Super Bowl halftime shows are either just background music or a performance that will be talked about for years. Bad Bunny’s halftime show was loud, intentional, and deeply rooted in culture, his performance was less about pleasing people and more about telling a story.
From the beginning, Benito made it obvious that his show was not about making it a hit. The show opened in a sugarcane field, an image that may have gone unnoticed but a visual that carried meaning. For centuries, sugarcane was the economic backbone of Puerto Rico. On top of that, the dancers were dressed as jíbaros, traditional farmers and cultural icons. Suddenly the Super Bowl stage turned into a cultural lesson.
As the performance unfolded, Bad Bunny turned the field into a living snapshot of Puerto Rican life. Elders playing dominos, women doing their nails, Priragua carts, Coco frío, men boxing. To the hispanic community, all these scenes felt familiar rather than staged. When Benito stopped to get a piragua, it wasn’t just a stunt, it was his reminder that culture lives in everyday moments and shared experiences throughout generations.
Shortly after, Bad Bunny appeared at Villas Tacos, a small Latino-owned taco shop in Los Angeles, right before transitioning into his hit song NUEVAYoL. This scene honored the Great Migration, when Puerto Ricans first moved to New York and built a community through small businesses, social clubs, and cultural spaces that helped [reserve their identity no matter how far away they were from home.
One of the most meaningful appearances was Toñita, owner of the oldest surviving Puerto Rican social club in New York and a major figure in cultural preservation. Her moment with Benito, handing him a shot of what we can only imagine was coquito, felt very symbolic as if the tradition was being passed from one generation to the next.
The show also showed us reality. During hit song El Apagon, power poles filled the stage, referencing Puerto Rico’s unstable power grid and how the government has failed them after Hurricane Maria. With blackouts that are still currently affecting the island due to privatization and mismanagement, the message was impossible to ignore.
Throughout the show representation was everywhere. Ricky Martin’s appearance mattered, not just musically, but culturally, as an openly gay Latino icon on one of the world’s biggest stages. A very iconic and unexpected appearance from Lady Gaga. The iconic casita. Celebrities like Karol G, Young Miko, Cardi B, Pedro Pascal, and Jessica Alba were spotted, highlighting just how diverse the Latino community really is.
Yes, the wedding scene was real. A couple who once invited Bad Bunny to their wedding ended up getting married during the halftime performance instead.
One of the most personal moments for Benito was when he handed over a Grammy to his younger self reflecting on how he never stopped believing in himself.
Latin American flags filled the stage as Bad Bunny brought his performance to end, not only did he have every Latin flag present but he also went beyond and read each country out loud. Ending with a message saying: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.” which was accompanied by a football that said “Together we are America.”
The impact that Bad Bunny has made is extremely clear. Preliminary reports had an estimate of over 135 million viewers, making it the most-watched Super Bowl halftime show in history. For comparison, Turning Point America also released a performance at the same time, but only reached 5 million viewers. This big gap in viewer numbers speaks for itself.
Bad Bunny told a story in 13 minutes, he told a story about Puerto Rico, migration, struggle, pride, and community. Whether or not you are a fan of Bad Bunny, the reach and resonance of this performance speaks for itself.