On Sunday, Feb. 8, there was a rave for Super Bowl LX, featuring the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. But the Seahawks’ winning was not the only highlight: the halftime show was the talk of the night with the Puerto Rican superstar, Bad Bunny, performing.
There was already excitement from the official trailer by Apple Music posted on Jan. 16, with the words, “The World Will Dance” included. Then, just a week before the halftime show, his latest album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (DtMF) won Album of the Year at the 2026 Grammy Awards.
The day after the performance, the gossip has not stopped over Bad Bunny’s remarkable performance. “The performance was really good and felt really representative for being Puerto Rican. I love Bad Bunny. I thought everything was really unifying and represented a lot of cultures,” junior Donavin Ortiz said. “The language barrier was not really a struggle for me personally, but I know people who said it was a struggle for them.”
While there were many who criticized Bad Bunny’s performance for not being able to understand what he was saying and why the NFL chose him, Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show averaged about 128.2 million viewers and was recorded as the fourth most-watched halftime performance in Super Bowl history, according to NBC Sports and ESPN. This was counteracted by the “All-American” performance featuring Kid Rock, which had only 6.1 million viewers watching live.
Throughout the Super Bowl as a whole, there were an estimated 125.6 million people watching on average, as reported by Nielsen Media Research and Panel Measurements, which makes this year’s Super Bowl the second most-watched in Super Bowl history.
“I thought the performance was great. I loved the display of all the American cultures. I don’t speak any language except for English, but I don’t think you need to know the language of the song to enjoy it and dance along,” sophomore Iris Murray-Wright said. “I really liked a couple of different things: I liked the music, I thought it was very good and very catchy. And I liked the message that it shared. I think that, especially in this political climate, these types of messages to huge audiences, such as everyone who was watching the Super Bowl, is super important and I think that just remembering that everyone in America is American is so important, especially now.”
One of the things that was very significant about this performance was the level of symbolism included. Many remember the billboard that read, “The Only Thing More Powerful Than Hate Is Love,” and the football he held that said, “Together We Are America,” along with many more.
“As a Spanish teacher, I thought it was a pretty accurate depiction of Puerto Rican cultures, and I think it was a really unique way of helping Spanish-speaking cultures to feel a part of United States culture,” Spanish teacher Steve Klebacha explained. “I appreciated that Bad Bunny did most of the performance in Spanish.”
Bad Bunny’s performance was not only a halftime show for entertainment, but a union of bringing everyone together and celebrating their cultures and differences. Through his display of colorful clothes, scenic transitions, and special guests like Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, he was able to bring love, joy, and peace to America.
