Commentary: Bad Bunny will perform Super Bowl LX’s halftime show, likely in Spanish. Cue the meltdown

The NFL announced the musical headliner for Super Bowl LX’s halftime show, and — much to MAGA’s chagrin — it’s not Kid Rock.

Music’s most lucrative spot went to a relevant artist who actually sells albums: Bad Bunny. Letting the Puerto Rican rapper and singer turned global megastar perform 2026’s halftime show gifts right-wing influencers with a fresh conduit for the old grievance that woke culture has permeated every crevice of American culture, especially the Super Bowl.

Their proof: The NFL chose a predominantly Spanish-language artist who is known to wear women’s dresses, who endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024, and who has decried this year’s immigration sweeps. Clearly, this decision was designed to irk them rather than serve Bad Bunny’s millions and millions of fans.

“The NFL is self-destructing year after year,” conservative commentator Benny Johnson wrote on X. He said of Bad Bunny: “Massive Trump hater. Anti-ICE activist. No songs in English.”

Other critics accused the reggaeton artist of flip-flopping, particularly following Bad Bunny’s statements earlier this month that he would not include any mainland U.S. dates on his Debí Tirar Más Fotos world tour out of concern that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents might target and detain his fans.

“There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the U.S., and none of them were out of hate — I’ve performed there many times,” he said to I-D magazine. “But there was the issue of — like, f—ing ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”

The artist, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, explained his decision to join the long list of Super Bowl halftime notables in a short statement following the NFL’s announcement Sunday.

“What I’m feeling goes beyond myself,” he said. “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 in glasses, not a dress.

(Jordan Strauss / Invision / AP)

The year-after-year decision to cast top-ranking pop artists and music legends in the featured Super Bowl halftime spot is hardly a mystery. They are stars that sell or performers that appeal to millions. But that dull reality hasn’t stopped the characterizations that the Bad Bunny decision is a deep state conspiracy, designed to rot American households from the inside out.

“Barack Obama’s best friend Jay-Z runs the Super Bowl selection process through his company Roc Nation which has an exclusive contract with the NFL. This is who chooses the halftime show, the most-watched musical performance in America,” wrote alt-right figure Jack Posobiec.

The NFL in 2019 partnered with rapper Jay Z’s entertainment and sports company, Roc Nation, to produce its Super Bowl halftime shows. The first show under the new partnership featured 2020’s Latin music in performances by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. Since then the institution’s halftime performances have largely featured hip-hop artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna and the OG trio of Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Eminem.

Lamar’s 2025 politically charged performance was the source of condemnation from the right. Clad in red, white and blue, his predominantly Black dance crew assembled in an American flag formation. And guest star Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam, called out the nation’s systemic racism. Lamar had already rankled the right with 2017’s “The Heart Part 4,” where he referred to Trump as a “chump.”

Kendrick Lamar performs during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 59.

(Frank Franklin II / AP)

It’s one of many moments over the last decade that have galvanized conservative factions around calls to boycott the Super Bowl, or at least publicly bash the event. Beyoncé’s 2016 Super Bowl halftime show was once such flash point, where she performed “Formation” featuring dancers in Black Panther-inspired outfits and paid tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement.

At least those complaints were rooted in a performance that actually happened, as opposed to claims that the NFL was manipulating games for the Kansas City Chiefs to enable tight end Travis Kelce and his then-girlfriend (now fiancée) Taylor Swift to endorse Joe Biden. Sure, totally feasible.

Yet there should be no secret around why the Super Bowl hasn’t featured wildly popular, globally celebrated MAGA-promoting performers: There aren’t any. It’s no wonder Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood always seem to be the entertainment of choice for Trump rallies.

Bad Bunny is the most-streamed male artist on Spotify, running just behind the platform’s most-streamed artist of all time, Swift. As of Sunday, his release “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” became the first album of 2025 to surpass 7 billion streams on Spotify. And the 31-year-old artist just finished a sold-out, month-long residency at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Though the Super Bowl is still five months away, those who aren’t among the haters can enjoy an early kick off: Bad Bunny is scheduled to host the new season opener of “SNL” this weekend.