Bad Bunny left it all on the stage during his 2026 Super Bowl halftime show performance.
The singer, 31, helmed the long-awaited set from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday, February 8.
Bad Bunny took the opportunity to say, “God Bless America,” during his set which paid tribute to his Puerto Rican roots.
The performance began in a sugarcane field set — a staple to Puerto Rico — before the Grammy Award-winning rapper shifted to a new celebrity-filled set, that included Pedro Pascal, Cardi B and Alix Earle dancing on the front porch of the set shaped like a house.
Bad Bunny brought out various other singers for the performance, including Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.
Part of his show included handing off one of his Grammy Awards to a young boy, who was watching Bad Bunny’s recent Album of the Year acceptance speech on a TV during the set.
The end of the performance saw Bad Bunny list off various countries in the western hemisphere, as he and his background dancers (carrying flags for those countries) walked off the field.
As the final performer left the stage, the scoreboard showed a unifying message to fans: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love,” a nod to his Grammy speech.
Bad Bunny (real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) announced his role as the Super Bowl halftime show headliner in September 2025.
“What I’m feeling goes beyond myself,” he said in a statement at the time. “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.”
Following the reveal, Bad Bunny faced backlash from conservative politicians and public figures due to his criticism of the Trump administration’s immigration policies and his primarily Spanish lyrics.
Bad Bunny addressed the controversy while hosting Saturday Night Live in October 2025.
“You may not know this, but I’m doing the Super Bowl halftime show,” he told the audience during his monologue. “I’m very happy and I think everyone is very happy about it! Even Fox News.”
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After showing news footage of critiques of his Super Bowl involvement, Bad Bunny added: “Really, I’m very excited to be doing the Super Bowl and I know people all around the world who love my music are also happy.”
He then spoke briefly in Spanish before quipping, “If you didn’t understand now what I just said, you have four months to learn!”
Later that month, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell defended the decision to have Bad Bunny headline the halftime show despite the backlash.
“He’s one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world,” he told reporters during an October 2025 news conference. “That’s what we try to achieve. It’s an important stage for us. It’s an important element to the entertainment value, and it’s carefully thought through.”
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Goodell, 66, pointed out that the league has faced negativity for its choice of performers in the past.
“I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback and criticism,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people that are watching.”
Goodell added that the NFL was “confident” Bad Bunny would put on a “great” show for fans, noting, “He understands the platform that he’s on, and I think it’s going to be exciting and a united moment.”
Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold — who faced off against the New England Patriots in the big game — was among Bad Bunny’s supporters ahead of his performance.
“It’s unbelievable,” Darnold, 28, said at Super Bowl Opening Night on Monday, February 2. “I love his music. It’s great to have him perform at the Super Bowl.”
