Culture Bad Bunny Will Headline Super Bowl Halftime Show - Spanish rapper will perform at America's most-watched concert

The Latin superstar known for hits including “MIA,” “I Like It” and “Me Porto Bonito” will perform in February in Santa Clara, Calif.​

Bad Bunny, who has won three Grammys, at a concert this month in San Juan, P.R. Alejandro Granadillo/Associated Press

By Emmanuel Morgan
Sept. 28, 2025 Updated 10:26 p.m. ET

The Latin superstar Bad Bunny, who has won three Grammys while bringing Spanish-language music to the top of the charts, will headline the Super Bowl halftime show in February, the N.F.L. announced on Sunday.

The Super Bowl is consistently the most-watched television program of the year, with more than 130 million people viewing last season’s halftime show featuring the rapper Kendrick Lamar. The next Super Bowl will take place on Feb. 8, 2026, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., near San Francisco.

“What I’m feeling goes beyond myself,” Bad Bunny said in a statement. “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. Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL.”

Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, was born in Puerto Rico and rose to fame through hits such as “MIA,” “I Like It,” “Me Porto Bonito” and “Dákiti.” He has been nominated for 10 Grammys and will host this week’s season opener of “Saturday Night Live.”

This will be the seventh Super Bowl halftime show produced by Roc Nation, the entertainment and sports company founded by the billionaire rapper Jay-Z. Its agreement with the N.F.L. came amid tensions over the league’s handling of protests by the quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who had begun kneeling during the national anthem to protest police violence against people of color.

Bad Bunny has been vocal about social issues affecting Puerto Rico. In an interview this month with i-D magazine, he said he did not incorporate the mainland United States into his latest tour because he was fearful his fans would be targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In an Instagram post last fall, Bad Bunny published an eight-minute video in Spanish in which he described his pride for the island. He captioned the post “garbage,” an allusion to when the comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” during a campaign rally for Donald J. Trump.

Weeks later, Bad Bunny endorsed Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.

“What Benito has done and continues to do for Puerto Rico is truly inspiring,” Jay-Z said in a statement. “We are honored to have him on the world’s biggest stage.”

The next Super Bowl halftime show will be broadcast on NBC. The N.F.L. announced Bad Bunny’s selection on social media and during halftime of “Sunday Night Football” with a video of the artist sitting atop a yellow field goal crossbar on a beach at sunset. His song “Callaita” played in the background.

There had been weeks of rumors that the pop star Taylor Swift would be the headliner. Her 21-month Eras Tour, which ended in December, grossed a record $2 billion in ticket sales, and she announced her engagement to the Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in August after nearly two years of dating. She will release her 12th original studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” on Friday.

“We would always love to have Taylor play,” Roger Goodell, the N.F.L. commissioner, said in a recent interview on the “Today” show, a comment that fed the speculation. “She is a special, special talent, and, obviously, she would be welcome at any time.”

The N.F.L. in 2019 partnered with Roc Nation, asking the company to produce the Super Bowl halftime shows. Since then, the halftime performances have predominantly featured hip-hop and R&B artists: Lamar, Usher, Rihanna and, in 2022, a medley including Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Eminem. Roc Nation and the N.F.L. featured Latin music for the partnership’s first Super Bowl halftime show in 2020, when Jennifer Lopez and Shakira performed in Miami Gardens, Fla.

The streaming service Apple Music became the show’s title sponsor in 2022.

A correction was made on Sept. 28, 2025:
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of a capsule summary with this article misspelled the name of a Bad Bunny song. It is “Me Porto Bonito,” not “Me Porto Benito.”

Source (Archive)

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Latin superstar

At least in his case we know 100% he had a butchered girl in his car at some point

 

[Norms Abused Liver]

ANother year where I will have plenty of time to go restock my bottle of whiskey and take a healthy bathroom/smoke break it seems.

 

[Irrational Exuberance]

Wake me when they host The Notorious BIG Chungus.

 

[Sparkletor 2.0]

The real show will be the ICE agents who rappel down from the rafters and arrest Bad Bunny and all his back up dancers.

 

[babyDunk]

I vaguely remember this dude saying he was boycotting the US because of the Deportations? What changed

 

[Broadside]

>see the singer's name
>think "another thicc ebony thot to simp for let's gooo"
>It's a dude

 

[healing rain]

I genuinely don't know a single person who cares about this artist other than spics. He was positively awful when he appeared in Shakira's halftime show.

