing.

Fox has “KC” on one side in red, “PHI” on the other in green, with score in big white numerals. There’s also some different graphic elements than the norm as well.

Chiefs defer, 15th straight Super Bowl to open that way

For the 15th straight Super Bowl, the team that won the opening coin toss of a Super Bowl chose to defer.

Kansas City won the toss and gave Philadelphia the option to start with the ball. The Chiefs will get the ball to begin the second half.

The only team to choose to start a Super Bowl with the ball after winning the opening toss since the defer option was initiated in the 2008 season was the Saints in Super Bowl 44 against Indianapolis.

The coin toss winner: Tails. (Sorry, Eagles fans.)

Travis Kelce called tails. It never fails, as they say.

The Chiefs won the coin toss, in a bad omen for the Eagles.

In Philly’s past Super Bowl appearances, when the coin toss result was tails, they lost.

Trump visits field before heading to suite

Trump spent a few minutes on the field before he headed to his suite to watch the game with lawmakers and family members.

After entering through a tunnel near the Chiefs’ end of the field, he greeted first responders and victims of the New Year’s Day attack in the French Quarter.

He was greeted with a mix of cheers and boos from fans.

Batiste brings accents of New Orleans and a long last note to anthem

Jon Batiste sang the U.S. national anthem while playing a wildly multicolored piano. He started out soft and only sprinkled only a few accents from his native New Orleans but got increasingly jazzy as he went, holding and riffing on the last note for a long time.

The telecast cut to a saluting President Donald Trump during the performance. The 2 minutes, 2 seconds the seven-time Grammy winner took to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” was about average for a Super Bowl anthem.

It was the exact same length as Chris Stapleton two years ago but a lot slower than Reba McEntire, who brought it in at 1:30 last year.

Eli declared victorious over Peyton in ‘Kick of Destiny’

Eli Manning was declared victorious over his brother Peyton in FanDuel’s third annual “Kick of Destiny,” a pregame promotion from the gambling site held hours before Super Bowl kickoff on Sunday.

That means fans who betted for Team Eli are set to win a share of $10,000,000 in FanDuel Bonus Bets.

A very Louisiana ‘America the Beautiful’

Trombone Shorty, left, and Lauren Daigle, center, perform “America The Beautiful” before the NFL Super Bowl 59 football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Trombone Shorty and Lauren Daigle added some serious Big Easy swing to their rendition of “America the Beautiful.”

Shorty played his signature instrument during the verses and then sang along with Daigle on the choruses.

The last word from Mahomes, Barkley

Patrick Mahomes and Saquon Barkley met with Fox reporters Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi after the teams took the field for the Super Bowl.

Said Mahomes: “Just enjoying it with the team. It’s always special.”

Added Barkley: “It’s no accident why we’re here. … It’s go time.”

It’s a pro-Eagles crowd at the Super Bowl

There was a heavily pro-Eagles crowd inside the Superdome to watch Philadelphia try to dethrone the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs.

The Chiefs were booed loudly during pregame introductions, and the crowed revved up when Bradley Cooper appeared with a mic to introduce Philadelphia.

It had been evident all week that Eagles fans had come in droves, while perhaps a bit of Super Bowl fatigue had set in among Kansas City fans, who thought the big game was a once-in-a-lifetime trip but has now happened three straight years.

It’s a good bet that a lot of otherwise neutral fans were rooting for the Eagles, too. The Chiefs have become the juggernaut that everybody loves to hate.

Celebrities are ready for kickoff, too

Paul McCartney is here. Messi in a white sweatsuit. Bradley Cooper is on the field in his green Eagles jacket. Taylor Swift is in a suite with Ice Spice. Jay-Z with his daughters Blue Ivy and Rumi were on the field earlier.

Harry Connick Jr. welcomes the crowd — and the world — to the Super Bowl

New Orleans legend Harry Connick Jr. has welcomed the crowd, and the worldwide television audience, to the Super Bowl.

With live marching bands, dancing and song, Connick led a Mardi Gras-themed welcome.

“How y’all feeling, baby? Let’s celebrate some New Orleans music and culture at Super Bowl 59,” Connick said as the performance was beginning.

