How often does a tennis champion find herself busting a move at the Super Bowl? Well, leave it to the indomitable Serena Williams to make such magic happen! Recently, she dished out the juicy details of her surprise appearance at Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, and honestly, it’s all kinds of fabulous. In a behind-the-scenes video shared on her Instagram, we got an exclusive peek at her preparation process, glamming up and perfecting her dance moves like the superstar we know her to be. I mean, who wouldn’t do a celebratory dance after winning a gold medal, right? Serena’s journey from the court to the stage had fans buzzing, especially when she reminisced about Kendrick’s team reaching out to her with an offer that was just too good to refuse. Did she ever imagine that her iconic dance from the Olympics would be the ticket to lighting up the Super Bowl stage? Just picture it: a tennis legend in the middle of the football frenzy—what a delightful mashup of worlds!
Serena Williams has detailed how her appearance at Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl Halftime Show came together. Reflecting on the event on Instagram on Tuesday, she shared a video of her preparing for the night from behind the scenes. The video shows her working on her dance move, having her makeup done, and more.
Sharing a behind the scenes video, she wrote in the caption: “When @kendricklamar and team called and was like ‘we’ve been trying to do something forever, what about this? We loved your crip walk at the Olympics after you won the gold medal.’ I’m like Super Bowl? Are you serious? When in the world would I ever be able to dance at a superbowl? (Never) let’s do it! I knew my winning dance after the @olympics would pay off one day.” Williams’ husband, Alexis Ohanian, also reacted to the performance on X (formerly Twitter), writing: “Some of y’all have no idea how criticized Serena was for this same dance at Wimbledon 13 years ago and it shows…. This is bigger than the music.”
While Williams is also from Compton, she previously dated Drake for a brief period in the 2010s. Many times over the years, fans have attempted to link some of his lyrics to the tennis legend, but the most glaring example came in 2022. On the song’s “Middle of the Ocean,” Drake raps: “Sidebar, Serena, your husband a groupie / He claim we don’t got a problem but / No, boo, it is like you coming for sushi.”
Her appearance was just one of several jabs Lamar took at the Toronto rapper during the Super Bowl Halftime Show. On top of performing multiple diss tracks aimed at Drake, he also joked about him taking legal action against Universal Music Group over “Not Like Us.”