Kris Wu becomes first Chinese artist to sing at Super Bowl Live

The National Football League recently announced Chinese singer and actor Kris Wu as Super Bowl LII Ambassador for NFL China and confirmed his debut at the 10-day live concerts leading up to the game.

Wu's performance is slated for 16:00 local time on February 3, 2018, on the Verizon Up Stage in Minneapolis, the NFL announced.

As one of the most influential artists in China, Wu has a large fan base in his home country, with over 27 million followers on China's Twitter-like Weibo platform and 5.6 million on Instagram.

The singer has topped the music charts in China with his singles "6", “Juice" and “July”, and has recently become the first and only Chinese artist to hit No. 1 on iTunes with the newly released single “Deserve”.

He expressed his gratitude towards the NFL and Minnesota Super Bowl Host Committee for inviting him to the live festivities, saying that it is a great pleasure to be named “ambassador to one of the world’s most recognizable sports and entertainment events”.

“I look forward to participating in Tencent’s coverage and sharing my gameday experience with fans around the world,” the artist added.

The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the NFL, a professional American football league, as well as the culmination of a regular season that begins in the last summer of the previous year. It is the most-watched TV show in the US, with 111.3 million people tuned in during last year’s Super Bowl LI.

The show is often compared to the China Central Television Spring Festival Gala, or Chunwan in Chinese, regarding the viewership. The latter is the Chinese state television’s special show produced for the Lunar New Year, held annually on the Eve of the Spring Festival, and is the most-watched TV program in China. Last year, the show was watched by over 700 million viewers.