Bad Bunny is having his moment.
Off the heels of a historic Best Album win at the Grammys — the first ever won by a Spanish language album — the reggaeton artist headlined the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Sunday, a fitting victory lap after a 31-show residency in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that brought in at least $176.6 million.
A major theme of the performance was unity across all of the North and South American countries, with Bad Bunny flying the flags and naming the countries that reside within them, from Canada to Cuba. This moment of unity was felt especially by UF’s Caribbean Students Association, said its external vice president Grant Pereira.
The student association held a Super Bowl watch party specifically for the performance, and the 21-year-old UF business senior said that viewers started to shout “That’s my flag!” during the final moment.
“Seeing all our Caribbean flags, just our culture, being displayed in a huge platform like that — it felt like we were the main characters for once,” Pereira said.
Seeing a spotlight on Caribbean culture on such a grand stage was inspiring, Pereira said. Small references, like a child sleeping on a makeshift bed made out of chairs during a wedding, made the show feel especially personal.
“I felt like my life was being put on the screen,” he said.
But the halftime show didn’t come without opposition. Bad Bunny’s discography is almost entirely in Spanish, leading to a performance that was bound to have very few English words. It even prompted the conservative nonprofit organization Turning Point USA to host its own “All-American” halftime show, with country-rock artist Kid Rock as its headliner.
That sentiment was felt, at least in part, by 20-year-old UF economics junior Harrison Muncriem. He enjoyed the show’s choreography but said the lack of English music left something to be desired.
“I would appreciate it if some of the songs were in English, because I don't speak Spanish, but I literally don’t care,” Muncriem said.
Not every non-Spanish speaking listener felt the language barrier posed an issue. Jaiden Twyman, a 19-year-old UF computer science sophomore, said despite not knowing what the lyrics meant, he was still able to enjoy the music.
The performance featured special guests Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin. Gaga sang a salsa rendition of her hit “Die With a Smile,” while Martin sang “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii," by Bad Bunny.
“I was dancing the whole time. It was a good time,” Twyman said.
Nina Visram, a 19-year-old UF industrial and systems engineering sophomore, holds a viewpoint somewhere in the middle. While she is a longtime fan of Bad Bunny, she feels that enjoying the show ultimately comes down to a matter of personal taste, and it won’t be for everyone.
“I'm a big fan of Spanish music, and I feel like if other people aren't, that's okay,” she said. “You know, everybody has their own taste.”
As far as her own opinion on the show, Visram praised the set design, highlighting the use of performers dressed as blades of grass and the swaying electric poles that dancers perched atop.
The halftime performance featured many cultural references to Bad Bunny’s native island. From piragua stands to coconut vendors to games of dominoes, the reggaeton superstar transformed the green turf in Santa Clara into a home away from home. Sugarcane was also a prominent motif throughout the set, a reference to the plantations found throughout the island and the “jíbaros,” or Puerto Rican countrymen, who farm them.
Despite the discourse surrounding the performance, the halftime show was a resounding success, with an estimated 135 million viewers tuning in, making it the most watched Super Bowl performance in history. Comparatively, Turning Point’s “The All-American Halftime Show” brought in 6.1 million viewers, and the 2025 halftime show, featuring Kendrick Lamar, brought in 133.5 million viewers.
Lance Gelman, a 22-year-old UF accounting senior, couldn’t care less about the political implications of the halftime show. Before the performance began, he only cared about one thing — which song Bad Bunny would perform first.
He placed a bet on the artist’s 2023 hit “Mónaco” kicking off the performance, and that alone got him excited for the show, he said.
“I don’t know any Bad Bunny except ‘Mónaco,’” Gelman said. “I don’t know all about what’s going on [politically] with the halftime show, but ‘Mónaco’: first song.”
Gelman’s prediction was incorrect, as the show started with the Latin artist’s 2022 single “Tití Me Preguntó” instead. “Mónaco” was the seventh song of the night.
Contact Christopher Rodriguez at crodriguez@alligator.org. Follow him on X @ChrisRodri29386.
