• Bad Bunny ended his all-Spanish Super Bowl halftime performance by holding a football inscribed with "Together We Are America" while dancers carried flags from every country in North and South America
• The jumbotron displayed "The only thing more powerful than hate is love" — echoing his Grammy acceptance speech one week earlier where he declared "ICE out"
• Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin, Cardi B, Pedro Pascal, Karol G, Jessica Alba and Young Miko all appeared during the star-studded performance at Levi's Stadium

SANTA CLARA, CA (TDR) — After months of political firestorm over the selection of Bad Bunny as the Super Bowl halftime headliner, the Puerto Rican superstar delivered his answer Sunday night not through a speech but through a prop: a football inscribed with four words.

"Together We Are America."

The message, revealed at the climax of a star-studded, all-Spanish performance, came as dancers carrying the flags of every country in the Americas walked the field behind him while he named each nation one by one. Fireworks showcased the Puerto Rican flag above Levi's Stadium, and the jumbotron displayed a final message: "The only thing more powerful than hate is love."

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It was the same sentiment he shared at the Grammy Awards just one week earlier, where he opened his acceptance speech with "ICE out" and dedicated his album of the year win to "all the people who had to leave their homeland to follow their dreams." On Super Bowl Sunday, that message arrived wrapped in celebration rather than confrontation — and became the most-watched halftime show statement in years.

The Performance

Bad Bunny — the first Latin solo artist to headline the halftime show — opened with "Tití Me Preguntó" and took over 100 million viewers through a compressed career retrospective that doubled as a celebration of Puerto Rican culture.

The stage was built around a casita — a traditional Puerto Rican house — where live cultural elements played out around him: a nail tech doing someone's nails, friends playing dominoes, someone ordering a piragua, or shaved ice. The casita filled with celebrity guests dancing as he performed, including Cardi B, Pedro Pascal, Karol G, Jessica Alba, influencer Alix Earle and rapper Young Miko.

One of the most striking moments came during "El Apagón" — which translates to "the blackout." Bad Bunny scaled power lines and waved the Puerto Rican flag in what appeared to be a direct reference to Hurricane Maria and the devastating power outages that continue to plague the island. Sparks flew across the stage as the lights flickered, recreating a visual representation of Puerto Rico's ongoing electricity crisis under LUMA Energy.

The halftime stage also doubled as an altar for what appeared to be a wedding ceremony, with a couple tying the knot as Bad Bunny performed.

Star-Studded Surprises

The biggest musical surprise came when Lady Gaga emerged to perform a salsa rendition of "Die With a Smile" backed by Bad Bunny's Puerto Rican band Los Pleneros de la Cresta. The two had been seen interacting at the Grammys the previous week, and she then danced with Bad Bunny as he transitioned into "Baile Inolvidable."

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Fellow Puerto Rican icon Ricky Martin joined the show to perform a portion of "Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii" — a song that draws parallels between Hawaii's history with the United States and Puerto Rico's status as an unincorporated territory. The choice of song was itself a quiet political statement embedded within what presented as pure entertainment.

Cardi B's appearance connected back to 2018, when their collaboration "I Like It" helped propel Bad Bunny into mainstream American consciousness. She was already at Levi's Stadium — she is currently dating Patriots wide receiver Stefon Diggs.

The setlist moved through "Nuevayol" — which includes a music video mocking President Trump's voice — along with "Lo Que Pasó a Hawaii," "El Apagón" and "Café con Ron" before closing with "DtMF," the title track from his Grammy-winning album Debí Tirar Más Fotos.

The show also included nods to reggaeton legends Daddy Yankee's "Gasolina" and Don Omar's "Dale" — connecting Bad Bunny's historic moment to the artists who built the genre.

What He Said — and What He Didn't

Bad Bunny did not say "ICE out" on the Super Bowl stage. He did not mention Trump. He did not directly address the political controversy that surrounded his selection for months.

What he did say: "God bless America."

Then he named every country in Latin America, plus Canada and the United States, and concluded with "and my homeland, Puerto Rico." He spiked the football — the one reading "Together We Are America" — and walked off with his performers behind him.

