The Sound and the FURY

The Super Bowl Halftime Show is one of the most watched and scrutinized events in the entertainment calendar. The act the NFL chose to perform at this year's spectacular—Latin superstar Bad Bunny, who sings exclusively in Spanish—has further amplified the debate

- BY JESUS MESA

DAYS AFTER BEING ANNOUNCED AS THE HEAD-liner of the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show, Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny appeared on stage at Saturday Night Live’s hallowed Studio 8H to share the news—in his native Spanish. It was a moment many Latinos in the United States embraced as a cultural win.

"There has always been a push and pull between two ideas of American identity... Spanish has long been a trigger in that divide."

“If you didn’t understand what I just said,” he told the audience, “you have four months to learn.” Delivered with a smile, the line ricocheted across cable news, social media and political commentary, becoming shorthand for a backlash that had little to do with the music itself.

Conservative lawmakers and pundits framed the booking as a provocation. Some, like Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene and Fox News pundit Tomi Lahren, questioned why the Super Bowl—still seen by many as the apex of American cultural might—would hand its biggest stage to an artist who performs exclusively in Spanish. President Donald Trump called the decision “absolutely ridiculous,” before admitting he didn’t know who Bad Bunny was.

Weeks later, Trump said he would skip the Super Bowl altogether, dismissing the halftime lineup as a “terrible choice” and declaring himself “anti-them.” A video trailer of the show posted to Bad Bunny’s Instagram account on January 16—in which he states “the world will dance”—has been liked more than 5.8 million times and viewed nearly 80 million times.