When Bad Bunny took the field at the 2026 Super Bowl for a historic, joyful halftime show, he wore a jersey with his Latino heritage stitched into its very fabric.
It’s an apt metaphor for his performance, which eschewed explicit anti-ICE statements (he covered that at the Grammys, anyway) in favor of celebration with a side of symbolism.
Nods to the Puerto Rican singer’s motherland were peppered throughout the set, which was designed to evoke the US territory’s signature aesthetics, from sugar cane fields to a storefront labeled “La Marqueta” (a slang term for market) and various vendors selling tacos and piraguas (shaved ice). While performing “El Apagón,” a song about the frequent blackouts and infrastructure issues affecting Puerto Ricans, Bad Bunny brought this symbolism to the forefront, waving the Puerto Rican flag.
He also proclaimed in English, “God bless America,” and brandished a football printed with the phrase “Together, We Are America.” He added in Spanish, “We’re still here.” (Puerto Rico is a US territory, and Puerto Ricans are American citizens.)
It was a stark and knowing contrast to the Latinophobia and anti-immigrant messaging hawked by the Trump administration. So much so that President Donald Trump complained online about Bad Bunny’s performance and his choice to sing primarily in Spanish.
“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after Bad Bunny left the stage. “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying.”
For those who understand visual storytelling, however, Bad Bunny’s performance made perfect sense. He didn’t need to say “ICE out” or declare an explicit political opinion. In keeping with the recent tradition of Super Bowl halftime shows, Bad Bunny used iconography to take a stand instead.
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance is part of a new halftime show tradition
Bad Bunny’s performance shares DNA with Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl appearances, both of which used bold imagery to make strong statements.
Beyoncé’s surprise appearance at Coldplay’s 2016 Super Bowl halftime show became famous — and, to some, infamous — for the iconography present in her performance of her then-new single, “Formation.” In the midst of Trump’s first presidential campaign, Beyoncé and her backup dancers wore outfits that channeled the Black Panther Party, an organization formed amid the ’60s Civil Rights Movement that fought for Black liberation.
Robert Beck/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images
The song itself isn’t explicitly political. But as a celebration of identity and legacy that features lyrics about Beyoncé’s parents, her daughter, and her features (“I like my negro nose with Jackson 5 nostrils”), Beyoncé performing it — with visual references to the song’s themes in her and her dancers’ costumes, to boot — was innately political.
It’s not that Beyoncé is allergic to making explicit political statements: She famously performed in front of the word “Feminist” at the 2014 VMAs, and sang “Votin’ out 45, don’t get out of line” on her 2022 album “Renaissance,” referring to Trump as the 45th president. But when the NFL hosts musicians for the night, they’ve lately preferred make their statements symbolic rather than overt.
Last year, Kendrick Lamar followed suit during his own Super Bowl halftime show, outfitting himself and his dancers in red, white, and blue. Although Lamar kept the music focused on his own enemies and triumphs, he used audacious visual language to pose broader, poignantly relevant questions: Who’s allowed to claim patriotism? What does it mean to be an American, especially in times of oppression and conflict?
Bad Bunny’s performance raised similar questions, but offered simpler, more optimistic solutions. For the finale, he was surrounded by backup dancers, band members, and other performers holding flags from around the world; when he proclaimed “God bless America,” he listed out all the countries in both North and South America.
Bad Bunny is not a politician, nor can he single-handedly cure the world of hatred and division. Still, for a brief moment, on a small square of American turf, he chose to use the stage to show millions of people what that could look like.
