Bad Bunny Super Bowl Controversy: The Story Behind MAGA Backlash

When the NFL, Roc Nation, and Apple Music announced that Bad Bunny would be the 2026 Super Bowl halftime performer, the buzz started almost immediately. On one hand, there were cheers and enthusiasm: His fans recognized the historic nature of the performance, which will go down in the books as the first half of the Super Bowl entirely in Spanish. Additionally, the announcement came at the end of another big year for Bad Bunny – following a triumphant 31-date residency in Puerto Rico, an Amazon streaming of the record-breaking concert and the resounding success of his hit album. Debi Tirar More photos.

On the other side, there was just as much commotion, but these conversations were almost hysterical – and much uglier. Conservatives lambasted the NFL’s choice, taking issue with nearly every facet of Latin music’s most visible star. His music? Unlistenable. His policy? Unacceptable. His words in Spanish? Not American.

Bad Bunny is a much-loved figure in the global music landscape precisely because he is authentically himself, embracing fashion and aesthetic choices that subvert gender norms and refusing to create palatable commercial pop in English. He is not afraid to speak his mind in his songs, often touching on Puerto Rico’s struggles, such as gentrification, economic hardship, and the long-term impacts of colonization. And while he’s not a polemical artist who mounts lengthy tirades against the administration, he has spoken out on issues close to his heart, such as immigrant rights in the context of the government’s cruel deportation policies. In an interview with identifier magazine, he explained in part why he chose not to tour the United States because he did not want ICE to terrorize his largely Latino fan base outside of his concerts.

This makes him a target for conservatives. Newsmax host Greg Kelly called for a boycott of the NFL, insisting that Bad Bunny “hates America, hates President Trump, hates ICE, hates the English language! He’s just a terrible person.” Even the highest levels of government got involved. Kristi Noem, the secretary of Homeland Security, threatened that immigration agents would be “everywhere” at the event. Trump later took to Newsmax to criticize the artist, saying: “I’ve never heard of him. I don’t know who he is,” Trump said. “I don’t know why they do this, it’s crazy, and then they blame a promoter that they hired to provide entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

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Turning Point USA, the youth-focused conservative group founded by the late Charlie Kirk, decided to hold a “counterprogram” during Bad Bunny’s performance, calling it “The All-American Halftime Show” to celebrate “faith, family and freedom.” A contact form on the website gives subscribers the opportunity to request music and artists, including worship, country and “anything English.” MAGA supporters wrote insane petitions to override his performance and even called for his deportation – despite the fact that Puerto Rico is a United States territory and he is a US citizen.

As infuriating and disproportionate as the reaction may seem, it is part of an unfortunate and petty tradition of marginalization and exclusion of Latin artists in the United States, even though these musicians are often American and represent large swaths of the population. These moments are insensitive and steeped in xenophobia, but they go back decades. In 1968, for example, Puerto Rican artist José Feliciano performed “The Star-Spangled Banner” during the 1968 World Series – only he did it in a stripped-down, Latin-influenced style on his acoustic guitar. The show became a lightning rod; many people took this as if it was some sort of counter-cultural protest and were confused by Feliciano’s long hair and sunglasses (which he wore because he was born blind). They raged at radio stations and sent him hate mail, some even calling for his deportation — even though Feliciano, like Bad Bunny, was born in Puerto Rico and is a U.S. citizen. History and ignorance repeat themselves, and in this case it had disastrous consequences on Feliciano’s career for a few years.

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“I was a little depressed, to tell you the truth,” Feliciano said later. “And then they stopped playing me. Like I had the plague or something.” Years later, in 2018, he reflected on the incident and shared that his performance was actually his way of honoring his country from a deeply felt perspective. “When I sang the anthem, I did it with the understanding in my heart and in my mind that I did it because I am a patriot,” Feliciano said. “I was trying to be a grateful patriot. I was expressing my feelings for America when I performed the anthem in my own way instead of just singing it with a band.” (Perhaps it’s no coincidence that Bad Bunny paid tribute to Feliciano as a trailblazer and trailblazer, bringing him on stage during his headlining set in 2023.)

