Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show: A Cultural Milestone for Global Latin Music

Hannah McAuliffe
Sep 22, 2025
3 min read

Updated: Feb 12

The only thing more powerful than Hate is Love

This Past Sunday 8/02/2026, The Super Bowl was back to see the Patriots versus Seahawks, and Spoiler alert if you're a fan of American Football, The seahawks took the victory. But Despite the actual Sport, I want to talk about the Half time show, which no offence to the players is all I tune in for. This year came with a lot of controversy and discussion surrounding Apple music's chosen performer of Bad Bunny, or his full name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio.

For me, Bad Bunnys performance was a beautiful display of culture and Love. Which disproved some previous views that Benito would approach his performance with Hate towards the USA, Infact he projected unity and a call for equality across all country's of America. But I am not here to focus on the split mindsets regarding The choice of Bad Bunny, I would rather keep up the celebration and discuss what a great performance it was.

The Rise of Latin Music

Since the first Super bowl in 1966, at least 24 million viewers have tuned in to watch the NFL title game, with the numbers only increasing every year. Because of such a strong viewership, the half time show becomes one of the most viewed musical stages. And 2026 being the year that Bad Bunny is selected to perform, reflects the growing dominance of Latin Music. Overall this choice by Apple music has symbolised a shift from Latin music being considered a niche representation to mainstream global leadership.

Latin music today is no longer limited to regional audiences; it now shapes global charts, streaming trends, festival line-ups, and global tours as Bad Bunny is set to cover 23 cities across Latin Americas, Europe, Australia, and Japan. His tour will support the release of his Grammy award winning Album DeBI TiRaR MaS FOTos.

Todays Era of streaming on platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify has allowed Latin artists to reach international audiences, and Bad Bunny's Streaming dominance goes to show how well received globally this music is. Performing an almost completely Spanish performance at a global event signals this wider acceptance of non-English music in mainstream entertainment, overlooking those who lack the capacity to recognise good music despite a language barrier.

Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin and celebrities in Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show

Let’s dive into the two biggest surprise musical guests featured in Bad Bunnys half time performance. Starting off with Lady Gaga, who continues to prove she can do it all through a Latin inspired instrumental remix of her track ' Die With A Smile'. Soon followed by Latin Pop legend Ricky Martin, for a performance of 'LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii' before leading into 'El apagón' that was brief but just as impactful to the cultural richness of this show.

You may have also caught some celebrity cameos within the casita ,a nod to traditional Puerto Rican homes, that included the likes of Pedro Pascal, Cardi B ,Jessica Alba ,Karol G and Alix Earle amongst the dancers.

The performance also included paying homage to real business within the set design such as the Los Angeles taco joint Villa's Tacos. Who shared an Instagram post captioned;

Villa's Tacos Pictured for Superbowl Half Time Show

"I want to give a huge thank you to @badbunnypr for hand selecting me and giving me an opportunity to represent my people, my culture, my family and my business,"