Kendrick Lamar To Perform At Inaugural College Playoff

Kendrick Lamar has been announced to perform at the inaugural College Football Playoff National Championship Halftime Performance at Atlanta’s Centennial Olympic Park Jan. 8 – a free, non-ticketed event just outside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.  

AP Photo / Kathy Kmonicek – Kendrick Lamar
Global Citizen Festival, Great Lawn @ Central Park, New York City

The performance will be integrated into halftime of ESPN’s telecast of the game, which takes place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

The announcement says K-Dot will perform a medley of hits, including from his acclaimed DAMN. album that has led to seven Grammy nominations.

“Having the opportunity to perform at halftime of what will surely be the best game of the year between two deserving universities is truly an honor,” said Kendrick Lamar. “Thank you, ESPN, for having me be the first halftime performer ever at the College Football Playoff National Championship.”

Lamar is also big on the road, and this year on his North American tour reported 446,337 total tickets sold and a total gross of $40,562,179. The average ticket price was $91, with an average gross of $1,267,568 per market appearance, though the multiple-night stints are weighted as one appearance, according to Pollstar data.

The North American endeavor was a success by all metrics, with only one show below 90 percent attendance, Aug. 20 in Chicago’s United Center, and that gig still reported a gross of more than $1 million. Outside of Chicago, the only other show reporting less than 95 percent of tickets sold was Montreal’s Bell Centre, which saw him performing to a reported audience of 10,976, 93 percent of capacity.

Reviews from the tour seemed to largely gush over Lamar’s stage presence and crowd energy. 

The CFP National Championship kicks off Monday, Jan. 8, at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.