Bad Bunny, Super Bowl halftime star, and Brandi Carlile arrive in the Bay

SAN FRANCISCO — Bad Bunny has something in common with football fans: He’s struggling to sleep before Sunday’s Super Bowl. 

“I think about the Super Bowl halftime show at 4 a.m.,” the Puerto Rican superstar said at a news conference Thursday in San Francisco before the big game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. 

Arriving in the Bay Area fresh off Sunday’s Grammy Awards — including a historic Album of the Year trophy for “Debí Tirar Mas Fotos,” the first album entirely in Spanish to win the Recording Academy’s highest honor — Bad Bunny shared his Super Bowl mindset Thursday with Apple Music hosts Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden. 

The Super Bowl will kick off at 3:30 p.m. PT Sunday; the halftime show will be broadcast on NBC and streamed on Peacock. 

Bad Bunny, aka Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, knows it’s not just a concert. He said he never expected to take over the biggest stage in all of entertainment. (Apple Music’s halftime show last year broke a viewership record, with Kendrick Lamar’s red-white-and-blue blowout drawing 133.5 million viewers — more than the game itself.)

“I was never looking for this,” Bad Bunny said Thursday. “My biggest achievement, my biggest pleasure, is just creating, having fun doing it and connecting with the people. When I drop a song that I’m speaking about my feelings, that’s the best feeling, and that’s what I’m always looking for every time.”

Though he’s headlining this year, this is actually the second Super Bowl halftime show for the “king of Latin trap,” one of the most-streamed musicians on the planet. Bad Bunny dipped his toe in back in 2020, when Shakira brought him out to perform during her set.

He’ll return Sunday as the Super Bowl’s first solo Latino headliner in what will be the first Spanish-language-dominant performance — leaving fans to speculate about potential special guests, such as collaborators J Balvin or Cardi B (who is in a relationship with Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs). 

Bad Bunny played coy Thursday, declining to share whether he’ll be joined by any guests — but he promised that the performance would get people dancing. 

“There’s going to be a huge party, and it’s going to be what people can always expect from me,” he said. “I don’t want to give any spoilers.”

He encouraged fans to enjoy his all-Spanish songs even if they don’t understand the lyrics. He recalled his “Saturday Night Live” monologue in October, soon after he was announced as the headliner, when he told critics they had “four months to learn” the language he’ll speak in the show. 

At the Grammys, Bad Bunny criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid President Donald Trump’s immigrant crackdown, saying “ICE out” in his acceptance speech. The Puerto Rican star didn’t address ICE specifically on Thursday, but has kept cultural pride central to his music and performances throughout his career — and said Sunday will be no different. 

“I wasn’t looking for the Album of the Year at the Grammys,” he said. “I wasn’t looking to perform in the Super Bowl halftime show. I just was looking to connect with my roots, connect with my people, more than ever connect with myself, with my history, my culture. And I did in a very honest way.”

Also performing Sunday: a familiar face for Washingtonians.

Maple Valley’s own Brandi Carlile will sing “America the Beautiful” during pregame festivities. The 11-time Grammy winner said Thursday that she’s determined to enjoy the moment. 

“When I was given opportunities or big moments when I was younger, I would just dissociate from the pressure,” the folk singer said, adding that being a performer in her 40s is her “superpower.” 

“I think at this point in life, you get to calm down, centralize yourself, be there and actually experience these milestones in life.”

Carlile and Bad Bunny were joined Thursday by Charlie Puth, who will perform the National Anthem, and Coco Jones, who will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” 

The trio of musicians joked and talked about preshow rituals Thursday, with Carlile advising: “Don’t drink whiskey!” 

She was poking fun at a penchant earlier in her career for shooting Jameson before a show. These days, Carlile and her bandmates, twins Phil and Tim Hanseroth, will smack each other’s stomachs to knock off any pent-up preconcert adrenaline. 

“It sounds ridiculous,” she said. “We end up with red marks all over our stomachs for the whole tour. But, you know, it’s all about being present.”

Carlile said she hasn’t always been a huge sports fan (unless you count fishing), but said she and her family are all in on this Seahawks Super Bowl run. 

“My daughters, inexplicably, are total jocks, and they have just got me in line quick,” she said. “I’m making up for lost time as a fan.”