Iconic Music Artists Who Lit Up The Dallas Cowboys’ Thanksgiving Halftime Show

For nearly 30 years the Dallas Cowboys have always tried to make their Thanksgiving Halftime shows ones to remember in the state of Texas. We've seen several huge names in pop, country & rock give some incredible halftime performances at the Dallas Cowboys games so let's look back some of the most famous ones.

The Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Halftime tradition got started back in 1997

The very first time the Cowboys had a special halftime show on Thanksgiving was in 1997 against their Texan rivals, the Houston Oilers at Texas Stadium. The game might have ended with an Oilers victory, but the very first artist to give a halftime performance at the Cowboys Thanksgiving games was one of the country queens, Reba McEntire.

The other two artists to perform during the 90s were Randy Travis in 1998 & Clint Black in 1999. The next decade would give us more memories...

The 2000s would give us some more incredible performances during the Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Halftime shows

From 2000-2009, we would see performances from huge names like Jessica Simpson (2000), Leann Rimes (2002), Toby Keith (2003), Destiny's Child (2004), Sheryl Crow (2005), Carrie Underwood (2006), Kelly Clarkson (2007), the Jonas Brothers (2008) & Daughtry (2009).

Of course we can't forget about the one that we ALL know. Possibly the most famous Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Halftime show... Creed's 2001 performance which can only be described in one word... INCREDIBLE.

The Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Halftime Shows would get even bigger in the 2010s

Keith Urban was the first artist to play the Thanksgiving Halftime Show in 2010; Enrique Iglesias was next to perform in 2011.

Kenny Chesney would play in 2012, Selena Gomez in 2013, Pitbull in 2014, Luke Bryan in 2015, Eric Church in 2016, Thomas Rhett in 2017, Meagan Trainor in 2018 & Ellie Goulding in 2019.

Here are some artists who have played the Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving Halftime shows in the 2020s

Kane Brown played the 2020 performance, Luke Combs in 2021, the Jonas Brothers (again) in 2022, Dolly Parton played the 2023 Thanksgiving Halftime show & Lainey Wilson will play the 2024 Thanksgiving Halftime show.

Fun Fact, the Cowboys record for playing Thanksgiving games since 1966 is 33-23-2; so the good news is that the Cowboys are usually favored to win the games on the big Turkey day.

We'll see who else gets added to this massive list of stars to play the Cowboys Thanksgiving Halftime shows in the future.

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