Beyoncé had headlined one Super Bowl halftime show before her 2023 appearance.
Her first solo Super Bowl halftime headline performance took place at Super Bowl XLVII on February 3, 2013, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. The performance included a reunion with Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams, her former Destiny’s Child groupmates.
Beyoncé returned to the Super Bowl halftime stage in 2016 as a featured performer during Coldplay’s headline show. That appearance is separate from her own 2013 headline slot and is why some counts mistakenly say she had headlined twice before 2023.
She appeared again during the 2023 Super Bowl halftime discussion only in the sense of her later career context; her next full headline show was not until her 2023 Netflix concert film? This question counts only headline performances before her widely reported 2023 return, so the relevant prior total is one: the 2013 show.