Have you been waiting with bated breath to find out who would perform at Turning Point USA’s halftime show? Lo, these long months where we were promised that this alternative halftime show would be epic, but the lineup was a mystery until Monday, when we learned about this absolutely killer lineup: Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett.
Real A-listers here, right?
If you had to Google everyone on this list except Kid Rock, you’re not alone. Rock is no surprise, given his affection for performing at Trump events. Mr. Rock even showed up in a truly remarkable outfit to stand next to Trump while Trump wrote out one of his little executive orders that has no force of law, this one about ticket scalping.
Sadly for Rock, none of this has translated into decent album sales or anything like that, but at least Rock was once a very famous musician. The other three? Not so much.
Brantley Gilbert was once reasonably famous, hitting Number One with several singles on the Billboard Country Airplay charts, though that hasn’t happened since 2019. His last two records didn’t even crack the top 20 of Billboard’s Country Album charts.
But Gilbert isn’t there because of his middling career as a country singer. He’s there because he has shifted his efforts to being a conservative culture warrior. Remember when conservatives were furious that Bud Light gave transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney a personalized can of beer to promote the brand? Gilbert latched onto that, smashing a can of Bud Light on stage to show his MAGA bona fides.
Gilbert also performed at Turning Point USA’s 2021 America Fest, where he appeared on a bill that included such luminaries as former Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz, Rep. Jim Jordan, Donald Trump Jr., and Kyle Rittenhouse.
Brice hasn’t released an album since 2020, and even his hot-selling records have never broken 500,000 in sales. His singles have tanked of late as well, with the last four not charting at all on the Billboard Hot 100 or Billboard Country Songs.
As with Gilbert, though, Brice isn’t on this bill because of his innate talent or album sales or anything of the sort. He’s there because he’s the kind of guy who gets a soft-focus NRA profile about how much he loves guns. He’s there because he’s the kind of guy who goes on Will Cain’s Fox News show to talk about how people love country music for “real and honesty” and “God and country.”
Barrett’s main claim to fame is placing third on “American Idol” eight years ago. Her most recent record did hit # 26 on the charts … the Billboard Christian Albums chart, that is.
Like Rock, Barrett has also previously performed for Trump, singing “The First Noel” during the 2018 National Christmas Tree Lighting. Did Barrett see herself as singing to all Americans or honoring Jesus Christ or something similar? Lol, nope.
Barrett’s promo post on X said, “I will be performing ‘The First Noel’ for the President, in Washington D.C. on Wednesday.” To be fair, she did later say that performing for Trump “was an amazing opportunity to represent America and the Lord.”
It’s honestly pretty surprising that Alexis Wilkins isn’t on the list. How dare TPUSA cut out Kash Patel’s country singer girlfriend from this superstar jamboree! She’s performed at TPUSA events a bunch of times, but apparently, that isn’t enough to get her in the door for the alternative halftime show.
Fox is desperately trying to spin this as “star-studded,” which it is not by any metric, but what else can conservatives do? They have to pretend that whatever motley collection of pro-Trump artists they dredge up are superstars, even if there is no evidence whatsoever of that.
Meanwhile, after his Grammy win Sunday night, Bad Bunny’s album sales and streams have jumped even more. When he dropped “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” in January 2025, all 17 singles charted. He ranked Number One on Spotify’s 2025 Global Top Artist charts, notching 19.8 billion—that’s billion, with a “b”—worldwide. He also topped that chart in 2020, 2021, and 2022.
Most of the other artists performing at the actual Super Bowl will also make conservatives incandescent with rage. While they’re probably not all that mad about Charlie Puth, they’re going to be incredibly unhappy with everyone else.
Green Day is performing at the opening ceremony and has made no secret of their loathing of Trump. The band even changed the lyrics of “American Idiot,” from “I’m not a part of a redneck agenda” to “I’m not a part of a MAGA agenda.”
Brandi Carlile is openly queer and recently spoke out about ICE’s murder of Renee Good and 32 people who have died in ICE custody. Her foundation also just donated $25,000 to The Advocates for Human Rights in Minnesota to support their efforts to provide free legal assistance to detainees.
As far as Coco Jones, it likely isn’t so much who she is, but what she is going to sing. Jones will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” also known as the Black national anthem. Your MAGA uncle is going to spend a lot of time complaining about DEI during this, bet.
It’s going to be a delight to see how pathetic the ratings for this thing will be. It’s going to make Bari Weiss’s cratering numbers over at CBS News look amazingly successful by comparison. Go anti-woke, go super-broke.