Lady Gaga, Tom Brady honor Americans’ resilience to tragedy

Lady Gaga sang “Hold My Hand,” her 2022 tribute to resilience, in a pre-recorded performance on Bourbon Street that was aired in the run-up to kickoff.

Before the song, a solemn group that included Tom Brady, Michael Strahan and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell walked up the street together to honor the victims of recent tragedies including the Jan. 1 New Orleans truck attack and recent Los Angeles wildfires.

Brady praised “the American spirit of courage, generosity and unity.”

Gaga wore all white and sat at a piano in the middle of the street in the performance that was taped at 4 a.m. on Thursday.

Inside the Superdome, fans were given bracelets that lit up in an otherwise darkened stadium, creating a twinkling nighttime effect.

Lauren Daigle embraces hometown pride ahead of Super Bowl pregame performance

When Trombone Shorty invited Daigle months ago to join him for “America the Beautiful” at the Super Bowl, she didn’t hesitate. Now, as she prepares to take the stage, she calls the moment an honor — one that carries deep meaning in her home state of Louisiana.

“There’s a sense of pride in the air. It’s palpable,” said Daigle, a two-time Grammy winner known for her 2018 breakout hit “You Say.” She sees the NFL’s presence as a much-needed uplift for New Orleans, a city still healing from the New Year’s terrorist attack and past hardships like Hurricane Katrina.

Daigle and Trombone Shorty began rehearsals at the Superdome on Friday after first working on the song together in the studio.

As for pre-show jitters? She welcomes them.”Nerves are part of the experience,” she said. “You just have to let them fly.”

The futbol GOAT has arrived at football’s biggest game

Lionel Messi is at the Super Bowl, an intersection of futbol and football.

The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner as soccer’s best player is at the Superdome, arriving one day after he and Inter Miami played a preseason game at Honduras.

Messi is the reigning MLS MVP.

NBA and NHL clear schedules, but 76ers will be airborne for Super Bowl’s start

The NBA and NHL had games today, but all were scheduled early enough to be done before the start of the Super Bowl.

That said, one team probably isn’t very happy right now.

The Philadelphia 76ers played at Milwaukee — and the team was flying back to Philly after the game, with a flight plan that has them airborne during kickoff.

It’s about a 90-minute flight between Milwaukee and Philly, and the 76ers are scheduled to land around 7:30 p.m. That would be roughly the end of the first quarter.

Dawn Staley’s supporting the Eagles

South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley stayed true to her Philly roots.

Staley rocked a Super Bowl LIX sweatshirt and green sneakers when the Gamecocks played Sunday at Texas. Staley represents her favorite Philly teams as much as she can, and the city loves her back. In 2017, Philadelphia proclaimed a Dawn Staley Day and renamed a street right where she grew up as Dawn Staley Lane.

A 1,200-mile, 18-hour drive through the night

Philadelphia residents Ed White and Giiselle Burnett drove more than 1,200 miles overnight — an 18-hour drive — to arrive in Bourbon street in time for the Super Bowl.

Despite the overnight drive they were bursting with energy, dancing down the street blowing whistles and shouting cheers to other Eagles fans.

They had already adorned green Mardi Gras beads over their Eagles shirts.

“We got to come out here and represent for our birds,” White said. “Chiefs get outta here — it’s not happening!”

Ledisi keeps it local with a soaring ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’

Ledisi performs “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before the NFL Super Bowl 59 football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Ledisi was backed by a choir of local high school students as she sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing” — the song widely regarded as the Black national anthem.

The R&B singer stood spot-lit on a pedestal clad all in angelic white, with the students all in gold robes behind her as she delivered a soaring rendition of the song. It opened a series of pregame performances that will include the U.S. national anthem sung by Jon Batiste.

Chiefs heard loud boos

Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs heard loud boos as they ran on the field for warmups. The early-arriving crowd was overwhelmingly filled with Eagles fans. Though Philadelphians are known for their boorish behavior, the Eagles are fan favorites against the Chiefs. A few Saints fans were heard screaming “Go Birds!” and one Jets fan joined Eagles fans in singing “Fly! Eagles! Fly!” on the stadium concourse.

Taylor Swift arrives at the Super Bowl

Taylor Swift has arrived at the Super Bowl to cheer on her boyfriend Travis Kelce and the Chiefs.

