Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show was one big love letter to his native Puerto Rico, culminating in a message of pride in his home and the Americas, and an appeal for unity with the US.
The 14-minute set included guest performances from Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, along with cameos from the likes of Pedro Pascal, Cardi B, Karol G and Jessica Alba, who could be seen dancing on the porch of his famous casita, a staple of his shows designed to look like a traditional Puerto Rican home.
The 31-year-old, who was the world’s most-played artist in 2025 according to Spotify, made history by becoming the first musician to perform entirely in Spanish at a Super Bowl, which is normally the most-watched event on US TV.
He did choose to say one line in English, “God bless America”, before listing nations of Central, South and North America as dancers carried their flags.
Behind them, a billboard message read “The only thing more powerful than hate is love”, and he held a football at the end of the segment bearing the slogan in English: “Together, We Are America.”
However, Bad Bunny, real name Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, did not use his performance to make any explicit political statements against the current US administration.
Despite that, US president Donald Trump, who did not attend this year’s Super Bowl, called Bad Bunny’s set “absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” on his social media platform Truth Social.
He added that it was “an affront to the Greatness of America” and “nobody understands a word this guy is saying”.
An alternative event, the All-American Halftime Show, was organised by Turning Point USA and was headlined by Trump-supporting singer Kid Rock.
Bad Bunny’s performance at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, marked the first time the singer and rapper has performed in the United States since releasing last year’s Grammy Award-winning album Debí Tirar Más Fotos (I Should Have Taken More Photos).
Puerto Rico, which is a self-governing territory of the USA, was at the heart of everything in this performance, from his early emergence from a sugarcane field to a set that was meant to represent the sounds and sights of the place he calls home.
Transporting himself through a Latin landscape, with set pieces that included everything from a nail salon to a bar, the Grammy award winner reeled off a medley of his biggest hits, including Tití Me Preguntó, MONACO and BAILE INoLVIDABLE.
Family also featured heavily – from a young couple getting married in a crowd full of Latino dancers to the symbolic moment of Bad Bunny handing his Grammy award to a small child as his 2026 acceptance speech played on a small television.
Climbing an electricity pylon – symbolising the infrastructure that was ruined during the devastating storm – and rapping at the same time, he appeared to pay tribute to the people who died in the 2017 Hurricane Maria.
Bad Bunny further spread a message with his outfit – wearing a beige sweater emblazoned with the number 64.
It could represent the official death toll, which turned out to be significantly lower than the estimated thousands who died.
President Trump’s administration was criticised at the time by Puerto Ricans who said it failed to provide the same federal support compared to hurricanes that had occurred on the mainland.
Source: BBC
