Bad Bunny Honored His Puerto Rican Roots & Chose Love Over Hate At His Super Bowl LX Halftime Performance

On a historic night at Super Bowl LX, Bad Bunny made sure to put a spotlight on his roots and culture. Most of the global pop superstar’s spectacular halftime performance included visual references to life on his native island of Puerto Rico. He also performed many of his biggest hits in his native tongue, making this the first Super Bowl halftime show sung largely in Spanish. Bad Bunny also became the first male Latin act to headline this event on his own.

Following in the steps of previous Super Bowl halftime headliners like Gloria Estefan, Jennifer Lopez, and Shakira, Bad Bunny proudly represented Latino people and Latin music. Throughout his career, Bad Bunny has been known for always showing love to where he’s from, and tonight, he transformed the field at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, into a tropical paradise filled with jíbaros, or people from Puerto Rico’s countryside. While performing “Tití Me Preguntó,” Bad Bunny passed cultural hallmarks of Puerto Rico, including men boxing, people playing dominoes, and a stand for piraguas, a Puerto Rican shaved ice dessert.

The most emblematic symbol of Puerto Rico from Bad Bunny’s No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí residency and Debí Tirar Más Fotos world tour has been la casita, a small traditional home common on the island. The house was parked on the Levi’s Stadium field with plenty of special guests dancing to Bad Bunny’s music. His previous collaborators KAROL G and Cardi B were spotted in la casita with actors Jessica Alba and Pedro Pascal. Latina women were perreando, or twerking, and they did likewise on the field to “Yo Perreo Sola,” “VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR,” and “Party.” Bad Bunny even performed a bit of the freaky “Safaera,” including the song’s infamous lyric in Spanish about eating ass, which was censored.

After falling through the roof of la casita, Bad Bunny paid homage to the pioneers of reggaeton that came before him. As he dusted himself off and ran to the field, instrumental snippets of classics like Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina,” Don Oma’s “Dale Don Dale,” and Tego Calderón’s “Pa’ Que Retozen” filled the stadium.

Bad Bunny also performed the cinematic “MONACO” and the reggaeton banger “EoO” from his his sexy Calvin Klein underwear ad. By showing two men grinding on each other to the latter song, Bad Bunny continued to show his support for the LGBTQ+ community. His first big surprise guest was Lady Gaga, who sang a new salsa version of “Die With a Smile,” her smash 2024 collaboration with Bruno Mars, who was not present. Gaga then shared a dance with Bad Bunny to his salsa music smash “BAILE INoLVIDABLE.” With the help of Gaga, Bad Bunny reminded the world of salsa music’s roots in Puerto Rico.

Bad Bunny then gave a shout out to the Nuyoricans and the strong Puerto Rican presence in New York City with “NUEVAYoL.” He also shared the spotlight with another Puerto Rican icon that no doubt paved the way for his success, Ricky Martin, who sang the haunting “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii,” which talks about the gentrification of Puerto Rico and the displacement of natives on the island. Bad Bunny also highlighted frequent blackouts in Puerto Rico due to privatization of energy of the island’s electrical grid by LUMA Energy with “El Apagón.” He even sang his empowering lyric about everyone wanting to be Latino but lacking seasoning.

The performance also included a clip of Bad Bunny’s historic moment at last Sunday’s Grammy Awards, where DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS became the first Spanish-language LP to win Album of the Year. In a touching moment, Bad Bunny handed that Grammy statuette to a younger version of himself. At a time when Latino people in the U.S. are being targeted by ICE raids under President Donald Trump’s administration, Bad Bunny used his speech at the Grammys to condemn the agency. “Ice out!” he declared while asking people to counter hate with love.

With division being sowed across the U.S. and Latino people being othered, Bad Bunny took a moment Sunday night remind the world that America is a continent and not just a country. While performing “CAFé CON RON,” he declared, “God bless America,” then put a new spin on the phrase by shouting out every country in Latin America, the U.S., and Canada. He held up a football with a message that read, “Together, we are America,” and the giant video screen in the background read, “The only thing more powerful than hate is love,” an echo of his Grammys plea. The flags for every country in the Americas followed him on the field as he ended his set with the nostalgic “DtMF.”

Bad Bunny’s halftime show performance was a major touchdown for Latinos, Puerto Rico, and Latin music on a global stage. Bad Bunny continues to prove why he’s the most important pop star of this decade.

You can read all the lyrics to Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl LX halftime performance on Genius now.