The pop superstar was spotted in her suite at the Superdome, wearing a simple white ensemble, about an hour before kickoff.

Swift and Kelce have been the sports-and-entertainment power couple since early last season, when the four-time All-Pro tight end invited the 14-time Grammy winner to watch him play in a matchup with the Bears.

Swift made an around-the-world trip from her concert in Tokyo to Las Vegas last year to watch the Chiefs beat the 49ers in the Super Bowl.

Super Bowl ads hit record price, cost up to $8M

The cost of a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl reportedly cost up to a record $8 million this year; and that’s just the media buy — production can cost millions more.

Why spend so much? The Super Bowl reaches more than 120 million viewers who tune in not only to watch the game, but are primed to watch the ads as well.

An estimated 123.7 million viewers tuned in for Super Bowl in 2024, according to Nielsen. By contrast, about 19.5 million people tuned in to the Oscars in 2024 and about 18.6 million watched the final game of the World Series in October, according to Nielsen.

Fans pay their respects to truck attack victims

At the entrance to Bourbon Street, many paused to pay their respects to the 14 people had lost their lives in the Jan. 1 truck attack.

A group of young Eagles fans removed green beads from around their necks and placed them on the memorial beside a mass of flowers and other offerings from tourists and locals alike.

“I’ve seen it on the news but it’s my first time seeing it in person,” said Baton Rouge resident Chester Matthews, 35, as he stood beside the memorial, taking it in. “People lost their lives on the same streets we’re walking on. I just had to take a moment to reflect on that.”

A vast roster of Super Bowl ads

Famous mustaches help deliver Pringles. Bad Bunny is all smiles in Ritz’s “salty club.” And Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal’s “When Harry Met Sally” characters reunite in Katz’s Deli, with the help of Hellmann’s mayonnaise.

It’s Super Bowl Sunday — and, as always, there’s a vast roster of advertisers ready to vie for fans’ attention during game breaks.

The commercials will pull out all the stops. Viewers can expect to see the biggest actors, dazzling special effects and plenty of nostalgia (coupled with a frenzied mix of silliness) fill their screen.

Kendrick Lamar skewers Drake with Not Like Us performance at Super Bowl halftime show | CBC News

“Salutations!” said the actor Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam, as he introduced Kendrick Lamar at New Orleans’ Caesars Superdome for the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show — a powerful, commanding creative choice by the first solo hip-hop artist to ever headline the coveted slot.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper started with GNX moving into Squabble Up. And for just under 13 minutes during the halftime show sponsored by Apple Music and Roc Nation, Lamar commanded the field.

Dancers dressed in red, white and blue joined Lamar. But even in their patriotic colours, they were labelled “too loud, too reckless, too ghetto,” by Jackson’s Uncle Sam, who reminded Lamar to “play the game.” Then, Lamar launched into Humble., DNA., Euphoria and man at the garden.

“Score keeper, deduct one life,” Jackson interrupted again. Lamar launched into peakboo and then teased a performance of Not Like Us.

“I wanna play their favourite song but you know they love to sue,” Lamar told the women dancers behind him, referencing the Canadian rapper Drake.

With its billion streams on Spotify, the massive hit Not Like Us is a regional anthem for Los Angeles, a rallying cry for community and against culture vultures, a diss track that won Lamar the highly-publicized feud with Drake and the track that won song and record of the year at the Grammys last weekend.

Leading up to the Super Bowl, whether or not Lamar would perform the song was a legitimate question held by fans and critics alike. Lamar levels strong accusations against Drake in its lyrics; Drake has sued Universal Music Group for defamation as a result of the song’s popularity. Many questioned whether a Super Bowl performance further complicates things.

Little was known about Lamar’s halftime performance ahead of time. Lamar promised to keep his passion for storytelling at the forefront of his plans, and SZA was a previously announced guest performer. They are frequent collaborators; she most recently appeared his 2024 album GNX and was featured on a couple songs, including Gloria and Luther, which also features sampled vocals from Luther Vandross and Cheryl Lynn through If This World Were Mine. The duo will also co-headline a 19-city North American tour this spring and summer.

SZA appeared on stage for Luther and All the Stars.

