Bad Bunny’s Performance at Super Bowl LX (60)
On February 8, 2026, the 60th NFL Super Bowl aired. The teams playing were the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. Because it was the 60th game, punk-rock band Green Day performed a pre-game show, including songs like “American Idiot.” They had also performed the same song at the iHeartRadio awards a few years back, but that rendition of the song had some slightly tweaked lyrics. In most versions of the song, one of the lines goes “I’m not part of a redneck agenda.” During their performance, they changed that lyric to, “I’m not part of a MAGA agenda.” For those who don’t know, MAGA stands for President Donald Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again.” The band changed the lyric to jab at the President musically.
For the halftime performance, Bad Bunny returned to the Super Bowl field, this time as the main headliner. He has performed at halftime before, as a guest artist for Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s show in 2020 (Super Bowl LIV). In the Super Bowl LX halftime show, Bad Bunny performed some of his hits, such as “Tití Me Preguntó,” “Monaco,” and “Debí Tirar Más Fotos (DtMF),” and then performed some other songs with guest performers, such as a salsa-infused rendition of “Die With A Smile” with Lady Gaga, and an acoustic version of “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii” with Ricky Martin. Other celebrities were spotted dancing on the field, like Pedro Pascal, Jessica Alba, Karol G, and Cardi B.
One unique thing about this halftime show is that it featured a live wedding. The bride and groom were Eleisa Aparicio and Thomas Wolter, and it was officiated by Pastor Antonio Reyes.
During the show, Bad Bunny featured a giant billboard behind him, saying “The Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate Is Love.” Before the end of his show, during the song “Café Con Ron,” he proceeded to say his first and only English words of the entire show: “God bless America.” He then proceeded to name off different Latin American countries, one by one, in Spanish: Mexico, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and more. He continued through Central and South America, before ending with the USA, Canada, and finally, his home, Puerto Rico, once more. As he named off these countries, dancers carrying the respective flags ran across the field, as a visual representation. This listing of all the Latin-American countries was deliberate: he was redefining the term “America” to mean more than just the United States.
At his pre-show press conference, he had addressed the language debate with this: “English is not my first language. But it’s okay, it’s not America’s first language, either.”
Now, while Bad Bunny’s halftime show was filled with his love for all of America, a lot of people disagreed. So much so, in fact, he had to take some safety precautions. One main one was Lady Gaga’s giant red rose brooch. If she ever took it off, an evacuation process would immediately follow.
To say the least, some people didn’t like the show. House Republicans have taken it so far as to call on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to investigate the show, claiming it was “inappropriate.” They called his performance and lyrics “illegal,” and saw his performance as provocative, with excessive “twerking.” One of the representatives asked officials to look into the performance, which he called “pure smut” and claimed was “illegal to be displayed on public airways.” The representative cited it was “choreography featuring overtly sexualized movements, including widespread twerking, grinding, pelvic thrusts and other sexually suggestive content.”
But, because a lot of people didn’t like the fact that a Latin performer was headlining solo for the first time, a group called Turning Point USA (TPUSA) organized an “alternative” halftime show, headlining Kid Rock. This show also featured other country artists, such as Brantley Gilbert, Gabby Barrett, and Lee Brice. The show started with a guitar solo of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” making it twice the song was played throughout the event, which is something that hadn’t been done before: not only playing the American National Anthem twice, but performing it even once during the halftime show, as it’s usually just played before the game. Brantley Gilbert was the first performer up, playing the songs “Real American” and “Dirt Road Anthem.” Kid Rock played last, with his 1999 hit “Bawitdaba” and a cover of Cody Johnson’s “Til You Can’t.” After all that, there was a tribute to TPUSA’s founder, Charlie Kirk.
This “alternative show” was announced right after the NFL announced Bad Bunny as their halftime headliner. Some conservatives lashed out, boycotting the show, and called Bad Bunny a “foreigner,” “illegal” and “not American.” Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican, which has been a territory of the United States since 1898, following the Spanish-American War.
Following the performance on Sunday, President Trump addressed and insulted the show, writing on social media, calling it “absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! … 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 and all over the world.”
While the TPUSA performance existed as a proposed “better alternative” to the Bad Bunny show, this show wasn’t very well-received either. A lot of complaints were directed towards the very blatant lip-syncing that was happening throughout the performance. Kid Rock did admit to the performance being taped, but for the entire show, there was about a two second delay between what the audience heard, versus what they saw. It was so bad, in fact, that a well-known country artist had something to say about it. Zach Bryan got into the controversy with this show, calling it “embarrassing as hell.”
The day after, on February 9, Bad Bunny’s social media, specifically his Instagram account, was gone. It remains that way now. He didn’t delete his account; that still exists with around 56 million followers, but he deleted every post, and is following no accounts. Nobody knows what’s next for Bad Bunny as an artist, but after winning the Grammy award for 2026 Album of the Year, anything is possible.