The approach aligned exactly with what he'd signaled at his pre-Super Bowl press conference:

"I just want people to have fun. It's going to be a huge party. I want to bring what people can always expect from me, and a lot of my culture."

The messaging was subtle by design. Performing entirely in Spanish, celebrating Puerto Rican culture through salsa and reggaeton, recreating the island's power crisis on stage, performing a song about Hawaii's colonial parallels — these were political statements delivered through art rather than rhetoric.

As Wellesley College professor Petra Rivera-Rideau told NPR before the show:

"One of the things we talk about in our book is that Bad Bunny is part of resistance, he does engage in protests but it's often through joy. We have a chapter in our book called 'The Party is the Protest.'"

The Other Halftime Show

While Bad Bunny performed at Levi's Stadium, Kid Rock took the stage at Turning Point USA's "All-American Halftime Show", which opened with "The Star-Spangled Banner" on electric guitar. The competing event streamed on conservative networks and the organization's social feeds.

Kid Rock had told Fox & Friends that the NFL should have chosen Metallica or Bay Area rappers like E-40 and Too $hort instead of Bad Bunny:

"I'm just going to go play for our base — people who love America, love football, love Jesus. It's pretty much that simple."

Meanwhile, outside Levi's Stadium, demonstrators distributed towels reading "ICE OUT" to fans arriving for the game — carrying the political message Bad Bunny chose not to say from the stage.

The Political Backdrop

The halftime show capped months of escalating political tension. When the NFL announced Bad Bunny as headliner last September, the backlash was immediate.

President Trump called the selection "terrible" and said he was "anti-them." House Speaker Mike Johnson called it a "terrible decision" and suggested Lee Greenwood as an alternative. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem told a conservative podcast the NFL "sucks" and DHS adviser Corey Lewandowski suggested ICE agents could be deployed to the Super Bowl.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell held firm throughout, defending the choice the day after Bad Bunny's Grammy "ICE out" speech:

"Bad Bunny is one of the great artists in the world. This platform is used to unite people and to be able to bring people together with their creativity, with their talent."

California Governor Gavin Newsom declared Feb. 8 "Bad Bunny Day" in a deliberately Trump-styled social media post.

Trump posted to Truth Social as the game kicked off — "Enjoy the Super Bowl, America! Our Country is stronger, bigger, and better than ever before" — but did not comment on the halftime show.

The Business Calculation

For the NFL, the numbers justified the risk. Bad Bunny was Spotify's most-streamed artist globally for four consecutive years with 113 Billboard Hot 100 entries. His album Un Verano Sin Ti became the first to surpass 20 billion Spotify streams. A Change.org petition to replace him with country artist George Strait gathered 120,000 signatures — a rounding error compared to his global audience.

Halftime performers aren't paid for the appearance, but the exposure payoff is massive. Kendrick Lamar's 2025 set drove a 430% spike in streams. The NFL identified the U.S. Latino population of more than 70 million as "a critical growth area" and played a record seven games in five international cities this season.

In Bad Bunny's hometown of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, crowds gathered in the town square with pavas and Puerto Rican flags to watch the performance on a projector screen, hosted by the local mayor. Former halftime performer Katy Perry posted encouragement on X: "You got this. Remind the world what the real American dream looks like."

When "Together We Are America" is written on a football held by an artist who was told he didn't belong on this stage — and the show that was supposed to divide the country delivered unity instead — does the controversy look like a warning about cultural gatekeeping, or is the debate itself proof that these conversations still need to happen?

Sources

This report was compiled using information from NBC News' live Super Bowl updates, Rolling Stone's performance recap, Newsweek's live game coverage, CBS Sports' halftime show live updates, Sports Illustrated's reporting on the football message, Hello Magazine's coverage of celebrity cameos, Yahoo Sports' halftime analysis, ESPN's investigation into the NFL's decision, TIME's political feud reporting, NPR's pre-show analysis, The Hill's reporting on Mike Johnson's comments, and Deadline's coverage of Newsom's Bad Bunny Day.

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