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Green Day, led by outspoken frontman Billie Joe Armstrong, walked down the boulevard of football dreams during a politically charged Super Bowl LX opening ceremony at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Feb. 8.
At the 60th iteration of The Big Game, the Seattle Seahawks will face the New England Patriots. The pre-show ceremony generated almost as much conversation as the hotly anticipated half-time show from equally outspoken Puerto Rican pop star Bad Bunny.
The rock legends were announced as the opening act in January and met with instant disapproval from the same far-right audience that produced a competing half-time show to rival Bad Bunny’s set, headlined by outspoken MAGA supporter Kid Rock.
President Donald Trump, who in 2025 became the first president to attend a Super Bowl game in person, skipped this year’s game.
“I’m anti-them,” the president said to the tabloid paper New York Post in an exclusive Oval Office interview about this year’s Super Bowl performers. “I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”
Green Day has been historically critical of American politicians and culture, with many of the band’s hit songs serving as protest music. In recent concerts, the band has altered lyrics to reflect the current climate. But during the pre-show, the band played unaltered snippets of their songs.
Beginning with “Holiday,” the band moved into a rendition of “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” before transitioning to “American Idiot,” initially a song written in opposition of the George W. Bush administration.
In recent years, the band has been changing the lyrics of “American Idiot” from “I’m not part of a redneck agenda” to “I’m not a part of the MAGA agenda.”
While the National Football League may have kept the band of punks from going off script, at a Friday concert in California, Armstrong made his feelings on current events clear.
“This goes out to all the ICE agents out there,” he said at the Friday night concert. “Wherever you are: quit your shitty-ass job. Quit that shitty job you have.”
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Grammy-winning artist and long-time LGBTQ+ activist Brandi Carlile sang a rendition of “America the Beautiful.”
“The through line to being queer and being a representative of a marginalized community, and being put on the largest stage in America to acknowledge the fraught and tender hope that this country is based on, it’s something you don’t say no to,” Carlile said to Variety ahead of the show.
Rising R&B artist Coco Jones performed a moving take on “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which has become a tradition at the game since 2021. The song is often referred to as the Black national anthem.
“Just representing my culture well is always something that I’ve strived to do since I was a little girl in this industry,” Jones told the Hollywood Reporter ahead of the performance. “That’s always been something instilled in me in the front of my mind. So to be able to do that on such a huge stage, I’m really looking forward to it, and I want it to just represent us well and make my stamp in history and do a great job.”
Pop singer Charlie Puth, the final scheduled performer in the pre-show, sang a soulful rendition of the national anthem.
Now, wake us up when the second quarter ends so we can watch Bad Bunny.