Other examples of Latin American artists on mainstream stages have resulted in much unnecessary controversy, even decades later. Take the 1999 Grammys: At the time, Ricky Martin was a rising star, having managed to chart a career from boy band Menudo to successful solo act. He had already become a household name in Latin music, and his album Vuelve was nominated for a Grammy for Best Latin Pop. His label head, Tommy Mottola, began pushing for Martin to perform one of the tracks – the famous FIFA anthem “Cup of Life” that Martin had written for the 1998 World Cup – as the opening number of the Grammys telecast. Despite Martin’s stage presence and star power, the award show’s producers disapproved of the idea, convinced that a Latin group singing primarily in Spanish would not work for the series.

Mottola later recalled how intense the reaction was. “There was tremendous resistance from the Grammys,” Mottola said. Billboard. “They didn’t want an ‘unknown’ to happen, when we had already sold 10 million copies of Vuelve global. To me, this was absolutely UNACCEPTABLE. We had huge leverage with almost every major superstar on our label at the time. We strongly expressed our “opinion and influence” and said, “Ricky needs to have a performance at the Grammys!” No was not an option.

It took Mottola fighting to make it happen — and a standing ovation and thousands of records sold later ultimately proved that the Grammys’ short-sighted prejudices didn’t hold water. This seems even more ridiculous today, when Latin music continues to generate over $1 billion in revenue. Bad Bunny later played that same slot at the Grammy Awards — and although he didn’t appear to face opposition from the show’s higher-ups, he went viral when captions appeared on the CBS telecast describing his lyrics as “singing in a language other than English.”

The all-too-frequent instinctive xenophobic reactions to Latino actions are often triggered by language alone. Last June, singer Nezza, of Colombian and Dominican descent, was invited to perform the national anthem at a Dodgers game. She had prepared to do “El Pendón Estrellado,” a Spanish version written in 1945 by Clotilde Arias after the State Department’s Division of Cultural Cooperation requested translated versions of “Star Spangled Banner.” (These requests were sought as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “good neighbor policy” toward Latin America.) According to some reports, Dodgers officials told her at the last minute that she couldn’t play in Spanish — but she did so anyway, angering conservatives and sparking outrage and insults online.

Nezza explained his decision at the time in a statement to rolling stonestating that “representation matters”. She added: “For all those who hold on to their pearls, it’s important to know: In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself commissioned an official Spanish version of “The Star-Spangled Banner” to honor and include Latin Americans. This version – “El Pendón Estrellado” – tells the exact same story, word for word in meaning, and is set to the exact same melody. The heart of the anthem does not change with the language. So why was I told you couldn’t sing it? Make sense of this.

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Long-standing prejudices have meant that Latin artists have been viewed with suspicion, doubt, and even outrage throughout music history, but those attitudes have transformed into something far more intense and sinister because of the current administration. Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance comes at a time when the government has antagonized Latino communities, spread anti-Latino rhetoric and treated immigrants with abject cruelty, mercilessly celebrating images of forced, often violent arrests and brutal detentions. Even speaking Spanish is ostracized by conservatives and portrayed as un-American. Upon taking office, Trump passed an executive order making English the official language of the United States, while the White House removed Spanish translations from its official websites. On social media, viral videos have shown right-wingers confronting people who speak Spanish and associating the language with those who don’t “belong” here, ignoring the fact that 18% of the population is bilingual.

But despite the rhetoric rooted in such an ugly history, Bad Bunny will still take the stage this February and perform his songs in the language he wrote them in. This moment will represent millions of people in this country, including many Latinos who make up 20 percent of the population. What he chooses to say or do will ultimately be up to him, just him stepping into the spotlight will be a political statement – ​​one that speaks to his roots, his lineage, and the history of the Latin artists who helped bring him here. Either way, it will be a moment of self-expression – and also a deeply American one.