Woken up as September ends: CFL nails halftime act with Green Day announcement

Photo courtesy: AP Photo/Bruce Gilbert

The CFL announced its halftime show for the 110th Grey Cup in Hamilton on Saturday and blew the assignment out of the water.

Five-time Grammy winners with more than 75 million albums sold worldwide, Green Day will be one of the biggest names to ever grace the stage for the Grand National Drunk.

With all due respect to names like Shania Twain, Nickleback, and Justin Bieber, Green Day draws an audience on both sides of the border that may stick around for the football and not just tune in for the show, something that is vital to the league’s future.

A year ago, I wrote that I didn’t care who the halftime show was and explained why you shouldn’t either. But with this announcement, the CFL has done something they should continue to do. Get the biggest bands you can, regardless of where they call home.

Music is a personal preference but I can personally say that seeing a punk band hit the stage for the first time in the 32 years of featured halftime performances will be a welcome treat after years of pop rock and country bands.

You can have your Arkells, Fall Out Boy, and Imagine Dragons, but when the riff hits on Basket Case or American Idiot, you have no choice but to party along with the energy provided. Bonus points if they flip to “Canadian Idiot”, the Weird Al Yankovic cover.

We also saw something new in the league press release,  as the band was quoted with vulgarity saying, “You better be ready because we’re about to turn the Grey Cup green and into the loudest f****** night in CFL history!”

The CFL needed to make noise in this department and they have found the band to do just that. My only suggestion moving forward is that the league should be looking at hip-hop artists next, as the only one that even vaguely counts in that genre was the 2005 Black Eyed Peas performance. The Billboard charts are dominated by hip-hop artists and the league needs to do more in that direction.

For sticking with a rock band, Green Day is an absolute win and possibly one of the greatest signings in the league’s history. I know that regardless of who is in the game and what the score is at the time, I’ll be glued to the TV to watch one of the most iconic bands of all time rock the stage.

Ryan Ballantine
Ryan Ballantine is a lifelong Stamps fan and host of the Go Stamps Go Show Podcast. He has been covering the team since 2008.