Record-breaking artist Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, who goes by the stage name “Bad Bunny,” was first revealed to headline the Super Bowl 2026 halftime show in late September 2025. He will be the first Latino American male to perform in the Super Bowl. The news was exciting for most of his fans; however, some people felt differently about the matter. Bad Bunny first rose to popularity in 2016. He has since dominated the Latin music scene and, in recent years, has been popular in mainstream American pop culture. He has won 6 Grammys, been the top-streamed artist on Spotify from 2020 to 2022, and in 2025. He has also just recently won Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards in 2026.
Many people have critiqued him, concerned that his performance would be in Spanish at an American show. Conservative-leaning Americans criticized his Puerto Rican origin and how he was not born in the United States. Bad Bunny fans responded with the fact that Puerto Rico is technically considered a US territory, which would mean he’s an American. Even using this argument, there have been many artists who have performed despite not being American. Senior Christian Gilmer wondered the same thing: “Coldplay has performed at halftime shows. They’re not American. Shakira is not American. She’s Colombian. Rihanna’s halftime show broke literal records. She is not American. So I feel as though I’m a little bit confused as to why this may be happening at this point,” Gilmer said.
That raises the question of why there was so much backlash for his upcoming performance. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, spoke on the topic, stating that it was “absolutely ridiculous” and that he had never heard of the artist. As well as this, when Bad Bunny was on his world tour, he refused to visit the states, afraid that ICE would target his largely latino fanbase. Critics believe he’s American-hating and shouldn’t perform at the Super Bowl because of this. Department of Homeland Security advisor Corey Lewandowski said, “It’s so shameful that they’ve decided to pick somebody who just seems to hate America so much to represent them at the halftime game.”
The political climate of the United States has been a controversial topic because of growing unrest between political parties. As the Super Bowl draws nearer, continued debates spark over the issue. The biggest response was that of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit created by the late Charlie Kirk. It has decided to put on a production on the same night as the Super Bowl, called “The All-American Halftime Show”. It has just been announced that Kid Rock would headline the show, accompanied by many other country artists. In a Google Form sent out to Benilde-St. Margaret’s opinion regarding the situation, many believed he had a big enough platform and that he should perform. “Calling it The All-American halftime show is just, …my first reaction is a sigh. Do we have to make it political? It can’t just be good music; you have to be like, ‘Oh, well, he’s not this, he’s not that.’ I think we don’t have to immediately be against an artist,” senior Nico Peterson said.
Bad Bunny’s popularity and influence are undeniable, and the decision to have him perform at the Superbowl LX stemmed from the NFL’s choice to be viewed globally. Bad Bunny can do exactly that: reach billions of people through his lyrics, sound, and nostalgia. Bad Bunny might not be the biggest name in the States, but he’s celebrated and critically acclaimed throughout the rest of the world, accumulating a total of 19.8 billion streams just in 2025 on Spotify. That fact shows his outrageous reach throughout the rest of the world. The decision to have him at the Super Bowl was to represent the diversity that makes America America, the melting pot from which we all come. His international reach is exactly what the NFL is aiming to do: represent the diversity that is the United States by getting ahold of what might be the most popular artist to perform at the biggest sporting event in the US. “He sells out internationally. And he has so much power in both his music and just his own personal work, right?” Gilmer said.