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Super Bowl 2026: Bad Bunny to perform a highly-political halftime show
After Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, and Kendrick Lamar last year, Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny has been chosen to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show. Scheduled for February 8th, 2026, at California’s Levi’s Stadium, the American football final may become the stage for a highly political performance from the Latin trap and reggaeton star. Here’s everything you need to know about the performance.
The Super Bowl, a highly-anticipated annual event
In nearly sixty years since its creation, the Super Bowl has become much more than a mere sporting event. Attracting millions of viewers each year and bringing in nearly $600 million in revenue, the final of the American football league has become a major cultural platform. Especially as it premieres the latest blockbuster’s trailers. But above all, it offer the halftime show that has earned the Super Bowl its prestige.
Madonna, Beyoncé, Michael Jackson, Prince, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Diana Ross… Over the years, an entire pantheon of music legends has taken turns on the stage of the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show. For 2026, rumours had it that pop stars Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter would perform on the American football stage.
Bad Bunny, star of the Super Bowl 2026 halftime show
It is ultimately Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny, king of Latin trap and reggaeton, who has been given the heavy responsibility of headlining the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show. Benito Martínez Ocasio, his real name, was selected to take the stage of the California’s Levi’s Stadium on February 8th, 2026, for the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show.
Considered one of the most-streamed English-speaking artists of all time, the 31-year-old singer and rapper has been very busy this year. Between the release of his album Debí Tirar Más Fotos last January and his foray into cinema starring in the film Caught Stealing, the musician’s schedule was overly packed in 2025.
A performance expected to be highly political
Last year, Kendrick Lamar delivered a strongly political performance, alongside singer SZA and actor Samuel L. Jackson. As a true manifesto on the status of African Americans in Trump’s America, the thirteen-minute show drew over 130 million viewers. Keeping that in mind, Bad Bunny could likely insert a political dimension into his own performance.
Following the release of his album Debí Tirar Más Fotos, conceived as a tribute to his native island of Puerto Rico, the artist announced a world tour for 2026. A series of concerts that will not include the United States, given the current political climate. Indeed, as he told i-D magazine, Bad Bunny refused to perform in the U.S. because “ICE [the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, which is currently carrying out a policy of mass deportations of immigrants on American soil, ed.] could be outside my concert venue.”
As one of the most advertised events of the year, the Super Bowl stage could therefore be the ideal platform to draw attention on different political issues for an artist who has already spoken out against homophobia, racism, gender-based harassment and the gentrification of Puerto Rico. We can’t wait to see what Bad Bunny has in store for his high-profile Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show.
The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show will take place on February 8,th 2026, at the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
