Black Eyed Peas to Headline Super Bowl Halftime Show

Football's biggest game is about to get some extra boom boom pow.

Grammy award-winning pop stars the Black Eyed Peas have been tapped to headline the halftime show at the 2011 Super Bowl, reports Rolling Stone.

"They could have picked anybody," Peas leader will.i.am told the magazine. "They could rock a million and get Cheap Trick. But it says something that they picked us."

Playing the Super Bowl is considered to be a major honor, considering the vast viewing audience. According to Reuters, 153 million people in the U.S. watched last year's contest between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints.

The Peas become the first non-classic rock act to play the NFL's biggest spectacle since 2004's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" with Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake. After that incident, the league went with safer, more established artists.

"I've been at every single one of them since that," will.i.am said. "The Prince one, the Paul McCartney one, Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen."

U2, The Who and the Rolling Stones are among the other recent bands that have rocked stadiums across the country.

The news comes just as the band is set to release its sixth album, The Beginning, November 30. After the Super Bowl, the Peas - who have sold over 28 million albums worldwide - plan to head out for a globe-spanning arena tour.

Super Bowl XLV will be played at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas,  on Sunday, February 6, 2011.

Selected Reading: Rolling Stone, Reuters, FOX Sports

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