Bad Bunny Turned Super Bowl Halftime Into A Joyous Tribute To Puerto Rico

In between the Seattle Seahawks facing off the New England Patriots, Bad Bunny played the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show. The Puerto Rican musician is the first Latino and Spanish-speaking artist to perform as a solo act during the big game, which this year is going down at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California and airing on NBC. It was not the Latin trap star's first time performing in the Super Bowl, however; Benito Martínez Ocasio was a special guest of headliners Jennifer Lopez and Shakira at the Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show in 2020.

Bad Bunny's performance tonight was a vividly choreographed 13-minute segment featuring set pieces tied to Puerto Rican culture and iconography from his latest album Debí Tirar Más Fotos. Wearing a custom white jersey emblazoned with "Ocasio" and the number 64, he kicked things off by emerging from a sugar cane farm with a football as he rapped "Tití me preguntó" from 2022's Un Verano Sin Ti. There were soon some surprise guest singers, but not the ones social media predicted. Rocket Mortage spokeswoman Lady Gaga delivered a salsa version of her chart-topping Bruno Mars collab "Die With A Smile" and Bad Bunny's fellow Puerto Rican star Ricky Martin sang "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii" from DtMF. You may recall Gaga and Bunny had a viral off-air moment at last weekend's Grammys, where he won Album Of The Year. Her cameo tonight was the only English song in the set. Martin wrote an open letter praising Bad Bunny in the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día last week

There were quick cameos outside a casita from Karol G, Alix Earle, Jessica Alba, Young Miko. Pedro Pascal, and Cardi B, who is recovering from a pre-game robot accident. Elsewhere during the show Bad Bunny climbed a telephone pole, handed a Grammy to a little kid watching his acceptance speech on a TV, officiated a wedding (reportedly a real one), and fell backwards off the roof of a bodega into the arms of his dancers. After shouting "God bless America," he recited a list of every country in North and South America, ending with "my motherland Puerto Rico." There was even a nod to "Gasolina," the reggaeton smash from Puerto Rican rapper Daddy Yankee. Bad Bunny closed with “DtMF" underneath fireworks as he spiked a football that had the phrase "Together, We Are America," and he did that in front of a billboard that read “The only thing more powerful than hate is love."

Watch it all go down below.

Upon September's announcement that he would headline this year's show, Bad Bunny said, "What I'm feeling goes beyond myself. 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." Bad Bunny — who is an American citizen because he's from Puerto Rico — has avoided touring in the mainland US out of concern for his fans amid persistent ICE raids. Those fears are warranted, especially considering associates of President Donald Trump have warned that ICE would be present at the Super Bowl.

Bad Bunny's booking became a political flashpoint also immediately. Various MAGA figures like Trump and Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett claimed they'd never heard of the man who was Spotify's most-streamed artist globally for four of the past five years. At least one NFC offensive player did not know Puerto Rico is part of the United States, telling the New York Times that the NFL was "trying too hard with this international stuff."

Last fall, Bad Bunny joked that Americans had "four months to learn" Spanish during his second stint hosting SNL (yet another pop culture milestone in a year when he also acted in the movies Happy Gilmore 2 and Caught Stealing). Amid all the fake controversy, he's been unbothered and busy eating smash burgers.

Still, racists like Jake Paul had an alternative in Turning Point USA's counter-programming. The right-wing platform's halftime show featured Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, Gabby Barrett, but surprisingly not Nicki Minaj. Trump did not attend the Super Bowl tonight, probably because he realized he would get booed, but he did trash tonight's halftime show on Truth Social after it was over, writing that "nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting."

Bad Bunny made history at the Grammys last weekend when his critically acclaimed sixth solo studio LP Debí Tirar Más Fotos became the first fully-Spanish language Album Of The Year winner (it also won Best Música Urbana Album). "Puerto Rico, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish," he said in his emotional, mostly Spanish acceptance speech. "I want to dedicate this award to all the people that had to leave their homeland, their country, to follow their dreams." Earlier in the ceremony, Bad Bunny condemned ICE, adding: "ICE out. We're not savages. We're not animals. We're not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans." Today DtMF jumped back up to #2 on Billboard's album chart, as Governor Gavin Newsom declared it “Bad Bunny Day” in California.

Tonight's pregame performances included a short hits set from Green Day, Coco Jones singing “Lift Every Voice And Sing," Brandi Carlile playing "America The Beautiful," and Charlie Puth doing the national anthem with Kenny G. Meanwhile, this year's commercials featured pop star appearances from Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, Addison Rae, Benson Boone, and a bunch more.

This was Bad Bunny's setlist:

"Tití me preguntó" (shortened)
"Yo perreo sola" with "VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR" outro
"EoO"
"MONACO" intro
"Die With A Smile" (Lady Gaga)
"BAILE INoLVIDABLE" (shortened)
"NUEVAYoL" (shortened)
"LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii" intro (Ricky Martin)
"El apagón"
"CAFé CON RON" intro (shortened)
"DtMF"