The “Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show” in Santa Clara, Calif., made headlines months before the actual performance.
On Sept. 28, 2025, Apple Music, Roc Nation — who has produced every Super Bowl halftime show since 2020’s Super Bowl LIV — and the National Football League (NFL) announced Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny would headline the halftime show of the NFL’s Diamond Anniversary championship game.
Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Marquez Ocasio, is a six-time Grammy Award winner, including Album of the Year and Best Musical Global Performance of 2025. He is the first Latino or Spanish-speaking artist to be nominated simultaneously for Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Song of the Year. He was also named 2025’s Artist of the Year by Billboard magazine.
This was Bad Bunny’s first time as a headliner at the Super Bowl halftime show, but not his first appearance. He was brought out by headliners Shakira and Bronx, N.Y., native Jennifer Lopez during Super Bowl LIV. Bad Bunny is the first Latino artist to headline the Super Bowl halftime show as a solo performer, a distinction that was not lost on him.
“What I’m feeling goes beyond myself. It’s for those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come and score a touchdown,” Bad Bunny said in a statement released by the NFL.
Support for the three-time Granny Award winner
The choice of Bad Bunny to headline the Super Bowl halftime show was a no-brainer, according to Shawn Carter, CEO of Roc Nation, who moonlights as the rapper Jay-Z.
“What Benito has done and continues to do for Puerto Rico is truly inspiring. We are honored to have him on the world’s biggest stage,” Carter said in a press release.
“He’s one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a press conference after the announcement. “That’s what we try to achieve. It’s an important stage for us. It’s an important element to the entertainment value, and it’s carefully thought through.”
Gloria Estefan, a naturalized Cuban American who performed at three Super Bowl Halftime Shows (Super Bowls XXVI and XXXIII as a solo artist and Super Bowl XXIX as a member of the Miami Sound Machine), praised Bad Bunny on an episode of “The Sherri Shepherd Show” and stressed the need to “have more Latino representation in this particular moment.”
Why this Super Bowl halftime show is important
The NFL, despite being the most popular of the four major North American sports leagues, is always looking to increase its viewership. The league identified the Latino audience (both domestically and globally) as critically important.
The NFL has played an annual game at Mexico City’s Estado Banorte since 2016 and, in the past, have featured games in Brazil (Säo Paulo’s Arena Corinthians in 2024 and Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã in 2025 with plans for a game in 2026).
Furthermore, the league played its first game at Madrid’s Bernaéu this past season. The NFL also created the Por La Cultura initiative that connects “Latino players to their familial home countries to meet their global fans, spread awareness of the sport, and grow connections beyond the U.S.”
“I think when you have a successful product, you’re a little bound to your success,” said Olek Loewenstein, global president of sports at TelevisaUnivision. “I mean, there’s very little success that [the NFL] can achieve within the regular American U.S. [English] speaking population.”
Lowenstein also believes the Latino population “is one of the largest, if not the largest, demographic that’s growing and younger in the U.S.” He also noted Latinos tend to follow soccer, baseball and boxing.
Marissa Solis, senior NFL vice president of global brand and consumer marketing, who was brought in to “get momentum behind our growth audiences,” said: “It’s mathematically impossible for the league to grow without Latinos. This audience is critical for our growth … because there’s so much cross-border connection and pride, and the fandom crosses borders.”
Solis also pointed out that there are an estimated 40 million Latino NFL fans. According to a 2025 report from McKinsey and Company, Latinos will likely make up approximately one-third of all U.S. sports fans by 2035.
The skeptics and the outraged
The selection of Bad Bunny to headline the Super Bowl halftime show was also met with “skepticism” and “outrage”, which was laughable at best because many of those who had those feelings over the selection couldn’t even identify him.
The president of the United States had much to say about Bad Bunny’s selection, as usual.
“I never heard of him, I don’t know who he is,” Donald Trump said in an interview with Greg Kelly on Newsmax a week after Bad Bunny’s selection was announced, “I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s, like, crazy. And then they blame it on some promoter that they hired to pick up entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Bad Bunny has been outspoken about Trump’s immigration policies. In the waning days of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, comedian Tony Hinchcliffe referred to Puerto Rico as “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean,” during a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Bad Bunny responded by posting the beaches of Puerto Rico on his Instagram page. He also posted several videos of former Vice President Kamala Harris that were very critical of Trump on Instagram.
What sticks out in the president’s craw the most is Bad Bunny’s video for his “NUEVAYoL” single, featuring a faux Trump voice saying, “I want to apologize to the immigrants of America” and “this country is nothing without the immigrants.”
