Ludacris Joins Chris Stapleton and Cindy Blackman Santana for "Monday Night Football" Anthem

Ludacris is set to join Chris Stapleton and Cindy Blackman Santana as part of this season's rendition of Monday Night Football's adopted Phil Collins anthem, "In The Air Tonight."

What's Happening:

• ESPN’s Monday Night Football will once again open with the sounds of Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight,” as Chris Stapleton and Cindy Blackman Santana return as the anchor for a fourth consecutive season, joined for the first time by Grammy Award-winning rapper, actor and entrepreneur Ludacris.
• The new rendition of “In the Air Tonight” will debut as Monday Night Football begins ESPN’s Super Bowl LXI season. 
• Stapleton and Blackman Santana have helped reimagine the song for football fans since 2023. This season, Ludacris adds his distinctive voice and presence to the opening, blending music, culture and football in a way only Monday Night Football can.
• The new opening track will lead into each Monday Night Football game this season, premiering in Week 1 when the Broncos and Chiefs face off on Sept. 14, at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN and ABC.
• The performance of the song has been a staple of the Monday Night Football brand, helping transform Collins’ classic into the soundtrack of football’s biggest stage.
• Together with Ludacris, the trio delivers a fresh take on the song while preserving the energy and anticipation fans associate with the weekly broadcast.
• ESPN enters its first Super Bowl season with its largest NFL game portfolio ever, featuring 28 games plus Super Bowl LXI on Feb. 14, 2027. 
• Monday Night Football returns with the award-winning team of Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge, beginning with a Week 1 AFC West showdown between the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs.

What They're Saying:

• ESPN VP, Production, and Executive Producer of the In the Air Tonight project, Julie McGlone: “Chris and Cindy have helped make ‘In the Air Tonight’ an integral part of the Monday Night Football experience over the last three seasons. Adding Ludacris to the legacy MNF anthem brings a new dimension to the creative and continues our tradition of celebrating the intensity, anticipation and shared emotion of American sports culture, where music, competition and spectacle come together to make each game feel like a cultural event... the success of this open is also a testament to the incredible creative vision of Rico Labbe, who has served as creative director since its debut in 2023, and Amanda Paschal, whose work as producer has helped bring the project to life season after season.”

The Song:

• Phil Collins' first major solo single, "In The Air Tonight," was originally released back in 1981.
• Growing out of a difficult time in Collins' life, the song is an unconventional breakup song (as his first marriage to Andrea Bertorelli was falling apart) taking on a tone that was darker and more ambiguous. The lyrics are impressionistic on purpose, with a tone that is full of anger and betrayal, but don't outright explain what actually happened.
• Despite those lyrics, it's the drum fill that the song is arguably most known for, becoming one of the most recognizable moments in pop music to this day.
• Almost 40 years later, the song took on a new life in 2020 as a new generation was introduced to the song via YouTube video and memes, all using that buildup of over three minutes before that famous Drum moment hits.
• The song was adopted for Monday Night Football in 2023, completely reworked and now performed by Stapleton, Blackman Santana, and Snoop Dogg - who had performed football-themed rap verses.
• The choice to tap this song as the new anthem for the weekly broadcast came as part of an effort to connect Monday Night Football with the nostalgia of its classic TV history and gave the song a more cinematic and dramatic feel compared to a previous anthem, "All My Rowdy Friends," and turning the famous Drums of the Collins classic to become the sound of anticipating a football game.