Just days after her bravura performance at President Joe Biden’s inauguration where she read her poem ‘The Hill we Climb’, the 22-year-old poet Amanda Gorman has been booked for the coveted half-time slot at American Football’s Super Bowl in Tampa Florida on 7 February.
It will be the first time anyone from the world of books has appeared at Super Bowl and will undoubtedly give her profile, and the profile of poetry and writing, another huge boost. It comes on the back of strong pre-sales of her forthcoming books and the news that she has signed with IMG Models, the agency that represents the models Kate Moss, Gisele Bündchen and Gigi Hadid, as well as a variety of figures from the entertainment world, among them the TV personality Chrissy Teigen and the singer Selena Gomez.
According to Good Morning America, Gorman will recite a different poem during the half-time break in the match between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The occasion is the championship game of the National Football League.
Gorman joins a roll-call of artists who have performed at Super Bowl, among them Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Coldplay, U2, Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga, who, of course, also appeared at the presidential inauguration.
Super Bowl regular attracts high TV audiences of 100m-plus, although in recent years the figure has dropped to around 95m. Appearances at the event by bands and singers are famous for boosting album sales – and in the case of Gorman will surely add on even more pre-publication orders for her books and have an unquantifiable effect on school children, showing them that poetry and writing are cool.