Bad Bunny piles on Puerto Rican patriotism at Super Bowl half-time show
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show was one big love letter to his native Puerto Rico.
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.
It was expected that Bad Bunny, real name Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, would use his performance as an opportunity to make a political statement against the current US administration, but instead he used it to promote a message of American unity.
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.
The 31-year-old, who was the world’s most-played artist in 2025 according to streaming service Spotify, made history by becoming the first musician to perform a Super Bowl half-time show entirely in Spanish.
But he did choose to make two statements in English, one with a billboard message reading “The only thing more powerful than hate is love” and the other “Together, We Are America” written on a football that he held.
His performance at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara marked the first time the singer and rapper has performed in the USA since releasing last year’s Grammy-award winning album Debí Tirar Más Fotos (I Should Have Taken More Photos).
Puerto Rico 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.
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.
There were no direct criticisms of President Trump, which some saw as a surprise after his two acceptance speeches at last week’s Grammy Awards, which he used as an opportunity to speak out against ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers.
Their actions have prompted protests in multiple US cities – most recently in Minneapolis, where federal agents shot and killed two Americans, leading to scrutiny of the administration’s tactics.
President Donald Trump, who did not attend this year’s Super Bowl, said in January that his administration would be “reviewing everything” after the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
In his Grammy acceptance speech after his win for best musicá urbana album, Bad Bunny called for “ICE out”.
“The hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that’s more powerful than hate is love, so, please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love.”
President Trump called Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl 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”.
Elements of Bad Bunny’s tour set, which has travelled to Central and South America and soon heads to Australia, Japan and Europe, were woven throughout Sunday’s performance.
This included his casita, a house which has gone viral on social media several times for its celebrity guests.
Tonight was no different, with Pedro Pascal, Jessica Alba and Cardi B dancing onstage.
Overcoming some early sound issues, the performer leaned heavily on hits from his most recent album, with EoO and DtMF providing some of the high points of the show.
It was not his first time on the Super Bowl stage – he made a guest appearance with Shakira in 2020 – and he brought confidence as the main star. He swaggered from one corner of the stage to the next all while delivering strong vocals.
Lady Gaga was on hand to bring a salsa-inspired rendition of her Bruno Mars collaboration Die With A Smile, and fellow Puerto Rican popstar Ricky Martin sang Lo Que Le Pasó A Hawaii, a song which warns Puerto Ricans to not allow their culture to be erased.
Bad Bunny ended his performance by shouting “God Bless America” in Spanish and naming multiple North and South American countries, while dancers raised flags in the background, bringing attention to the performer’s refusal to bring his world tour in the US, though he did do shows in Puerto Rico.
Bad Bunny, who has been producing music since 2013, said in a 2025 interview with i-D that there were “many reasons” he would not be performing in the US this time around and “none of them were out of hate”.
Sunday’s show represented the best of Latin culture on the sporting world’s biggest stage.
By BBC News