Bad Bunny admitted to purposely skipping concert dates on the U.S. mainland because of fears fans could be targeted by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the U.S., and none of them were out of hate-I’ve performed there many times. All of [the shows] have been successful. All of them have been magnificent. I’ve enjoyed connecting with Latinos who have been living in the U.S.,” Bad Bunny said in an interview with i-D magazine.
“But specifically, for a residency in Puerto Rico, when we are an unincorporated territory of the U.S. … People from the U.S. could come here and see the show. Latinos and Puerto Ricans of the United States could also travel here, or to any part of the world. But there was the issue of-like, f****** ICE could be outside (my concert). And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”
Bad Bunny made his feelings about ICE crystal clear during the Grammy Awards, which took place approximately one week before Super Bowl LX. He began his acceptance speech for Best Música Urbana Album with, “Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say: ICE out!”
President Trump wasn’t the only government official with “skepticism” and “outrage”.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson was asked to weigh in on Bad Bunny’s selection. His response mirrored Trump’s, to the surprise of no one.
“I didn’t even know who Bad Bunny was,” Johnson said. “But it sounds like a terrible decision, in my view.”
Didn’t Speaker Johnson say he didn’t know who Bad Bunny was? When asked why he felt it was “a terrible decision”, Johnson put his foot deeper into his mouth.
‘It sounds like he’s not someone who appeals to a broader audience,” he said.
Even though Bad Bunny was Spotify’s most streamed artist globally in 2025 with more than 19.8 billion streams, Speaker Johnson suggested 82-year-old country singer Lee Greenwood, supposedly President Trump’s favorite singer. Greenwood, who sang his signature “God Bless The U.S.A.” at both the 1984 and 1988 Republican National Conventions, and had a little more than four million streams last year.
“There’s so many eyes on the Super Bowl-a lot of young, impressionable children,” Johnson said. “And, in my view, you would have Lee Greenwood, or role models, doing that. Not somebody like this.”
Trump’s administration also participated in the Bad Bunny bashing.
Corey Lewandoski, a senior adviser with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), warned ICE agents would be present at the Super Bowl. He took to the air during an October episode of Benny Johnson’s podcast to pontificate.
“There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally,” Lewandoski said. “Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else. We will find you and apprehend you and put you in a detention facility and deport you.”
Lewandoski also threw a thinly veiled dart at the NFL and Roc Nation.
“It’s so shameful they’ve decided to pick somebody who hates America so much to represent them at the halftime game,” he said.
Rep. Johnson later asked DHS Secretary Kristi Noem if there would be “ICE enforcement” in Santa Clara. Noem responded with the bluster that seems commonplace in this current administration.
“I have the responsibility for making sure everybody goes to the Super Bowl, has the opportunity to enjoy it, and to leave,” Noem said. She also added that people shouldn’t attend the Super Bowl unless they are “law-abiding Americans who love this country.”
How the controversy spread beyond the government
Daily Wire contributor Benny Johnson took to X, referring to Bad Bunny as a “massive Trump hater” and “anti-ICE activist” who “has no songs in English.” Johnson also criticized Bad Bunny for cancelling concert dates on the U.S. mainland out of fear ICE would target his concerts.
Author Jack Posobiec blamed Roc Nation and its head Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter (referred to as “Barack Obama’s best friend”) for Bad Bunny’s inclusion.
Former music video director turned anti-Diversity. Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) activist Robby Starbuck has a problem with Bad Bunny from a statement the Grammy Award winner made in 2022: “I highly doubt the type of gringos I don’t f*** with listen to me.” Starbuck, who identifies as Latino and took offense to Bad Bunny’s use of the word “gringo,” directed his nearly one million X followers to file complaints with the NFL.
Mario Nawfal believes “the average halftime viewer in Des Moines doesn’t speak fluent reggaeton.” He was also critical of the NFL for selecting a Super Bowl halftime show headliner that “doesn’t sing in the dominant language, won’t tour here because of immigration policy, and despises a leading presidential candidate.”
Two Pro Football Hall of Famers spoke out about Bad Bunny as well.
Eric Dickerson, a running back widely regarded as one of the best in the history of the sport, made it abundantly clear he wasn’t going to watch the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
“If he don’t like the U.S., don’t come here to perform,” Dickerson said in October. “I heard some stuff he said about the United States. I’m from the U.S. I love my country. If you don’t like the United States, get your [butt] out of here, don’t come over here.”
Quarterback Brett Favre, who has been in the news for less than savory conduct, said in an X post: “Not familiar with Bad Bunny so don’t know if his music is good or bad. I’m just going watch what I know [country singer] Lee Brice, [musician] Kid Rock All-American Halftime Show.”
The All-American halftime show
Two weeks after the announcement of Bad Bunny headlining Super Bowl LX’s Halftime Show, conservative right-wing group Turning Point USA (TPUSA) announced it would host “The All-American Halftime Show” describing it as a celebration of “American culture, freedom and faith”.
“We set out to provide an entertainment option that will be fun, excellent, and exciting for the entire family while millions are gathered together for the big game,” TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet said in a statement. “These performers will deliver exactly that, and we can’t wait to watch the incredible show they’re about to put on. We know millions around the country will be watching too.”
The Turning Point USA event’s lineup included headliners Kid Rock, a vocal supporter of President Trump and country singer Lee Brice. The “All-American Halftime Show” was available for streaming on TPUSA’s YouTube and Rumble accounts, as well as Sinclair Broadcast Group’s Charge!, The National News Desk, DailyWire+, Trinity Broadcasting Network, Real America’s Voice, One America News Network and NTD America.
There was an attempt to simulcast the event’s feed on X that was stopped due to what TPUSA called “licensing restrictions.”
The alternative Super Bowl halftime show was pre-taped at a studio in Atlanta in front of an audience of 200. Before the performances, a video from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth played, declaring support for the show and the 250th anniversary of the United States.
Super Bowl LX’s halftime show was 13 minutes, 41 seconds long
A segment of Levi Stadium was turned into a sugarcane field. The stage was also divided into smaller sections that Bad Bunny walked through as he sang about “real people in everyday life that are celebrating the Latin community.” There were more than 300 dancers and the stage itself was mobile.
In addition to dancing and music, there was an actual wedding by a couple who previously invited Bad Bunny to attend their nuptials. The halftime show also featured guest appearances from Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin and Los Pleneros de la Cresta.
There were also special appearances by rapper Cardi B., singers Karol G and Young Miko, actors Jessica Alba and Pedro Pascal, Major League Baseball outfielder Ronald Acuña, boxers Emiliano Vargas and Xander Zayas and restaurateur David Grutman, who were dancing in the background of the stage.
The controversy continues
President Trump acted like a petulant child in response to the show, to the surprise of no one. He went on TruthSocial to do exactly what is expected of him.
“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence. Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the world.
“This ‘Show’ is just ‘a slap in the face’ to our Country, which is setting new standards and records every single day-including the Best Stock Market and 401(k)s in History! There is nothing inspirational about this mess of a Halftime Show and watch, it will great reviews from the Fake News Media, because they haven’t got a clue of what’s going on in the REAL WORLD.”
President Trump had much to say about a halftime show he said he wasn’t going to watch four months ago.
Missouri Rep. Mark Alford has suggested the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) should investigate Bad Bunny.
“On the Bad Bunny bad performance at the Super Bowl…we’re still investigating this. There’s a lot of information that has come out about the lyrics,” Alford said during a February 10 appearance on Newsmax. “I saw the halftime show … We were switching back and forth with the TPUSA halftime show. The lyrics from what we’ve seen from Bad Bunny are very disturbing.”
Alford also admitted he doesn’t “speak fluent Spanish” but added, “if it’s true what was said on national television, we have a lot of questions for the entities that broadcast this and we’ll be talking with [Chairman] Brendan Carr from the FCC about this.”
Alford added, “This could be much worse than the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction [during the Super Bowl XXXIII Halftime Show], let’s put it that way.”
Florida Rep. Randy Fine made a formal request for the FCC to investigate Bad Bunny’s performance. Fine called the show “pornographic” and “filthy” and demands “dramatic action, including fines and broadcast license reviews” against broadcast network NBC and its sister networks, the NFL and Bad Bunny himself.
Alford and Tennessee’s Andy Ogles followed suit, with Ogles posting his displeasure on X using phrases like ‘pure smut,” “explicit displays of gay sexual acts, women gyrating provocatively,” and lyrics that “openly glorified sodomy and countless other unspeakable depravities.”
Incidentally, the FCC found Bad Bunny’s performance did not violate any rules prohibiting “language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities.” He censored his songs during the performance, much to the chagrin of people who complain about him.
Men & women lie, numbers don’t
According to Billboard, Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show was the fourth-most watched in history with 128.2 million viewers. Rapper Kendrick Lamar (2025-Super Bowl LIX: 133.5 million viewers), King of Pop Michael Jackson (1993-Super Bowl XXVII: 133.4 million viewers) and singer Usher (2024-Super Bowl LVIII: 129.3 million viewers) are the only halftime show headliners with more viewers.
NBC reported Super Bowl LX’s Telemundo simulcast averaged 3.3 million viewers with a peak of 4.8 million during the halftime show, making this the most-watched Super Bowl in Spanish-language network history. Bad Bunny also set records with over four billion views on social media during the first 24 hours after Super Bowl LX, adding to his profile as a global artist.
At the same time, more than half — 55% — of all NFL views came from outside the U.S.
