Bad Bunny is no stranger to breaking new ground for Latin artists. Take last Sunday’s historic Grammy Album of the Year win, which made his masterful LP Debi Tirar Mas Fotos the first all Spanish language album to win in the category. This Sunday, Bad Bunny will make history as the first Latino male artist to headline the Super Bowl half time show. He will also be the first Super Bowl headliner to perform a set in Spanish and the first artist on an independent label (Puerto Rican label Rimas).
At a moment when Latinos and the Spanish language have been targeted under the current administration, how did we get Bad Bunny as the Super Bowl headliner ? And, on the heels of Bad Bunny’s impassioned Grammy speeches, what might we expect on Sunday?
While the NFL’s Halftime show partners Roc Nation and Apple Music are notoriously tight-lipped about how the artist is picked and how creative decisions are made, it seems it was a harmonious decision between the partners. Jon Barker, NFL senior vice president, global event operations and production, tells Rolling Stone, “Bad Bunny isn’t just one of the biggest artists in the world — he’s one of the most culturally influential. He represents where music is right now: global, genreless, and driven by artists who connect authentically. The Super Bowl halftime show has always been about capturing the moment, and Bad Bunny reflects the sound, the audience, and the culture of this moment better than anyone.”
Roc Nation CEO Desiree Perez calls Bad Bunny “the perfect artist to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show.” “Over the past year, Bad Bunny has dominated the charts and headlined a sold out global stadium tour,” she explains, highlighting his ground-breaking career cultural impact. Just a few cultural milestones Bad Bunny has hit recently include being the only artist to have four consecutive all-Spanish albums reach number one on the Billboard 200 chart, having the most streamed album in history (Un Verano Sin Ti), having the most watched Amazon Music livestream, and being the most streamed artist in the world on Spotify from 2020 to 2022 and again in 2025.
While Bad Bunny seemed like a no-brainer this year, there were rumors that other artists, like Post Malone and Taylor Swift, had also been considered this year. “Obviously, you’ve heard, for example, Taylor Swift talk about her reasons why she wouldn’t perform at the Super Bowl. Of course we talk about multiple artists,” Oliver Schusser, vice president of Apple Music, Sports, and Beats tells Rolling Stone. He shares that the conversation between Apple, Roc Nation, and the NFL often unfolds over a long period of time. “We have an ongoing dialogue with Roc Nation about the short list of artists that could perform…We’re talking all the time because this is the biggest show in the world,” he explains. ““At the end of the day…they [Roc Nation] make the decision, and we were thrilled.”
The Apple Music team was particularly thrilled with Bad Bunny as the choice because they go way back with the Puerto Rican superstar. In August of 2016, Apple Music’s Latin
Music Programmer Jerry Pullés made Apple Music the first DSP to officially stream Bad Bunny’s music. Back then, Pullés had heard songs like “Soy Peor” and was drawn to Bad Bunny’s distinct baritone voice, delivery, and atypical lyrical content, especially since his songs about heartbreak brought a softer side to Latin trap. As Latin trap was gaining traction, Pullés saw its potential and put Bad Bunny on the first Latin Trap playlist ever on a DSP, Apple Music’s “Trap Kingz.”
“I’ve been looking at old emails with [Bad Bunny],” Pullés says. “It’s surreal to see somebody who, at the time, had zero streams on any DSP. And the day his first single was released, I put him on a playlist and I just watched him slowly grow, and then just explode. It is incredible. It’s what, as a curator, you hope for. This is something that will probably never happen again.”
The relationship kept growing. In November of 2017, Pullés worked with Apple Music to welcome Bad Bunny into their studios as a host of the new Trap Kingz radio show. Now, the Super Bowl feels like a full circle moment for Apple Music, which became an official partner of the halftime show in 2023. “Our relationship with [Bad Bunny] and his team is great…Over the years, we’ve built a level of trust that has really helped us move things along. So it feels incredibly special,” Pullés says. “He’s done all of the different opportunities we have for up-and-coming artists. And watching him grow and become the artist we thought he could be makes it feel really special. And I think it says a lot about our platform of how we nurture up-and-coming artists and music.”
“Artists like him don’t usually get these opportunities,” Pullés adds. “That’s partly why it’s so groundbreaking. He’s the first artist who sings pretty much exclusively in Spanish to get this gig.”
Despite the historic firsts that this Sunday’s halftime show will bring, it hasn’t been universally celebrated. Right wing backlash to the announcement of a Spanish-language halftime performance was swift and included calls to deport Bad Bunny, who is an American citizen. Conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA is even producing an “alternative” halftime show of MAGA-friendly musicians, like Kid Rock. Bad Bunny and his team have mostly been quiet about the reaction, only making a light joke of the conversation on SNL.
The only hint of the performance came on Jan. 16, when Bad Bunny released a Super Bowl trailer that featured the artist dancing with a cast of diverse characters under the iconic flamboyán tree from his residency. Marissa Lopez, who is in charge of Latin artist relations at Apple Music, describes the vibe on the set of that trailer as celebratory. “To see the interaction of [Bad] Bunny with them [the dancers] was special. He took his time with everybody. [He was] so thoughtful, saying hello,” she explains. “I just felt the energy of the room was magnetic, and he completely got it…It was just very positive, you know, and he went off the energy that every person had, so it was fun.”
The trailer also gave us a sense of a key theme we should expect to see reflected in Sunday’s show: “Unity,” Lopez says. “Benito’s always been somebody that’s always unified through music.” Bad Bunny offered a hint of how he’s thinking about things during his emotional acceptance speeches for his three Grammy wins on Sunday, bringing up unity and positivity. In his first acceptance speech for Best Música Urbana album, after denouncing ICE, he declared, “If we want to fight, we have to do it with love…The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love.” The joy, love, and diversity featured in the dance party trailer reflects the feelings he shared on the Grammy stage.
But Bad Bunny and the Super Bowl partners want the performance to stay under wraps. “The best thing about the Halftime Show is that it is such a surprise. It would take away the fun if Roc Nation laid out before the show what the show was going to be like,” Schusser says.
Lopez says people should expect “surprise and delight. [Bad Bunny] wants everybody to be surprised.” She also adds that everyone should get ready to dance.
“This one is going to be special, unlike anything we’ve ever seen,” Lopez says. The political moment makes the gravity of Bad Bunny’s historic Spanish performance carry even more weight. “I think it’s a defining moment for Latinos globally to be seen and to have an opportunity,” Lopez says.
Despite the controversy, the team behind the Super Bowl is excited about what Bad Buny is going to bring to the stage. “There’s always gonna be people who have different opinions of things,” Pullés says. “But I think whatever he does, we’re gonna be proud.”
