By Myrtle Davies

NHL Public Relations

NEW YORK / CHICAGO (Dec. 5, 2024) – The National Hockey League (NHL) today announced Chicago’s own Chance The Rapper and The Smashing Pumpkins will lead the entertainment for the Discover NHL Winter Classic, the Dec. 31 outdoor game at Wrigley Field between the Chicago Blackhawks and St. Louis Blues at 4 p.m. CT / 5 p.m. ET (TNT, truTV, Max, SN, TVAS).

Chicago born and raised, Chance The Rapper is known worldwide for his iconic mixtapes, including Acid Rap and Coloring Book. The Grammy Award-winning hip hop artist, whose portrayal of NHL rinkside reporter Lazlo Holmes in a Saturday Night Live sketch was a cultural phenomenon, will return to the rink to headline an intermission performance during the Blues-Blackhawks outdoor game in his hometown. Chance’s current project, Star Line, is an interdisciplinary endeavor that combines art, music, cinematography and community. It showcases collaborative works with esteemed fine artists from both The Continent and The Diaspora.

Alternative rock juggernauts The Smashing Pumpkins, who formed as a band in Chicago and have sold more than 30 million albums worldwide, will kick start the festivities at the Discover NHL Winter Classic with a performance before the game begins.

Portions of both performances, which will be produced by NHL Entertainment, will be featured in the game broadcast.

A limited number of tickets to the Discover NHL Winter Classic are available for purchase via Ticketmaster, the official ticketing partner of the NHL.

The Discover NHL Winter Classic continues the tradition the League established in 2008 of hosting a regular-season outdoor game at the onset of the new year. The game will be the 16th NHL Winter Classic and the 42nd NHL regular-season outdoor game.

For the most up-to-date schedule of events and information, fans should visit NHL.com/WinterClassic. Join the conversation on social media by following @NHL and @PR_NHL and using the official hashtag #WinterClassic.

About Chance The Rapper:

Hailed as “a generational voice” by GQ and “an outstanding role model” by President Barack Obama, Chicago-born multi-Grammy award winner Chance The Rapper has built a multi-faceted career, redefining what it means to be an independent artist.

Born and raised in Chicago, Chance made history in 2017 by becoming the first artist to win a Grammy for a streaming-only mixtape, earning three awards for “Best New Artist,” “Best Rap Performance,” and “Best Rap Album” for his now-iconic Coloring Book. Chance’s groundbreaking mixtape Acid Rap, which soared to #5 on the Billboard 200 when it was released on digital streaming platforms in 2019, remains a defining symbol of independent hip hop. Notably, Chance has never signed a record deal, choosing instead to make his music available for free.

Currently, Chance is curating all aspects of his interdisciplinary Star Line project, from the mixtape to the visual-driven companion, Star Line Gallery, which seamlessly blends fine art, music, and cinematography in collaboration with fine artists from The Continent and The Diaspora. Works in this project have been showcased globally at renowned venues including Art Basel, Expo Chicago, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), The Art Institute of Chicago, and Los Angeles’ Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA).

Through his nonprofit organization SocialWorks, Chance aims to inspire and empower youth through arts, education and civic engagement. Since 2016, SocialWorks has contributed $10M to the Chicagoland community, impacting approximately 10k students annually. Chance recently organized a self-funded free festival in Accra, Ghana that drew more than 52,000 attendees. The “Black Star Line Festival” was founded with a mission to foster cultural exchange between Black people of The Continent and the global Diaspora.

Alongside his music, Chance’s expanding career also includes film and television credits. In 2021, he became the first artist to independently distribute a film through AMC Theatres via his Magnificent Coloring World concert film, written, produced, edited and distributed by Chance himself. His portrayal of the character Herbert on the HBO Max series Southside earned Chance a 2023 NAACP Image Award nomination for Outstanding Guest Performance. Chance made his highly-anticipated debut as a coach on Season 23 of The Voice in 2023, and returned as a coach for Season 25 in 2024.

About The Smashing Pumpkins:

The Smashing Pumpkins are one of the most iconic, iconoclastic, and influential bands of all time, shaping alternative music and culture. Since forming in Chicago during 1988, the group has sold over 30 million albums worldwide and garnered two GRAMMY® Awards, two MTV VMAs, and an American Music Award. Their catalog includes seminal offerings such as the platinum Gish (1991), the quadruple-platinum Siamese Dream (1993), the diamond-certified Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995), the platinum Adore (1998), and the gold Machina/The Machines of God (2000). Rolling Stone cited both Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness among its “500 Greatest Albums of All Time.” Alternative music and culture have been influenced by the band’s signature iconography, such as the idyllic album artwork for Siamese Dream, the black Zero shirt, the laissez faire bliss of the “1979” music video, the gothic metamorphosis of “Ava Adore,” and the multi-dimensional live shows that continue to sell out worldwide. In 2018, The Smashing Pumpkins unveiled SHINY AND OH SO BRIGHT, VOL. 1 / LP: NO PAST. NO FUTURE. NO SUN. and launched the Shiny and Oh So Bright Tour, which packed arenas. The band released their 11th full-length double album CYR (2020), representing yet another evolution, and more recently, ATUM (2023), the sequel to 1995’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and 2000’s Machina/Machine of God. The band’s latest 2024 album, Aghori Mhori Mei, written in the immediate aftermath of ATUM, sees a return to form for original members Billy Corgan, Jimmy Chamberlin, and James Iha, and harkens back to the band’s early 90’s canon in which guitars, bass, drums, and spiking vocals ruled.

COURTESY NHL PUBLIC RELATIONS