Jennifer Lopez and Shakira have promised to pay tribute to Kobe Bryant during the Super Bowl half-time show.

The game has one of the biggest global audiences and the NFL showpiece will see San Francisco 49ers face Kansas City Chiefs and the Latino superstars will hail the NBA star during their performance.

The game will take place a week after the death of Kobe, who died alongside his teenage daughter and seven others in a helicopter crash near Los Angeles.

During the Super Bowl press conference in Miami, Florida, on Thursday, Lopez and Shakira discussed Bryant and their plans for Sunday's show.

Lopez said there will be a "heartfelt" moment during the performance, but did not go into detail.

Lopez said her fiancé, the retired baseball player Alex Rodriguez, knew Bryant and his wife Vanessa and told her about the accident.

"Alex came to me with tears in his eyes, and he's like, 'You're not going to believe what happened,"' she said.

"He was devastated. He knew Kobe really well. I knew Kobe and Vanessa more in passing. He had come to my last show in Vegas - the both of them - as a date night and we had a beautiful night that night."

Lopez, who alongside Shakira will be the first Latina women on the Super Bowl stage since Gloria Estafan, added: "I think of how awful that must be for her (Vanessa) right now.

"I've just been praying that God guides her through every moment because she has three more babies to take care of and just wishing that the nightmare was over but it's not going to be. That's life and we have to carry on. But at the same time, it affects us and it will affect us forever."

Colombian Shakira, who has released music in Spanish and English, said Sunday's show will celebrate Bryant and diversity.

She added: "I think we will all be remembering Kobe on Sunday. We'll be celebrating life, and celebrating diversity in this country."