Why did the NFL choose Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl?
The selection of the NFL’s Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl halftime show was probably not politically motivated. USA TODAY’s Pamela Avila explains.
Bad Bunny sat with Apple Music hosts Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden at the Super Bowl LX Halftime Show press conference on February 5th.
The global superstar, whose full name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, provided rare insight into the cultural moment and creative vision behind one of the most anticipated and discussed halftime performances in NFL history.
Bad Bunny took to the stage wearing an all-charcoal suit with a faux fur coat, beanie hat and oversized sunglasses, to loud cheers of “Benito!” Lowe asked him, “How are you feeling now?”
“To be honest, I don’t know how I feel. There’s a lot going on,” he said. Switching between English and Spanish, Bad Bunny said he feels happy and is taking each day to the next. On February 4th, I couldn’t sleep because I kept thinking about the performance. That’s 13 minutes of him “doing what he loves.”
He continued, “I’m more excited to think about all my family and friends than I am to think about myself.”
Bad Bunny says you don’t need to know Spanish to dance to his music
To those who said they needed to learn Spanish, the language in which he sings, to understand his performances, he replied: “It would be easy, people would just have to think about dance. They don’t even have to learn Spanish. They’d better learn dance. There’s no dance better than dance that comes from the heart.”
When the conversation turned to preparation and mindset, Bad Bunny summed up his goals succinctly: “I just want people to have fun.”
He joked that he was eating a Smashburger in preparation for his performance and was “thinking about it at 4 a.m.” He longs for time to play dominoes again. “It’s killing me not to play.”
What fans are curious about is what the content will be like and whether there will be any surprises or guests.
“You know that’s not something I’m going to tell you? I don’t know why you would ask that,” he joked. “Of course, we’ll have a lot of guests, whether it’s family and friends or the Latinx community from around the world.”
Charlie Puth, Brandi Carlyle and Coco Jones discuss their pregame performance
Before Bad Bunny’s appearance, Lowe and Ebro spoke with Charlie Puth (who sings “The Star-Spangled Banner”), Coco Jones (who sings “Lift Every Voice”) and Brandi Carlile (who sings “America the Beautiful”).
Puth has been “rehearsing for a month” and has been showering most of the time. He admits that the song is “one of the most difficult songs to sing”.
For Jones, who likes to eat Lay’s chips before every performance because Whitney Houston said it was good for her voice, the experience is “like the bee’s knees. It’s one of the most-watched events of all time, right? So it’s hard to compete. Maybe my wedding will be there.”
And Carlisle, a Seattle Seahawks fan, says the song is “more of a prayer than a post. It’s a song about a country, a beautiful country that rises and falls in terms of hope, and it’s a work in progress.”
Bad Bunny talks about how he’s preparing for the Super Bowl halftime show
Bad Bunny talks about preparing for the Super Bowl, from workouts to mindset to staying true to yourself.
Inside Apple Music’s playbook for the Super Bowl 60 halftime show
Apple Music executives exclusively told USA TODAY that the 2026 halftime campaign is rooted in Bad Bunny’s 10 words that defined the overall creative direction: “This isn’t my halftime show. This is everyone’s halftime show.”
This quote became the throughline of a show built to make a global impression. The message also contrasted with earlier online criticism that questioned whether Spanish-speaking performers should be leading America’s biggest entertainment stage.
Apple Music’s relationship with Bad Bunny began in 2016, when the streaming app first featured the Puerto Rican artist on its playlists. Three years later, Lowe interviewed him on a boat in San Juan Harbor and left convinced of his star power.
Since then, Bad Bunny has become one of the most streamed musicians in the world, setting touring and streaming records while fusing reggaeton, trap, pop and alternative styles.
On February 1, Debí Tirar Más Fotos became the first Spanish-language album to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
A secret halftime show
Jay-Z’s company Roc Nation will select the halftime performers, but Apple Music will build the global campaign. Executives say secrecy is so strict that even senior executives don’t know who will be performing until close to the announcement.
In preparation, Apple Music has assembled a cross-functional “tiger team” to create mood boards and shortlists, ready to take action the moment news is announced. The company will then roll out playlists, archival interviews, artist tributes, and global videos to 175 countries.
Last year’s Kendrick Lamar halftime show drew more than 130 million viewers, making it the most-watched halftime show in Super Bowl history. Apple is particularly keen to expand its audience overseas, reflecting the NFL’s recent push for growth in South America.
After this year’s trailer was released, streams for “BAILE INoLVIDABLE” jumped 54 percent in the U.S. and 36 percent worldwide.
Contributor: Jennifer McClellan, USA TODAY
Brian West is a music reporter for The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network. Instagram, TikTok, and X as @BryanWestTV.