Really goes to show that the American music industry is in the absolute gutter if they're reaching for some spic that can barely speak English to perform at one of our largest cultural spectacles. Even getting Beyonce to headline for a third time would've been better than this.

Edit: Perused reddit for unhinged takes and they're schizoposting about how this is is all a massive ploy to help ICE arrest a stadium full of illegals.

 

[The Taco Santo!]

I haven't watched the Superbowl since the Saints had their Cinderella story year and won. I don't expect that to change, certainly not this year. Bad Bunny, OK. Be a little more out-of-touch, NFL. I wonder what team-owner's son (gay) came up with this one. Maybe it was that weak faggot Goodell's idea.

 

[Pierre D'Olnique]

>won three Grammys
>literally never heard of him

 

[quaawaa]

Really goes to show that the American music industry is in the absolute gutter if they're reaching for some spic that can barely speak English to perform at one of our largest cultural spectacles. Even getting Beyonce to headline for a third time would've been better than this.

He’s the second choice because Taylor Swift turned them down:

There had been weeks of rumors that the pop star Taylor Swift would be the headliner. Her 21-month Eras Tour, which ended in December, grossed a record $2 billion in ticket sales, and she announced her engagement to the Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in August after nearly two years of dating. She will release her 12th original studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” on Friday.

“We would always love to have Taylor play,” Roger Goodell, the N.F.L. commissioner, said in a recent interview on the “Today” show, a comment that fed the speculation. “She is a special, special talent, and, obviously, she would be welcome at any time.”

Or because Jay-Z only hires his friends and the NFL is locked into a bad contract with him.

 

[break these cuffs]

The few times I've heard this guy's name I've always thought he was the "Cash me outside girl".

 

[sodaboard]

wait this isn't megadeth wtf i wanted mustaine
fuck you goodell you kike bastard

 

[deleuzeon]

The level of entertainer that wet-brained sportsball fans deserve. I wonder which team will do better at running during the big game???

 

[Oliver Onions]

I never knew anything about this person other than the name and assumed they must be some thotted up cringe rapper like Cardi B or Megan Thee Stallion. If he's gay it makes sense I guess, but Bad Bunny still sounds like a sex toy range, not a beaner rapper.

Halftime shows peaked when they had Creed, it's been downhill ever since.

 

[indigoisviolet]

I throw down with the youthful hopheads, you old fuddies are all thinking of Lil B4ddy Bun$, the transsexual Puerto Rican mumbledubstep countrycore backing dancer. Easy mistake to make.

 

[Rango Dango]

superstar

never heard of him

“MIA,” “I Like It” and “Me Porto Bonito”

never heard of those

Bad Bunny

it sounds like a name for a sex toy brand, some spin off of bad dragon, maybe some collab with playboy or some bullshit like that

 

[Soso]

His music is very eh, not my type, but not horrid. I don't really watch the halftime show though, and prefer watching the game.

I never knew anything about this person other than the name and assumed they must be some thotted up cringe rapper like Cardi B or Megan Thee Stallion. If he's gay it makes sense I guess, but Bad Bunny still sounds like a sex toy range, not a beaner rapper.

I don't think he's really a fag and just does it for the trend thing. All I really know about him these days is he did a big tantrum refusing to go the US for his tours because of ICE, and always talks about Puerto Rico independence Besides that, I just know a few of his songs and they never really stood out to me.

 

[pwnest injun]

Dear Donald Trump,

Despite being a massive FAGGOT, Bad Bunny has as of now not sucked off a single Jewish man, on national television. This level of antisematism is completely unacceptable in todays charged atmosphere, vis a vis the Israel and the Palestine. As such, you MUST deny him a visa for whatever dumb shit is going on ITT. Activation code, gefilte fish matza 69. Go forth and zap to the extreme!

 

[BikeLock]

Trump has the opportunity to do the most funny thing ever during this year's Super Bowl.

Wonder how much of ICE are football fans?

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Having not really kept up with Current Year "pop culture", I feel like someone who somehow skipped from the '00s to now. Like who is this "Bad Bunny" guy? That's a guy name?