“That’s what America wants — nice and calm,” Jackson said in response to their duets.

And then, like clockwork: Lamar launched into Not Like Us — with the removal of the word “pedophiles” in its lyrics — into tv off.

He brought out the producer Mustard, and tennis superstar Serena Williams was spotted crip walking along to the diss track.

Lamar is no stranger to the Super Bowl stage, having previously performed at the NFL’s championship game in 2022 as a guest artist, alongside Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent and Eminem.

“Rap music is still the most impactful genre to date,” Lamar said in a statement in September, when he was first announced as the 2025 halftime performer. “And I’ll be there to remind the world why. They got the right one.”

Taylor Swift attends Super Bowl LIX in ‘T’ necklace, arrives with Ice Spice

The pop superstar attended Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans with rapper Ice Spice, who also sat with Swift at the NFL title game last year.

Swift wore a “T” necklace around her neck, perhaps in support of her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

The necklace appeared to be the same piece of jewelry Swift wore as a leg chain at the Grammy Awards last week.

Swift has been a staple at Chiefs games since early in the 2023 season, when she and Kelce went public with their relationship.

Entering Sunday, the Chiefs were 19-3 in games Swift attended.

Swift featured Ice Spice, who hails from the Bronx, on a remix of her hit “Karma.” They pair performed the song together in 2013 at MetLife Stadium during Swift’s Eras Tour.

Noticeably absent from Sunday’s stadium arrival was Blake Lively, who attended last year’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas with Swift and Ice Spice.

Lively remains embroiled in a high-profile legal fight with “It Ends With Us” director Justin Baldoni, whom she sued, among others, in December. The lawsuit stems from Lively’s allegations of harassment on the film’s set and for what she described as a smear campaign in response to her coming forward.

Counterculture author Tom Robbins, known for his irreverent bestselling novels, dies at 92

Tom Robbins, a 1970s counterculture author hailed as “the most dangerous writer in the world” by a leading Italian critic and named one of the 100 best writers of the 20th century by Writer’s Digest magazine in 2000, has died. He was 92.

His son Fleetwood confirmed his death Sunday to the New York Times. No cause was cited.

Born Thomas Eugene Robbins, the iconoclastic American author was known for his silly, irreverent novels from the 1970s and ’80s. In them, characters burst with life through his wordplay and fervent philosophical opinions. The bestselling author of more than 11 books, including classics like “Another Roadside Attraction,” “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues” and “Jitterbug Perfume,” morphed the 1960s optimistic hippie sensibility into bizarre and playful stories.

His first novel, “Another Roadside Attraction,” was published in 1971 when Robbins was 39 — more than three decades after declaring to his parents, at age 5, that he’d be a writer. The novel became an underground classic.

His subsequent novel in 1976, “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues,” spotlighted the dynamic Sissy Hankshaw, a woman with supersized thumbs who capitalizes on her mutation by becoming a hitchhiker. American novelist Thomas Pynchon called it “a piece of working magic, warm, funny and sane.”

The story was adapted into a 1993 film directed by Gus Van Sant, starring Uma Thurman and Keanu Reeves, and was narrated by Robbins. It received poor reviews and was a commercial failure.

Though quoted as once saying that he’d never write a memoir, his “Tibetan Peach Pie: A True Account of an Imaginative Life, published in 2014,” stitched together stories of his extraordinary life. From his childhood in the Appalachian mountains during the Great Depression to the ’60 psychedelic revolution in the West Coast, the memoir, he told New York Times Magazine in 2014, “was precipitated by a desire to please women.”

“His stories were just as bit as magical as his writing, where you just can’t tell the boundaries of reality and fantasy,” said George Mason, co-founder of Authors Road. Mason and Salli Slaughter, his wife, interviewed Robbins in his home in 2011 and were charmed as much by his playfulness as they were awed by stories from his past.

“He’s just an incredibly loving soul,” said actor Debra Winger, a pen pal and close friend of Robbins’. “There’s nothing better than having Tom as a friend because he’s just always rooting for you.”

The two met in the late ’70s and quickly became friends. “He sort of just walked out of his books,” said Winger, who was continuously awed by his “unbelievable positivity.”

