Bad Bunny Makes History as 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show Headliner

When Bad Bunny joined Jennifer Lopez and Shakira at the 2020 Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show, he was a guest performer introducing mainstream America to his reggaeton swagger. Six years later, the Puerto Rican superstar is no longer a supporting act — he’s the headliner of the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show, announced Sunday night by the NFL, Apple Music, and Roc Nation.

The choice reflects the meteoric rise of Latin music, now the fastest-growing genre in the U.S. and a billion-dollar industry. Bad Bunny himself has been Spotify’s most-streamed artist for three years running and has the most-streamed album in the platform’s history (Un Verano Sin Ti). His latest release, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, topped charts worldwide, with multiple singles hitting No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, Apple Music, and Spotify.

A Historic Spanish-Language Performance

Bad Bunny’s halftime show will make history as the first Super Bowl performance staged entirely in Spanish. The announcement — made from a beach in Puerto Rico with Bad Bunny in a pava hat and Hector Lavoe-style suit perched atop a goalpost — symbolized how the artist has decentered the U.S. mainland as the default center of culture. His 31-show residency at San Juan’s El Coliseo shattered Amazon Music streaming records, underscoring that Puerto Rico itself is “mainland” for millions of fans.

Bad Bunny With Shakira in a Guest Appearance at the 2020 Super Bowl Halftime Show

While his presence signals inclusion and progress, it has also sparked backlash from conservative commentators, some accusing him of being “anti-ICE” or a “Trump hater” with “no songs in English.” Yet such critiques ignore that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens and that every show in his residency took place on U.S. soil.

 

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What to Expect at the Halftime Show

Whether Bad Bunny can bring his trademark political edge to one of TV’s most tightly controlled stages remains to be seen. Past Super Bowl performers have inserted subtle protest symbolism — from Kendrick Lamar’s prison yard set design to JLo and Shakira’s 2020 children-in-cages tableau. Fans wonder if Bad Bunny will use his 2026 platform to highlight Puerto Rican identity, immigration, trans rights, or U.S. imperialism.

Regardless, his halftime show is guaranteed to draw enormous viewership and advertising revenue — the NFL’s primary metric of success. As Bad Bunny said at Coachella, “Nunca antes hubo alguien como yo.” Never before has the NFL had a halftime act quite like this.