Serena, Drake, and the Super Bowl
The backstory on Serena Williams' backup dancing for Kendrick Lamar's halftime show.
I was greatly enjoying watching the Philadelphia Eagles—of whom I am a devoted fairweather fan1—dominate Super Bowl LIX when my phone lit up.
Was that Serena?
Indeed it was!
Seeing Serena Williams popping up during a Super Bowl isn’t surprising; two years ago Serena was in ads for two different alcohol brands—Remy Martin and Michelob Ultra—before the first quarter had even ended.
But this time, Serena was there at the big game in person. And she wasn’t just there in the crowd, she was gleefully dancing on a grave for four vivid seconds on screen, hearkening back to my memories of one of the most memorable celebrity hangers-on in my years covering tennis.
This is entirely more gossipy than standard Bounces fare, but since Serena’s surprise appearance became a news event tonight, here’s the story of why she was there.
Serena and Drake
Drake—the Canadian rapper whom I admittedly knew best from his acting work on one of my sister’s favorite shows, Degrassi: The Next Generation—became a suddenly constant presence in Serena’s orbit midway through one of her most successful seasons, 2015.
I first remember seeing Drake that year at Wimbledon, sitting next to Venus during Serena’s quarterfinal win over Victoria Azarenka. Serena was near the peak of her pop culture preeminence then, and was collecting celebrities as she progressed toward an elusive calendar-year Grand Slam. By the time she made it to the Wimbledon final, her player box had more star power than the adjacent Royal Box, with Drake joined by the likes of Anna Wintour.
Drake wasn’t acting like the typical celebrity cameo, though, who would show up for a match and then leave. He trailed Serena around the Wimbledon facilities like a puppy, following her wherever he could. Most memorably for me, Drake sidled into an empty seat next to me at one of Serena’s post-match Wimbledon press conferences.
It wasn’t shocking that Drake was also there when Serena played in Toronto a month later, since that’s his hometown. But I was genuinely stunned to see Drake trailing Serena to her next tournament after that, too, schlepping to the far-flung Cincinnati suburb of Mason, Ohio to remain by her side.2
I still remember interviewing Serena’s coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, in the player lounge in Mason after Serena won the tournament, as Drake sat on a nearby armchair and eavesdropped until Serena returned from the locker room and pulled him away.
Drake was clearly very, very into Serena, but it was never clear how serious Serena was about him. As it happened, Serena had already met her future husband, Alexis Ohanian, a few months earlier in Rome.
Drake also followed Serena to New York—where he attended the heartbreaking loss in the U.S. Open semifinals to Roberta Vinci that ended her Grand Slam bid—and later her fashion show where she showed off her HSN clothing line.
When I next saw Serena in New York—at the December banquet where she accepted her 2015 Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year award—Ohanian was there as her plus-one. Ohanian has occupied that role for Serena ever since, formalizing the status in their 2017 wedding.
Serena moved on from Drake, but Drake seemed to have a much tougher time moving on from Serena.
Seven long years after whatever their relationship had been, Drake addressed Serena and Ohanian in his 2022 track “Middle of the Ocean”:
”Sidebar, Serena, your husband a groupie / He claim we don't got a problem but / No boo, it is like you coming for sushi.”
Of all the insults for Drake to come up with, “groupie” was a wild projection by Drake as he addressed about the guy who actually married, settled down and had a kid with a woman whom he used to follow around on the tour.
The couple, fresh off their five-year anniversary, enjoyed responding to the diss together. “The reason I stay winning is because I’m relentless about being the absolute best at whatever I do,” Ohanian wrote, “including being the best groupie for my wife & daughter.”
The 23-time major champion replied below her husband’s response with several smitten, satisfied emojis.
Famously, it wasn’t the last time Drake’s attempt at a dig would get shown up by a response.
Serena’s Super Bowl Shuffle
After Kendrick Lamar won a lopsided rap feud with Drake in 2024 that culminated with his track “Not Like Us”—in which he insinuated things that buried Drake with such success that Drake eventually filed a lawsuit—Lamar was named the halftime performer for Super Bowl LIX.
As he planned his showcase, Lamar invited Serena to that iconic stage for her own chance to make her thoughts on Drake clear in front of the world.
After an early celebrity cameo by Samuel L. Jackson in a speaking role, the show reached its peak near the end with Lamar performing “Not Like Us” as Serena, who shares Compton roots with Kendrick, was shown dancing a Crip Walk, the same dance she’d famously done on Centre Court after winning a gold medal in the 2012 Olympics.
Serena has long enjoyed dancing, and has some prior experience doing it in front of big crowds, including recreating her cameo in Beyoncé’s “Sorry” music video during the subsequent Lemonade tour.
Serena had never danced, though, in front of anything like the crowd watching Super Bowl LIX around the world.
But Serena also has rarely turned down a big stage—or an opportunity to deliver a heavy blow when holding a grudge—so her appearance tonight made perfect sense to me…and certainly struck a chord.
Go Birds.
Drake wore a big, red puffy jacket to try to blend into the crowd at the summer tournament, unsuccessfully.
THIS was the article we needed Ben. Thank you!
Unpopular opinion that tennis fans may yell at me for: I am exhausted by Serena's continued presence and need for attention in American culture/the tennis world and think it has been great for tennis to have lots of fresh faces and total unpredictability at Grand Slams the past few years, which gave us winners ranging from Iga to Aryna to Marketa to Coco to Madison just a few weeks ago. So much more fun. Just feel she is still overexposed, especially after her multiple documentaries on every facet of her life.
And separately from tennis, Kendrick's beef with Drake is also exhausting at this point. I'm fine with picking on sleazes, but that applies to about half of the music industry, many of whom were close with now-jailed Diddy and many of whom (including Kendrick) are close with Dr. Dre, an actual admitted woman beater.