On Sep. 28, 2025, following his decision not to include U.S. dates on his 2025-2026 tour out of concerns over ICE raids, Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny was announced as the headliner for the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show. His touring decisions and choice as headliner stirred major controversy among conservative spokespersons who disagreed with the artist’s choice, claiming him to be “un-American,” both ideologically and literally. Bad Bunny, however, who was born in Puerto Rico, a United States territory, is a U.S. citizen. As for ideology, his overarching statement on U.S. politics is one of unity within America, which was exemplified throughout his Super Bowl performance.
During his hosted episode of Saturday Night Live in October 2025, Bad Bunny joked that anybody who didn’t understand his music had four months to learn Spanish. Conservative audiences, however, led by Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk’s non-profit organization, chose to host their own unofficial halftime ensemble, coining it the “All-American” halftime show. This hour-long patchwork set was headlined by Kid Rock and was backed by the Trump administration as well as many notable conservative figures. The show ended at 9 p.m. with an in memoriam to the late Kirk. In the United States’ current partisan political climate, the creation of a separate halftime show in order to isolate a Latin artist is telling of the administration's values.
Bad Bunny’s performance contained a variety of sets constructed on the field, opening with him traveling through a field of sugarcane, revealing various workers of different professions, including street food vendors, a nail technician, and boxers. The field acted as a reference to the sugarcane fields of Puerto Rico and set the historical context of the Spanish colonization for sugar, with the variety of workers acting as a counter-narrative to the rhetoric of the “lazy” immigrant.
Toward the end of the field segment, Bad Bunny bought a ring from a vendor and handed it to a couple. This couple proceeded to get engaged, and later in the performance, we ended up at the couple's wedding, with a surprise reception serenade by Lady Gaga, who sang a salsa rendition of her song “Die With A Smile.” These events added to Bad Bunny’s theme of unity and love in the most easily recognizable way: with a real wedding. The couple from this scene, who have not yet been named publicly, had invited Bad Bunny to their wedding. In return, he invited them to the halftime show, serving as their witness and signing their marriage certificate. Beyond being an incredible gift to this couple, this segment serves as a reminder of the things to celebrate during times of strife.
Following this scene, Bad Bunny entered a set seemingly resembling New York City. He entered a storefront to take a shot with Toñita, a real Puerto Rican woman who owns a bar in Brooklyn called the Caribbean Social Club, one of the last remaining Puerto Rican-owned establishments in a traditionally Puerto Rican neighborhood that has been greatly gentrified. This again ties into the larger references to colonization and the importance of culture that Bad Bunny had throughout his performance.
A later scene saw a Hispanic family with a young child watching Bad Bunny’s Album of the Year acceptance speech on the television, when Bad Bunny himself entered the scene, handing his Grammy to the young boy. This scene symbolizes both the importance of representation, how monumental his win was for young children who are now able to see an artist who looks like them achieve huge career wins, and also a young Bad Bunny who is able to see himself achieve. The child from this segment confirmed that he was playing a young Bad Bunny in an Instagram comment, saying that his scene was “proof that dreams really do come true.”
A surprise performance from Ricky Martin follows this performance, singing Bad Bunny’s "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii," a song lamenting about the colonization of Hawaii and how he hopes that the same fate doesn’t befall Puerto Rico.
Following this was a scene that placed dancers on electric poles, which seemingly exploded several times, causing the stadium lights to flicker, which references the power outages that Puerto Rico regularly experiences. The number during this scene, “El Apagón,” is a song protesting the gentrification of Puerto Rico and the neglect of the U.S. government on the island, which is the contributing factor towards the power outages. Bad Bunny then emerged from the field below carrying the Puerto Rican flag, but specifically the light blue version, which was banned from 1948 to 1957 in order to suppress the local independence movement. After the Commonwealth was established, the flag color was changed to navy blue to mirror the U.S. flag. The waving of the light blue flag represents his pro-independence sentiments.
In the final moments of his performance, Bad Bunny stated “God bless America,” and went on to name countries found within North and South America. At the end, he held out a football toward the audience that read “Together, we are America,” and stated “Seguimo' aquí,” meaning “we are still here.” His message, in a time of great political division, is one of unity and resilience. In the background of this final segment, the jumbotron read “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
Following Bad Bunny’s performance, Trump took to Truth Social to share his thoughts in a lengthy post. He called this performance “an affront to the Greatness of America” that “doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence.” He went on to call the performance a “slap in the face to our Country.” This begs the question, what does America stand for if a message of unity is against its values? What is to be made of the current political state if the idea that “Together, we are America,” is divisive?
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