Bad Bunny’s halftime show at the Super Bowl is officially behind us. Happy. What started with hype and outrage, and then more outrage, ended with a show most charitably described as polarizing and confusing for those who weren’t already Bad Bunny fans. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell promised that Bad Bunny would use the show to unite the world “in a really creative and fun way.” It turns out he was right. Most of the country, with the exception of a few Democrats like California Governor Gavin Newsom, was united in its distaste for a show narrowly tailored to a niche audience, despite being billed as inclusive and respectful of America.
The pre-show hype surrounding Bad Bunny’s invitation to perform at this year’s Super Bowl started with his SNL demand that viewers “learn Spanish.” He walked back the pre-Super Bowl press conference, but the sentiment ultimately proved to be true.
Then there was the online rumor that Bad Bunny would wear a dress and honor Hispanic LGBTQ+ characters during his halftime performance. That turned out to be a hoax.
BAD BUNNY’S SUPER BOWL HALFTIME SHOW INCLARES TRUMP’S RAGE AND DEFENDS VIEWERS
You’ve got to hand it to Bad Bunny and his marketing team. In the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, they made sure to grab people’s attention, whether they were positive or not.
Bad Bunny performs during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 60 football game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on February 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
The Super Bowl halftime show was a shortened version of the show he performed during his residency in Puerto Rico. With America watching, Bad Bunny started walking through a sugar cane field. He passed by several scenes typical of Puerto Rico when he opened with “Tití Me Preguntó (“Aunt Asked Me”)”, such as a coconut water stand and a domino table. When he arrived at a house, viewers were treated to a mix of some of his other hits before moving on to a tribute to ’90s and ’00s reggaeton and the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it image of two guys grinding.
GREEN DAY FRONTMAN TELLS ICE GENERALS TO ‘QUIT THAT S—-Y JOB’ AT SUPER BOWL PARTY PERFORMANCE
If part of the show had been in English, we would have heard a mostly positive message from Bad Bunny: “My name is Benito Martinez Ocasio. And if I am here today at Super Bowl LX, it is because I have never, ever stopped believing in myself. You have to believe in yourself too. You are worth more than you think. Trust me.”
Bad Bunny performs during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 60 football game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, February 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, California. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Then we moved on to the show’s highlight: Lady Gaga joined the salsa band in a version of “Die With a Smile” on a stage that resembled Old San Juan’s El Morro Fort — the only moment when perhaps a majority of those in attendance at Levi Stadium could sing along.
NFL LEGEND DESTROYS LEAGUE FOR CHOOSING BAD BUNNY AS HALF-TIME PERFORMER: ‘ALL FOR MONEY’
But wait, there’s more. This segues into Bad Bunny’s “Baile Inolvidable (Unforgettable Dance)”, “Nueva Yol (New York)” and a symbolic handover of his Grammy.
Bad Bunny performs during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 60 football game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, Sunday, February 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, California. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)
So far, there has been nothing in the show that could be perceived as overtly anti-American. That changed when Ricky Martin started singing the chorus of “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii (What Happened to Hawaii)”, which translates to:
They want to take the rivers and the beaches from me They want to take my neighborhood and grandma to leave No, don’t let go of the flag and don’t forget the le lo lai (song). I don’t want them to have to deal with what happened to Hawaii with you
KID ROCK SAYS TPUSA’S ALTERNATIVE HALF-TIME SHOW IS FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE JESUS AND AMERICA
“What happened to Hawaii” is that it was admitted to the Union as the fiftieth state. Bad Bunny, who sings under the auspices of a record label founded by a former Venezuelan intelligence officer, is said to favor Puerto Rico seceding from the United States to become an independent country – an option only 12% of the island’s voters chose in 2024. The report shows that Bad Bunny also supported the pro-independence, Chávez- and Castro-sympathizing candidate for governor of Puerto Rico.
Bad Bunny performs during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 60 football game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on February 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
The Grammy-winning artist’s halftime show ended with an image of power outages, with the caption “Debí Tirar Más Fotos and his Grammy quote, “The only thing more powerful than hate is love,” flashing on the big screen.
Bad Bunny walked off the field with a flag-bearing entourage in tow. His cry of “God Bless America!” actually meant “America, as in Americanot the United States. A grand finale that was stilted, confusing, and subtly but passive-aggressively anti-American.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS ADVICE
This begs the question: why invite Bad Bunny to do the show in the first place? Could the NFL make a business case for using him as a halftime performer? Yes. With the competition expanding to Latin America and other markets, Bad Bunny makes sense. For example, they both share Mexico as their largest overseas market. It was a no brainer.
Bad Bunny and Lady Gaga are on the field during the Super Bowl LX halftime show between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on February 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)
On the other hand, this was a clear failed check. The halftime show was carefully constructed to mainstream two similarly toxic ideas for viewers in the United States: first, the idea of Puerto Rico as a separate nation from the United States. Second, the idea of Latino identity as a nation within a nation, a permanent immigrant status separate from the American mainstream.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Instead of uniting the world “in a really creative and fun way,” Bad Bunny delivered a very divisive show that focused on identity politics. The final product fell far short of Goodell’s hype and left a sour taste in the mouths of millions of viewers.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell speaks during his booth at the NFL press conference on Monday, February 2, 2026, in San Jose, California, prior to the Super Bowl 60 football game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. (AP Photo/Matt York)
One shudders to think what the league has in mind next year if they insist on abandoning their core audience in pursuit of global expansion.
