On Sunday, the Seattle Seahawks met the New England Patriots on the field at Levi’s Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area to mark the Super Bowl’s diamond anniversary.
But in the lead-up to the NFL’s 60th Super Bowl, the biggest story happened off the field — redemption arc narrative for the Seahawks aside. Just ask the legions of fans tuning in for “Benito Bowl,” also known as the halftime show from Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny.
This choice of performer was so controversial, it spawned a protest halftime show put on by conservative organization Turning Point USA, featuring Kid Rock.
Here are the biggest talking points from Bad Bunny’s halftime show, plus notable moments from off the field at this year’s Super Bowl.
Bad Bunny made history with his halftime show
Last Sunday, Bad Bunny made history when “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” became the first Spanish-language album to win Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards. (It was Spotify’s most-streamed album of 2025.) A week later, the artist born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio and often called “the king of Latin-Trap” hit another milestone: The first artist to perform primarily in Spanish at the Super Bowl. He’s also the first male Latin performer to headline.
Bad Bunny’s halftime show was announced last year — a savvy choice as the NFL seeks to expand its global audience — but has come to carry particular significance in the current political moment, when ICE is conducting raids on immigrant communities, many of them Spanish-speaking. Bad Bunny has spoken critically of President Trump, including his handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017. He has also said that he chose not to bring his tour to the U.S. out of concern that it would be targeted by ICE.
A celebration of Puerto Rican culture
For the Super Bowl, Bad Bunny promised a show where “the whole world will dance.” Its set brought a slice of Puerto Rico to the NFL field. The show opened with Bad Bunny dressed in white and holding a football amid sugar cane fields, with dancers dressed as workers wearing traditional pava hats.
It then moved through vignettes reflecting Puerto Rican culture: men playing dominoes, a vendor selling piragua shaved ices, women at the beauty salon. In one of the more dramatic moments, Bad Bunny “fell” through the roof of a building into a house party scene. It’s a nod to “La Casita,” a replica of a traditional Puerto Rican house that is a feature of his tour set. There was also a cameo by Sapo Concho, Puerto Rico’s endangered “singing frog” that’s become a mascot among his fans.
A Super Bowl wedding
A real couple got married onstage mid-way through the halftime performance. According to a NBC News reporter, the couple had invited Bad Bunny to their wedding and he did one better by inviting them to tie the knot live during his halftime show.
Bad Bunny shouted out Canada
During the show, Bad Bunny sang a string of his biggest hits, including “Yo Perreo Sola,” “Tití Me Preguntó,” and “Nuevayol.” During the latter, his dancers brought out flags representing the countries of the Americas and he shouted them all out by name — including Canada. In this sequence, he also said the only English words in the performance: “God bless America.”
Celebrity cameos abounded
Bad Bunny had two surprise guest performers: Ricky Martin, and Lady Gaga, who sang a salsa-inflected version of her hit duet with Bruno Mars, “Die With A Smile.”
There were also plenty of celebrities dancing on the stage, including Pedro Pascal, Jessica Alba, Karol G and Cardi B, whose partner is Patriots player Stefon Diggs.
Earlier, at the pre-game show, performers included Charlie Puth singing the national anthem, Brandi Carlisle performing “America the Beautiful,” and Coco Jones singing “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” referred to as the Black National Anthem.
Green Day was bleeped
Green Day gave a pre-game performance, and despite some speculation that this famously political pop-punk outfit might choose to make a statement, they stuck to their greatest hits. They did have the broadcaster diving for the bleep button: Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong was censored when singing the line “subliminal mind-f—k America” in the song “American Idiot.”
Armstrong showed less restraint at a pre-game party this weekend. “To all the ICE agents out there, wherever you are, quit your s—-ty-a— job,” Variety reported Armstrong as saying onstage at a Spotify event. “Because when this is over — and it will be over at some point in time — Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, JD Vance, Donald Trump, they’re gonna drop you like a bad f—-ing habit. Come on this side of the line.”
He also dedicated a song to Minneapolis, the American city where two people have been killed by federal agents in recent weeks.
Donald Trump did not attend the Super Bowl
Unlike last year, when he was both cheered and booed by the crowd, U.S. president Donald Trump did not attend the game. The reason: “It’s just too far away,” he told the New York Post. “They like me. I would go if, you know, it was a little bit shorter.”
In the same interview, Trump aired his views on the two Super Bowl musical acts, Green Day and Bad Bunny. “I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”
Activists handed out “ICE out” towels at the stadium
In his acceptance speech at last week’s Grammys, Bad Bunny said, “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ‘ICE out.’ We’re not savages, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans and we are Americans.”
This seems to have inspired activists who “clandestinely” handed out over 15,000 rally towels to fans entering the stadium, according to the Los Angeles Times. On one side, they had an illustration of Bad Bunny. On the other side, “ice out.”
Elsewhere in Santa Clara, the Bay Area city hosting the game, protesters gathered to speak out against the Trump government’s immigration policy.
Conservatives threw their own halftime show with Kid Rock
Turning Point, the conservative group founded by the late Charlie Kirk, organized a livestreamed “All-American Half-Time Show,” described as a “celebration of faith, family and freedom,” as an alternative to Bad Bunny’s show.
The headliner was Kid Rock, a vocal supporter of President Trump. On Thursday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated that Trump approved. “I think the president would much prefer a Kid Rock performance over Bad Bunny,” she said.
Celebrities showed up in the stands — and the commercials
Last year, Taylor Swift was the most visible celebrity in the stands; this year, her fiancé, Travis Kelce, was among the notable names watching the Super Bowl.
F1 star Lewis Hamilton and Kim Kardashian seemed to confirm dating rumours by attending the game together. Justin and Hailey Bieber, Jon Hamm, Adam Sandler and Jay Z with his daughters Blue Ivy and Rumi Carter were all spotted in the stands.
The star power wasn’t limited to the stadium: This year’s crop of Super Bowl commercials featured Chris Hemsworth for Amazon’s Alexa, Emma Stone for Squarespace, and Matthew McConaughey and Bradley Cooper for UberEats.
