In the spirited words of Benny Johnson, a popular right-wing podcaster, “the NFL leadership has decided to hire a cross-dressing, America-hating, ICE-hating Puerto Rican dude” for the halftime show.
My honest response? It’s about damn time.
The NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation announced Bad Bunny as the Super Bowl LX halftime performer on Sunday, Sept. 28. He will make history as the first solo, male Latino artist to headline the show.
There have been rumours going around claiming that the show has been cancelled due to immense pressure on the NFL, but luckily for fans like me, these are untrue, and he is still expected to perform.
The 2026 halftime show is set to take place on Sunday, Feb. 8, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
In a statement released by the NFL, Bad Bunny said what he was feeling goes beyond himself.
“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,” he said. “Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL.”
If you didn’t already know, the decision to hire Bad Bunny for one of the biggest performances in the world is quite controversial. Lots of people think he’s wrong for the job, many claiming they’ve never heard of him.
Bad Bunny has won three Grammys and 12 Latin Grammys so far in his career. He is a Puerto Rican musician, born in Vega Baja in 1994, known for his global following and commitment to singing in Spanish.
His 2020 album “El Último Tour del Mundo” became the first all-Spanish album to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and his next three albums were just as successful. In 2020, he performed at the Super Bowl Halftime with Shakira, Jennifer Lopez and J Balvin. In 2022, his fourth studio album “Un Verano Sin Ti” became the first album to receive an album of the year nomination at both the Grammys and Latin Grammys.
He is an obvious choice for the Super Bowl Halftime Show. And yet, people are denouncing it, drawing attention to Bad Bunny’s tendencies to speak out against President Donald Trump, criticize ICE and dress in drag.
In early September, Bad Bunny got some media attention for saying his upcoming Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour, starting in November, would not include any stops in the U.S. This was done over concerns that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would show up to his concerts and harass fans.
He then agreed to perform at the biggest stage in America, a decision some saw as conflicting. Others, like myself, saw it as a calculated confrontation, a chance for him to highlight the struggles immigrants face and criticize our current government without putting fans at risk.
His choice made an immediate impact, just as he presumably expected. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem vowed to send ICE agents to the Super Bowl and warned international visitors and immigrants to stay away from the performance just days after the announcement.
“Yeah, we’ll be all over that place,” she said.
Corey Lewandowski, an advisor to the DHS, said it was shameful that the NFL picked somebody who seems to hate America. “We should be trying to be inclusive, not exclusive. There are plenty of great bands and entertainment people who could be playing at that show that would be bringing people together and not separating them,” he said.
Speaking of inclusivity, you may remember Lewandowski from a certain Fox News segment back in 2018. After a guest mentioned a 10-year-old migrant girl with Down syndrome who was separated from her mother at the U.S. border, Lewandowski replied, “Womp womp.”
Now that’s a man who knows the meaning of inclusivity.
Conservative former race car driver Danica Patrick, who campaigned for President Trump, criticized Bad Bunny’s decision to sing in Spanish on a post on the social platform X.
“No songs in English should not be allowed at one of America’s highest rated television events of the year… not just for sports,” she wrote.
She may be unaware of this, but studies show Spanish is the second most common language spoken in the U.S. Additionally, there was no official language of the United States until March 1, 2025, when Trump signed an executive order declaring English as the one and only official language.
Another conservative political commentator, Tomi Lahren, was slammed in the comment section of her own podcast when she claimed that Bad Bunny was “not an American artist.”
Wrong again! Puerto Rico is an “unincorporated territory” that legally belongs to the U.S. but is not a part of it, meaning Puerto Ricans have been declared U.S. citizens since 1917 but are still denied congressional representation. Puerto Ricans aren’t allowed to vote for the President, but the President and Congress can make extremely important decisions for them, involving policies about domestic programs, foreign trade, defense, international relations and investments.
Even if Bad Bunny weren’t American, which he is, why does it matter now when it didn’t before? Rihanna, Shakira, Paul McCartney, Coldplay, Sting, The Weeknd and The Rolling Stones are all artists who aren’t American and gave great performances at the Super Bowl Halftime show.
Jimmy Failla, a guest on a recent Fox News segment, had some advice for angry conservatives.
“Don’t be mad that we have a cross-dresser who doesn’t speak English doing the halftime show, because if Kamala won, he would’ve been a cabinet member,” he said, while clips of Bad Bunny wearing a white, backless suit jacket with flowers on the sleeves at the 2023 Met Gala flashed across the screen.
Talks of Bad Bunny’s fashion have come up often in the recent controversy, with many conservatives using the word “cross-dresser” as an insult. Bad Bunny has always subverted gender norms and incorporated masculine and feminine elements into his fashion, wearing a skirt on the cover of Harper’s Bazaar and doing drag in his music video for the song “Yo Perreo Sola.” Bad Bunny’s gender-bending fashions are no doubt a tribute to Puerto Rican culture, where drag has a rich history with queer and trans activism.
Despite the naysayers, many people are happy about the NFL’s decision. California Governor Gavin Newsom posted on X that California is excited to welcome Bad Bunny to the Super Bowl. His team even called out conservative complaints about Bad Bunny doing drag, posting an old picture of Vice President JD Vance on X where he is wearing eyeliner and a blonde wig, with the caption “‘Im bOyCoTtInG ThE SuPeR BoWl bEcAuSe bAd bUnNy dReSsEd iN DrAg.’”
On Oct. 4, Bad Bunny responded to the criticism he’s been facing while hosting Saturday Night Live. He played an edited montage of Fox News broadcasters saying he was their favorite musician, then delivered a moving monologue in Spanish about the contributions of Latinos and Latinas in America. He finished his speech in English, saying, “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn.”
I, for one, can’t wait for this halftime show. I hope Bad Bunny doesn’t utter a single word in English and revels as millions of Americans, including myself, listen to songs we can’t understand, but probably should.
