The 2026 Superbowl featured a halftime performance by Bad Bunny, during the game the Seahawks faced off against the New England Patriots with a final score of 29-13. Bad Bunny made history as the first Latino solo artist to headline the Superbowl, The artist surpassed global viewership records, with over 4 billion views within 24 hours across platforms.
During his performance, Bad Bunny sang a mash-up of over ten different hit songs such as “Tití Me Preguntó” and “DtMF.” He brought out Lady Gaga to sing a Latin rendition of “Die With a Smile” during a real wedding held in the middle of the performance. He also brought out Ricky Martin to help him with the song “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii” which is about preserving Puerto Rico and against gentrification. He also included several of his other popular songs like “Gasolina” remixed in the background due to the short time slot of only 13 minutes. My personal favorite performance was “Safaera” where he sang on top of a pink house full of Latin American celebrities and had beautiful backup dancers giving their all underneath him. It was a perfect way to bring the hype up at the beginning of the performance after the more mellow opening song.
Choosing Bad Bunny for the halftime show caused controversy, mainly conservative backlash, because some viewers asserted that he wasn’t American enough. They argued that he didn’t represent real Americans because almost all of his songs are sung only in Spanish. Although this is true, he’s still from the American commonwealth Puerto Rico making him an American artist. The right also said he was Anti-American because of how out spoken he’s been against the atrocities ICE have committed across America towards Latin American immigrants. In retaliation, they hosted their own halftime show streamed on Turning Point USA, featuring an all white line up of Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett.
His performance was packed full of Puerto Rican culture and meaningful call backs. He kicked the performance off by portraying different Latin American dominated jobs like a piragua cart owner and a nail artist. He then transitioned to singing on top of “la casita” which was a pink traditional Puerto Rican house. He replicated an authentic Brooklyn block and invited the famous 85-year-old bar owner Toñitas, who’s known for her Puerto Rican bar that she’s kept open since the ‘70s. He danced on top of telephone poles as a reference to the unreliable power in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria in 2017. Finally, Bad Bunny closed off his performance by carrying out all the Latin American flags and naming off all the countries in the American continent to encourage unity during these trying times.