Why TPUSA’s ‘All-American Halftime Show’ didn’t measure up
TPUSA’s “All-American Halftime Show” wasn’t nearly as successful, though it’s difficult to gauge numbers because Nielsen, the company that measures TV viewership, didn’t monitor the show.
There were an estimated 5.7 to 6 million views on YouTube and another 3 million views on Rumble. Kid Rock’s performance left viewers and commentators wondering if he were lip synching as the movement of his mouth and the recorded audio didn’t appear to be in synch.
Vanity Fair called the event “exceptionally boring” and “a spectacular failure” even though the show was “a 35-minute ad for Turning Point USA,” while noting the event “was never meant to entertain. It was explicitly born out of hate-for Bad Bunny specifically and hate for Spanish speakers’ writ large.”
Wired’s Miles Klee wrote “TPUSA’s star-spangled jamboree wasn’t particularly message-driven or even provocative.” He also noted the irony of the release of millions of pages of the Epstein files and the lyrics of Kid Rock’s 2001 song “Cool, Daddy Cool,” which is about having sexual intercourse with underage girls.
Ethan Millman of The Hollywood Reporter said “The All-American Halftime Show,” “delivered nearly half an hour of religiously charged star-spangled country music veering on jingoism and cringe.” Millman pointed out that Bad Bunny has 90.5 million Spotify listeners compared to Kid Rock’s 5.8 million. He also suggested the notion of TPUSA’s event competing with the NFL’s was “dubious at best.”
Variety’s Chris Willman noted that there were no mentions of Bad Bunny and concluded, “the 35-minute program offered a set of mild, largely non-political performances that could have been mistaken for a vintage CMT or Nashville Network special.”
Willman’s colleague William Earl wasn’t nearly as complimentary. He insulted TPUSA’s event as “a slapdash night of music that seemed half-hearted from the start … unfortunately, the ‘All-American Halftime Show’ was unable to evoke much more than a shrug, with half-hearted pop-country performances that showed the limitations of booking a big show with minimal talent.”
Earl wrote that Bad Bunny’s performance ended with the words “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.” TPUSA’s show ended with the words “Get Involved” and a QR code requesting donations.
Behind the controversy
The real question is why Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show performance was vilified by certain segments of the population. There are certain excuses that have been flying around since Bad Bunny’s selection was announced in September.
The stupidest reason of all is the notion that Bad Bunny is not American and shouldn’t play at the Super Bowl. Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican by birth. Any individual born in the 50 states or nearly every inhabited territory is a citizen by birthright. Puerto Ricans have been U.S. citizens since 1917, more than a century ago.
In addition, non-Americans have been featured at the Super Bowl halftime show with no fanfare or complaints.
Shakira, who is Colombian, shared the stage with Jennifer Lopez. Coldplay, a London rock band, headlined Super Bowl 50’s show while The Who, another London band, was featured during Super Bowl XLIV. The Rolling Stones and Paul McCartney were Super Bowl halftime show headliners in consecutive years at Super Bowl XXXIX and XL.
Great Britain’s Phil Collins and Spain’s Enrique Iglesias were part of the festivities during the intermission of Super Bowl XXXIV. The NFL featured Ireland’s U2 in the first Super Bowl after the 9/11 attacks and Canada’s Shania Twain a year later in Super Bowl XXXVII.
Bad Bunny also had the audacity to perform entirely in Spanish, his native tongue. President Trump and his cronies had everything to say about Bad Bunny doing his show in Spanish.
Where was the outrage in December 2025 when tenor Andrea Bocelli sang in Italian in front of an audience that included President Trump at the Kennedy Center? Did President Trump learn Italian during one of his golf outings? The lack of outrage over Bocelli singing in Italian is an example of how some artists are allowed to sing in a language other than English.
Realistically, Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States, with over 40 million speakers. Spanish is most certainly a bigger language in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico than English. Bad Bunny sings primarily in Spanish. How is that different from Andrea Bocelli? It could be because Bocelli serenaded President Trump in the Oval Office back in October.
Bad Bunny, and Kendrick Lamar a year ago, used the Super Bowl halftime show to point out something the United States of America has always had difficulty admitting: it loves certain aspects of Black and Latino culture but hates Black and Latino people, especially those who unabashedly speak about the hypocrisy in the U.S.
The Super Bowl halftime show’s headliner is not supposed to be newsworthy. After all, it’s all about a singer at a football game. There are many more important things happening in the world than a man from Puerto Rico who sings in Spanish, which is his first language. It is a shame that the president of the United States and some of his lackeys made a big deal over nothing when they’ve got more important things to concern themselves with.
Featured image: “Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show” by elisfkc2, CC BY-SA 2.0
Edited by Abbigail Earl & James Sutton
