NBD, but Beyoncé — yes, BEYONCÉ — revealed new music during the Big Game.
The Super Bowl is always a big night for music. Not only does the halftime show routinely net insane ratings (it gets more eyeballs than any awards show), but with each passing year, Super Bowl commercials — which are essentially as big of a night for advertisers as the Oscars are for movie studios — seem to pull in more and more musical superstars. At this point, plenty of people with no interest in the NFL tune in just to stay abreast of the commercials that provide fodder for the next day’s pop culture conversation.
The star-studded commercials during Super Bowl 2024 saw halftime show star Usher (who delivered a knockout set featuring Alicia Keys, H.E.R., Lil Jon, Ludacris, will.i.am and Jermaine Dupri) cameo in not one but two Super Bowl ads; Cardi B giving duck face; Jennifer Lopez rolling her eyes at husband Ben Affleck; and Beyoncé unveiling new music. And that was all before the third quarter wrapped.
Beyond that, the audience at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium at Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday (Feb. 11) featured an A-list roster of stars, too. Not only was Taylor Swift — who is dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, as anyone who has spent more than one second online or watching TV in the last two months knows – present, but so was Ice Spice, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z and Beyoncé, Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani and Post Malone, who sang “America the Beautiful” before the big kickoff.
From Ice Spice to Beyoncé to Cardi B to Usher, the 2024 Super Bowl commercials boasted a ton of musical talent – and these were our favorites.
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Ice Spice for Starry
Why munch when you could sip? Ice Spice hits the club to move on from her lemon-lime ex and flirt with the cartoon lemon and lime of Starry (Starry being Pepsi’s latest soda, which fills the void left by the discontinued Sierra Mist). “I just need something refreshing — more crisp! I’m with Starry now,” Spice tells her weepy ex while getting smooched by the toon fruits. Ice cold, indeed. Watch here.
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Post Malone for Bud Light
As Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” blares, the Bud Light Genie doles out wishes for beer-sipping fans. Wish fulfillments include: Peyton Manning and Post Malone, with the latter star making a party-foul wish of his own and conjuring up a pool party-crashing T. rex. Watch here.
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Lil Wayne for Homes.com
Homes.com made its public launch during the Super Bowl, following in the footsteps of Apartments.com (both are owned by CoStar Group). Apartments.com spokesperson Jeff Goldblum made a cameo in the Dan Levy and Heidi Gardner-steered ad, which features a brief but memorable guest spot from Lil Wayne, who pops up in a classroom to ask a bunch of middle schoolers, “Who wants to see what a hundred Gs looks like?” Who doesn’t? Watch here.
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Jennifer Hudson and Common for T-Mobile
Common and Jennifer Hudson – whose real-life relationship was confirmed earlier this year – appeared in a T-Mobile “auditions” commercial alongside a guitar-slinging Laura Dern and Bradley Cooper, who brought along his mother, Gloria. Of those four, three have won Oscars (Cooper is the only one who hasn’t won one yet). Later on in the broadcast, Jason Momoa and a mini Scrubs reunion of Zach Braff and Donald Faison scored some laughs with another T-Mobile ad that reworked Irene Cara’s classic “Flashdance… What a Feeling.” Watch here.
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Cardi B for NYX
Cardi B appeared in a NYX commercial about the cosmetics company’s new lip plumper and its “Duck Face” campaign, which made it clear that this product is only intended to make lips bigger, despite what any desperate young man may think. Unfortunately, the full (amazing) commercial wasn’t broadcast on CBS – a QR code popped up onscreen after the first half of the commercial, which directed viewers to the more suggestive, full ad online. Watch here.
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Creed for Paramount+
Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Captain Picard might be renowned as one of the most ethically minded figures in sci-fi, but in Paramount+’s Super Bowl ad, Patrick Stewart has no problem kicking a (cartoon) child’s football-shaped head (Arnold of Hey Arnold!, naturally) at a mountain. Soundtracking Sir Patrick’s questionable kickoff was Creed, ripping through their classic single “Higher.” An enterprising musical synch, for sure. Watch here.
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Usher for BMW
In a BMW ad, Christopher Walken endures a litany of people – baristas, waiters, dog walkers — doing Christopher Walken impressions to his face (presumably something the man has had to endure IRL). At the end of the ad, Usher inserts himself into the conversation when someone utters the word “yeah.” “Don’t you got somewhere to be?” Walken asks, to which the halftime star exclaims, “Yeah!” Watch here.
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Usher, Jelly Roll & Victoria Beckham for Uber Eats
Uber Eats’ Super Bowl ad featured more than its fair share of superstars pretending they’d forgotten integral parts of their lives. In a Friends mini-reunion, Jennifer Aniston acts as if she can’t quite recall working with David Schwimmer; Victoria and David Beckham struggle to remember the name of her girl group (“Paprika Girls?”); Jelly Roll sees his face tattoos in a mirror and exclaims “did someone doodle on my face?!”; and Usher acts as if he can’t remember ever playing the Super Bowl. Watch here.
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Jennifer Lopez for Dunkin’
After Jennifer Lopez crashed Ben Affleck’s 2023 Super Bowl ad, Baffleck returned the favor in a 2024 Dunkin’ Game Day ad. The actor-director busts in on J.Lo’s studio session and declares, “Here comes the Boston massacre! The Dun-Kings!” With him are longtime pal Matt Damon and fellow Boston boy Tom Brady, and shocker, they fail to impress as a vocal group (proving Jack Harlow’s words of warning to be correct). It was a well-acted spot from three longtime movie stars demonstrating how to squeeze the most comedic potential out of every second on screen. Watch here.
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Beyoncé for Verizon
Usher was the halftime show star and Taylor Swift was the in-audience scene-stealer, but Beyoncé gave us the best Super Bowl 2024 commercial. In a Verizon ad alongside Tony Hale (aka Buster Bluth from Arrested Development and Gary Walsh from Veep), Bey works on breaking Verizon’s 5G network, trotting out a Barbie parody (Bar-Bey), her version of AI (BeyoncAI) and announcing a presidential run of sorts (Beyoncé of the United States aka BOTUS). It was a funny, charming ad that showed off the Queen’s comedic chops – and even better, teed up the big announcement that new music was here and “Act II” is coming March 29. Now THAT’S how you steal the Super Bowl spotlight without breaking a sweat. Watch here.
This story originally appeared on Billboard