Super Bowl LX took place this past weekend at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The game has sparked major controversy across social media platforms, news stations and family dinners. Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, divided America. The cause of this controversy? Not anything to do with football; instead, it was the halftime show that split this country in two.
This Super Bowl was monumental in a few ways. It was a chance for the Seattle Seahawks to finally get redemption against the New England Patriots after the Seahawks’ devastating loss in 2015. As a proud Washingtonian and diehard Seattle sports fan myself, the Seahawks’ win on Sunday was incredible.
Yet, my main takeaway from Sunday was less about the game and more about Bad Bunny’s performance at halftime. The halftime show was the first in Super Bowl history to be performed entirely in Spanish. In late September, it was announced that the world-renowned Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny was to headline Super Bowl LX’s halftime show and, since then, right-wing America has expressed extreme backlash.
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, famously known as Bad Bunny, was the most-streamed artist on Spotify in 2025. Additionally, his album “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” just won Album of the Year at the 2026 Grammy Awards. He is informally known as the “King of Latin Trap,” with his music popularizing Spanish music on a worldwide scale. So why did Bad Bunny’s performance face so much backlash? Why wouldn’t Americans want to see the world’s most popular artist perform at halftime?
Back in early October, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) was asked about the National Football League’s (NFL) announcement that Bad Bunny was set to headline. Johnson stated that “he’s not someone who appeals to a broader audience.” Interesting. One of the world’s top artists, who has had more than 100 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100 Chart and currently has almost 98 million monthly listeners on Spotify seems pretty appealing to me.
Could it be that Bad Bunny primarily sings in Spanish? Right-wing radio personality Sid Rosenberg expressed his anger after the performance over the fact that there was “not one word of English.” Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States, with 40 million people speaking it at home. Media personality Megyn Kelly tweeted that “I like my halftime shows in English.” The uproar from MAGA emphasizes a desire for an English-speaking all-American artist and blatantly ignores the benefit of a Puerto Rican performing.
Conservative political commentator Tomi Lahren argued that Bad Bunny is “not an American artist.” This seemed to be a common point across platforms like X and Facebook from Americans who felt that they were not represented by a Puerto Rican artist. Yet, Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, and all people born on the island are U.S. citizens. Puerto Ricans hold U.S. passports and can serve in the U.S. military. I’m not sure what could be more “American” than that. Simply put, Bad Bunny and Puerto Ricans alike are as “American” as every MAGA supporter that disagrees.
Turning Point USA (TPUSA), Charlie Kirk’s conservative nonprofit organization, hosted an “All-American Halftime Show” featuring artists like Kid Rock, as an alternative to Bad Bunny’s performance. The TPUSA-streamed halftime show had around 5 million viewers on YouTube, with Bad Bunny drawing about 128 million viewers. Not only was the alternative halftime show a flop, but the real performance was widely enjoyed by tens of millions of fans.
Additionally, the President of the United States, Donald Trump, posted on Truth Social that the halftime show was “an affront to the Greatness of America.” A U.S. citizen, proudly representing a U.S. territory, was somehow challenging American values through a performance that emphasized unity and love? What is more American than that message?
During Bad Bunny’s performance, the jumbotron in the stadium displayed the message “the only thing more powerful than hate is love.” An indirect, yet highly political commentary on both MAGA’s response to the halftime show and the Trump administration’s recent attacks on undocumented populations.
As conservatives have been calling him “anti-American,” Bad Bunny took to the stage to redefine what it means to be an American. The United States often thinks of “America” as one country, separate from any other. In reality, the Americas are the second-largest continent that includes North, South and Central America. In his performance, he listed out over 20 of these sovereign states, taking a new stance on what it means to have this identity as an American; one that is all-inclusive and all-encompassing.
The halftime show was filled with vibrant color, dance, homage to Puerto Rico and, most importantly, community. The United States is at a point in time marked by fracture, and foundational values such as liberty and equality are beginning to fall through the cracks. Now more than ever, we need this message of unity to guide us toward a future that includes us all.
To quote the message written on the football Bad Bunny carried at the end of his performance, “Together, We Are America.” If we continue to polarize and divide ourselves from one another, the United States’ foundation will continue to erode to dust. However, the halftime show (not the alternative one) gives me hope for what America can become: a land of people filled with love for their neighbors.
