As San Jose attempts to compete with San Francisco for programming around the marquee sporting events coming to the Bay Area in 2026, the city has announced a potentially controversial artist as a headlining act for a Super Bowl week event.
Kehlani — an Oakland-native and Grammy-nominated R&B artist whose past comments about the Israel-Gaza War previously led to event cancellations or the withdrawal of sponsorships in other cities — will perform at a gigantic block party put on in partnership with San Jose Foos on Feb. 6 in front of City Hall.
Remarks supporting Palestinians, including calls for a ceasefire, and criticisms of the Israeli government had led to previous accusations from community groups and event organizers that the non-binary musician espoused antisemitic views, which the artist had vehemently denied.
In an interview with The Mercury News, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan defended the selection of Kehlani, warning of the dangers of cancel culture and deplatforming artists for expressing their First Amendment rights.
“Politicizing the personal political views of artists is a slippery slope,” Mahan said in an interview on Thursday. “Kehlani is one of many artists we will have performing in San Jose in 2026 around these major sporting events and she has her views on what’s going on in Gaza. We may have artists who are on the opposite side of that and have strong pro-Israel views, if you want to call it that. We may have other artists who don’t care or don’t have an opinion. And my view is outside of hate speech or inciting violence or the kind of speech that really crosses the line, I believe we ought to support the free speech of all of our residents and of public artisans or performers.”
In preparation for the Super Bowl, NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament games and FIFA World Cup matches taking place in Silicon Valley next year, San Jose officials have stressed the importance of capitalizing on the opportunity to draw visitors to the city while also creating memorable fan experiences for them and residents.
The city has invested in planning “events around the events,” including at least 100 watch parties, and several low-cost concerts featuring national headliners and drone or light shows around gamedays.
“My north star has been to ensure that there is a robust fan experience in San Jose for visitors and our residents to celebrate what makes our city and region a great place to live and ensure that our residents can participate in the festivities, even if they can’t afford a ticket to the big game,” Mahan said. “We want to show off our city and region. We want to help reinforce downtown as a destination.”
With the Feb.8 Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium a little more than two months out, San Jose already knows that most of the entertainment events it hosts in the leadup to the big game will run counter to NFL-sponsored programming in San Francisco. While San Jose will host the Opening Night media event on Feb. 2 at the McEnery Convention Center, the NFL is sponsoring the lion’s share of fan events and concerts in San Francisco during Super Bowl week.
The question remains whether the acts San Jose brings during the sporting events will allow the city to reach its goals.
Mahan pointed to the success of the San Jose Foos event earlier this year, where the organization built a block party around the artist Fisher in front of City Hall, as a reason for optimism.
“One of the things I loved about Fisher was seeing all these young people from the Peninsula in San Francisco and the East Bay, taking public transit to downtown San Jose for a world-class concert,” Mahan said. “I think with Kehlani, you’re going to see people from all over the region because she’s born and raised in Oakland — kind of a local legend — but also a nationally and internationally known musician.”
But Kehlani’s appearances elsewhere have sometimes brought fierce pushback as recently as a few months ago.
One of her concert’s was cancelled in New York’s Central Park earlier this year over security concerns. It followed the cancellation of another event at Cornell University, where President Michael Kotlkoff rescinded an invitation to Kelhani after an uproar of anger over “anti-semitic, anti-Israeli sentiments in performances, videos and on social media.”
In a video posted earlier this year, Kehlani denied that she was “antisemitic or anti-Jew,” and said the past comments resurfaced as a way to silence or stop the artist’s career opportunities.
“I am anti-genocide, I am anti-actions of the Israeli government, I am anti-extermination of an entire people,” Kehlani said.
Despite the impassioned defense, it still led to future trouble, as some sponsors, including the University of California, San Diego, and its health system, and high-ranking officials, pulled their support from a San Diego Pride event that she was scheduled to perform in July.
“Due to concerns regarding the headlining performer’s history of expressing blatantly antisemitic views, we have made the decision to withdraw our sponsorship, financial support and participation in the Pride Festival,” the university wrote in a statement earlier this year.
The selection of Kehlani also comes after the NFL faced backlash for booking Bad Bunny as its halftime show performer. Some conservatives and right-wing talking heads had criticized Bad Bunny not only for his songs being in Spanish but also for his decision not to tour in the U.S., which was partly due to concerns over immigration enforcement actions.
“I think we should separate the artist and their art from their political views,” Mahan said. “I do think there are lines and I don’t want to pretend that anything goes and that we would never raise the question and have a serious debate about it.”