Kickoff at the MCG is at 10:35am local time on Friday, 11 September, and the halftime slot has gone to the Jonas Brothers, the American pop-rock trio of Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas.
More than 100,000 fans are expected inside the ground, with general admission sold out months in advance and only a limited pool of hospitality and resale seats still available.
Why the NFL picked a global pop act
The choice is a deliberate one. Melbourne is the first stop on a record seven-game international slate in 2026, and the league is pairing each fixture with a marquee music act under an American Express-sponsored halftime series spanning four continents.
Tim Tubito, the NFL’s senior director of music, framed the pick as a play for reach beyond the sport’s traditional audience.
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“The Jonas Brothers are global entertainers whose music connects across generations, making them the ideal artists to help us celebrate this historic game in Melbourne,” Tubito said.
Charlotte Offord, the NFL’s general manager for Australia and New Zealand, made the same point about crossover pull.
“The Jonas Brothers are global superstars with an incredible ability to bring people together through music,” Offord said.
The band brings a heavy commercial résumé to the pitch: more than 20 million albums sold, two Grammy nominations, 26 Billboard Hot 100 entries and three consecutive No. 1 debuts on the Billboard 200.
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What the Jonas Brothers say about the booking
The band accepted the booking in a joint statement released through the NFL.
“We couldn’t be more excited to perform at halftime during the NFL’s first-ever regular season game in Australia,” the Jonas Brothers said. “Playing at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground in front of such passionate Australian fans is an incredible honor.”
Part of a seven-country push
Melbourne is the opening act of an international schedule that also takes regular-season games to Rio de Janeiro, London, Paris, Madrid, Munich and Mexico City.
Each of the seven fixtures gets its own headline halftime act. Pedro Sampaio and Ricky Martin have been announced for Rio’s Maracanã on 27 September; Ayra Starr will play Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on 11 October; Cage the Elephant take Munich on 15 November; and Mexican rock band The Warning will close the run at Mexico City’s Estadio Banorte on 22 November.
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The scale is deliberate. Where the NFL has previously leaned on local acts for one-off international games, the 2026 series treats each halftime slot as a standalone entertainment event with its own broadcast footprint.
How to watch and what surrounds the game
The Melbourne fixture, halftime show included, streams live worldwide on Netflix, with Seven Network holding the Australian rights.
A three-day NFL Kickoff Festival is running at Melbourne Park from 10 to 12 September, with Australian acts Peking Duk, Grinspoon and Sneaky Sound System on the bill and grounds passes starting at A$49.
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