Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, known in the music industry as Bad Bunny, performed at the 2026 Super Bowl

Halftime show and used the platform to speak up about the current political climate. Bad Bunny was born and raised in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, and started as a SoundCloud rapper in 2016. As he rose in fame, he was able to collaborate with well-known singers like Cardi B and Drake only two years later. Since then, he has won six Grammys, including the latest, in 2026 for Album of the Year, as well as 17 Latin Grammy Awards. The decision for him to perform in the Super Bowl was obvious, but it still received backlash because many people felt he wasn’t “American enough”. Most, if not all, of Bad Bunny’s songs are in Spanish, and he has never shied away from his Puerto Rican descent. He surely made a statement and didn’t back down with his performance, only singing and speaking in Spanish as well as having many set design choices that speak to his view on today’s politics.

Bad Bunny had multiple sets connected through a maze of sugarcane. Each set represents a piece of Puerto Rican history, from the Casita, electrical poles, and plants filled with workers. The show opens with the camera weaving through sugarcane plants, representing Puerto Rico’s history as a colonial agricultural economy, and with dancers dressed as Jibaros, rural farmers, highlighting their heritage. A small house filled with culture is then introduced, featuring elements like domino tables, bodegas, and nail salons, which display a strong sense of community for viewers to connect with. Bad Bunny also has a special dance portion of his performance on electrical poles, representing the island’s consistent power outages and the residents’ resilience.

Not only did he feature culture-rich sets, but he also featured many Hispanic celebrities, like Ricky Martin, Pedro Pascal, Jessica Alba, Karol G, and Cardi B. Each has made a large impact on the film and music industry, so having them take part in the show signifies just how much people of Spanish roots have given to the entertainment industry, their communities, and America as a whole.

Ricky Martin, one of the featured celebrities, had a special solo where he performed an acoustic version of his hit song

“Lo que le paso a Hawaii” which describes Puerto Rican culture and gentrification. While he sang, dancers were wearing pava hats, which are traditional straw hats woven from palm fronds rooted in Puerto Rican culture, and Bad Bunny also wore one to the Met Gala. Martin was first known for being a member of a teen pop band named Menudo till he started his solo career in 1991 with Spanish-language albums. He not only sang but also starred in the famous soap opera General Hospital, and in 1999 performed at the Grammys and released his first English album, selling over 15 million copies. He also had a successful Broadway career, performing in Les Misérables and Evita. He is often titled “the king of Latin pop”. Apart from his creative career, Martin is outstanding as a person. On March 29, 2010, he officially came out as a “fortunate homosexual man” on his website, prompted by the birth of his twins via surrogate. He also founded the Ricky Martin Foundation, which fights for children’s rights as well as human trafficking, and is a strong LGBTQ+ rights activist.

Bad Bunny not only featured Spanish-rooted celebrities but also featured Lady Gaga, who is American-Italian, and performed the only song in English with her hit “Die with a Smile” but in a salsa style rendition. Gaga is wearing a light blue dress with a flor de maga, Puerto Rico’s national flower, pinned on her shoulder. Viewers speculate that it could represent the blend of cultures and America’s opportunity to blend and accept Puerto Rican culture rather than push it away.

There were many other political messages within the performance, like the football he held with the message “Together we are America,” while saying “seguimos aqui,” meaning we are still here. The performance surrounded the message “The only thing more powerful than hate is love,” which was also displayed on one of the stadium’s screens

during the performance. Towards the end, Bad Bunny yells, “God Bless America,” which are the only words he speaks in English, where he then lists countries across North, Central, and South America from Chile to Canada while all the countries’ flags are run behind him.

Whilst Turing Point USA was creating their own halftime show filled with hate for Bad Bunny, he was displaying the option to fight political hate and violence with love and unity. He used his heritage and culture to connect to not only Puerto Ricans but all of America.