“I never saw Tommy dark or in despair….he could just see the light side of anything. He could write about the other but he could always see the light side… He’s just a sunny, sunny guy, and I think he lived his life exactly the way he wanted to.”

And whenever he could, he manifested the same light and silliness from his novels into reality.

Robbins was particular about how and where his editors read his book manuscripts. His preferred editorial conference location was at Two Bunch Palms, a resort and spa near Desert Hot Springs. Until his editors soaked in the pool and had a massage, Robbins refused to show them his work.

“They weren’t allowed to read them anywhere else,” Winger recalled. And his editors, though at first begrudgingly, would comply. “These were the kinds of demands he made on you that were good for you as well.”

Nicknamed Tommy Rotten in his childhood, Robbins was born July 22, 1932 in Blowing Rock, North Carolina to George Thomas Robbins, a company executive, and Katherine Robinson, a nurse. Both his grandparents were baptist preachers. At 10, his family moved to eastern Virginia. He was the oldest of four, including twins Mary and Mariane, and Rena, who died after being administered an ether overdose at the hospital before Robbins was 7.

In the early 1950s, Robbins attended Washington and Lee University in Virginia briefly studying journalism and writing for the college newspaper under Tom Wolfe, its sports editor at the time. After his sophomore year he dropped out to find himself and embarked on a “pre-beatnik hitchhiking” trip and worked construction jobs.

Weeks before his 21st birthday, he enlisted in the United States Air Force and was sent to South Korea to teach meteorology to the South Korean Air Force.

After being discharged, he returned to the U.S. in 1957 and enrolled at Richmond Professional Institute–which later became Virginia Commonwealth University. There, he was a columnist and editor for his college newspaper. He then joined the staff on the Richmond Times-Dispatch as a copy editor.

But Robbins didn’t jive with the newspaper’s conservative slant. Eventually, after some mounting tensions with its managing editor, he left for Washington. He settled there for the rest of his life.

“Seattle was the farthest place from Richmond on the map without leaving the country,” he once told Rolling Stone. “And I couldn’t afford to leave the country.” But his appeal for the western country stemmed also from his art-school studies. He was particularly intrigued by the school of mystic painters inspired by the West coast’s landscapes.

By early 1962, Robbins had moved to Seattle. He took a job working for The Seattle Times as an assistant features editor, eventually becoming an art critic and an art columnist for Seattle Magazine.

The following summer, in 1963, Robbins experienced “the most rewarding day of my life.” On July 16 of that year, he took LSD. His encounter with psychedelics, he said, was an impetus that resulted in quitting his Seattle Times gig.

“I called in well one day,” he wrote in his memoir. “What do you mean, well?” his editor responded. “Well, I’ve been sick ever since I’ve been working there, and now I’m well, and I won’t be coming in anymore.”

And he up and left to New York in search of others who had taken the drug. He befriended psychedelic advocate Timothy Leary, but it wasn’t long before he got tired of the bustling city and returned to Seattle, taking a brief stint as a weekly radio host.

Robbins’ writing earned him the 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award in the arts at Seattle’s Bumbershoot arts festival and the 2012 Literary Lifetime Achievement prize from the Library of Virginia. But his goals as a writer weren’t ever to garner accolades or top-tier prizes.

Instead, his objective was to “twine ideas and images into big subversive pretzels of life, death and goodliness on the chance that they might help keep the world lively, and give it the flexibility to endure,” he once said.

His words and imaginations were his incantations to the world, and to himself.

“I’ve always wanted to lead a life of enchantment,” he said in a Rolling Stone interview, “and writing is part of that. Magic is practical and pragmatic–it’s making connections between objects or events in the most unusual ways. When you do that, the universe becomes a very exciting place. I’m a romantic, and I don’t apologize for that. I think it’s as valid a way of looking at life as any. And a hell of a lot more fun.”

A notoriously private and mysterious man, Robbins spent his life enchanting readers with clever wordplay and bizarre, highly whimsical stories that oozed with philosophical musings and quips.

But his greatest gift in life, he wrote in his memoir, was not his writing. It was his ability to live in two distinct worlds concurrently: in the planets of imagination and reality.

Robbins is survived by Alexa, his third wife of more than 30 years; and three sons from his previous marriages.