Bad Bunny will headline Super Bowl halftime show
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
By EMMANUEL MORGAN
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 NFL announced 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 rapper Kendrick Lamar. The next Super Bowl will take place Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, 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, winning in the best música urbana album category for “Un Verano Sin Ti” and “El Último Tour del Mundo,” and in the best Latin pop or urban album category for “YHLQMDLG.” He has also won 12 Latin Grammys.
On Saturday, Bad Bunny will host the 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 billionaire rapper Jay-Z. Its agreement with the NFL came amid tensions over the league’s handling of protests by 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. On Sunday night, shortly before the Super Bowl announcement, Bad Bunny posted on social media that, “after discussing it with my team, I think I’ll do just one date in the United States.”
In a social media 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 comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage” during a campaign rally for Donald Trump. Weeks later, Bad Bunny endorsed Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.
“Every time that I express myself about something, I do it because I feel it,” Bad Bunny said in an interview with The New York Times published in January. “It’s not because I’m Bad Bunny and I have 40 million followers and I want to — no. I’m a normal human being and I have feelings and I get mad and I get happy and that’s how I make my music.”
The next Super Bowl halftime show, sponsored by the streaming service Apple Music, will be broadcast on NBC. The NFL announced Bad Bunny’s selection on social media and during halftime of NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” with a video of the artist sitting atop a yellow goalpost crossbar on a beach. His song “Callaíta” played in the background.
“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.”
There had been weeks of rumors that 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 NFL 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 NFL 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. The partnership’s first Super Bowl halftime show, in 2020, featured Latin music in performances by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira.