Spanish at Halftime? Bad Bunny Set to Make the Super Bowl a Stage for Latinidad
The news hit like a stadium light switch. Bad Bunny will headline Super Bowl LX. The first Puerto Rico-born artist in history to do it. He called it “for my people, my culture, and our history.” That line landed because the moment means more than a viral clip. It bends the center of American pop toward Spanish on the most televised stage in the country.
Bad Bunny takes the biggest stage on his terms
The NFL, Apple Music, and Roc Nation announced him as the 2026 halftime headliner at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. “What I’m feeling goes beyond myself. It’s for those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come in and score a touchdown… this is for my people, my culture, and our history,” Bad Bunny said in the league’s statement. He added in Spanish, “Ve y dile a tu abuela que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL.”
The first Puerto Rico-born headliner reframes who the Super Bowl is for
This is a historic placement. Benito will be the first solo Latino male artist to headline the show, after his 2020 guest cameo with Shakira and Jennifer Lopez. The timing tracks with the scale of his residency at El Choli in San Juan, which drove major tourism revenue and culminated in a record Amazon Music livestream.
The Super Bowl audience has also expanded for music and broadcasts that center on identity. According to recent data, Spanish-language broadcasts of the game reached 1.9 million viewers in 2022, 2.3 million in 2024, and 1.87 million in 2025.
The NFL has leaned into this growth with its “Por la Cultura” initiative and Spanish-language ads that spotlight Latino players and culture. Kendrick Lamar’s show became the most-watched halftime ever. In that vein, Bad Bunny steps into that lane with a Spanish-first catalog and global pull, right as Latino audiences are reshaping the scale of the event itself.
Bad Bunny and the politics around the stage
Context matters. Bad Bunny said this month he skipped U.S. tour stops out of concern that ICE could appear at venues. “There was the issue of… ICE could be outside,” he told i-D.
Whether Trump appears at Super Bowl LX is unknown. However, the question still lingers: What does it look like to see a Puerto Rican artist celebrate Latinidad in Spanish while the White House pursues hardline immigration policies? That tension sits inside this booking.
Bad Bunny and the Taylor metric
On the other hand, the announcement triggered immediate comparisons online to Taylor Swift. Outlets rounded up reactions from surprised Swifties to fans calling it a win-win. The Swift comparison says less about a rivalry and more about scale. Bad Bunny ranked among Spotify’s most played artists and led arenas worldwide, similarly to what Swift has done. However, the Super Bowl nod places Spanish language at the literal center of the event. That is its own benchmark.
What the show could sound like with Bad Bunny
No set list yet. The NFL release credited Roc Nation and Apple Music with production. His catalog sets up a sprint from perreo anthems to stadium sing-alongs. His latest album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” and the residency’s global stream were just a sample of his ability to draw crowds.
In 2020, Benito jumped in as a guest in Miami. This time, he owns the arc. Expect a creative build that treats Puerto Rico as a through line and pop as a canvas.
The island’s win travels with him
Bad Bunny’s summer residency helped drive hundreds of millions in tourism revenue for Puerto Rico. The Super Bowl stage broadcasts that story to the broadest possible crowd. It signals that Spanish, Caribbean rhythm, and a Puerto Rican point of view are not outside the American center. They are the show.
