An illustration depicts Bad Bunny performing on stage for what will be the 2026 Super Bowl LX halftime show. Differing opinions are pictured around Bad Bunny to showcase the diverse views regarding his announcement. (Graphic Illustration by Izzie Erickson)

“Me Porto Bonito,” “Callaíta” and “Tití Me Preguntó“ are some of Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny’s top hits. This February, Bad Bunny will be performing at the 2026 Super Bowl LX halftime show.

Every year, the NFL invites a major artist to perform at the Super Bowl halftime show. The Super Bowl is the most watched American event annually, with 127.7 million viewers averagely and 120 million watching the halftime show, per year. Some performances spark outrage, such as Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show with its prominent political statements. However other’s are more light hearted, like Rihanna’s performance in 2023.

For Bad Bunny, however, the controversy began at his announcement.

Born in Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny is an American citizen who has been writing and singing in Spanish since the beginning of his career. He started by uploading music on SoundCloud, eventually gaining more and more traction and winning three grammys three years in a row.

In mid-September, Bad Bunny revealed in an interview that he will be skipping over the United States for his up-and-coming world tour,”DeBí TiRAR MáS FOToS.” He decided on this detour due to recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the US, fearing that his majority-Hispanic audience would be at risk for deportation. 

Luna Huber-Verjan (’28) partners with California Conference for Equality and Justice, which is an organization committed to educating the public on race and gender-based oppression. As a fan of Bad Bunny, Huber-Verjan said that by cancelling his US tour dates, Bad Bunny is showing “retaliation” towards Trump and his administration. However, it makes his upcoming presence at the Super Bowl surprising. 

“I feel like going from canceling all your California or American show dates to then performing at the biggest performance is definitely ironic,” Huber-Verjan said. “I think [performing] is a way that he is showing Donald Trump and conservative Republicans that he’s going to stand up for his culture and his community.”

As a response to the announcement, President Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski went on “The Benny Show,” a conservative opinion show hosted by Benny Johnson, to warn anyone hoping to watch the halftime show that the current administration is going “to do enforcement everywhere” in order to make the “American people safe.” 

“There is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else,” Lewandowski said. “We will find you. We will apprehend you. We will put you in a detention facility, and we will deport you.”

Luci Iorillo (’28), a self-proclaimed immigration advocate, said this is an issue with “two sides.” One side, she said, is the risk of the mass deportations threatened by the government. On the other hand, resisting the Trump administration is important, she said.

“I do think it will be a good idea for him to keep pushing back to Trump. [Bad Bunny is] being like, ‘I’m not just going to stop [performing] because you’re saying you’re going to have ICE people there,'” Iorillo said. “But I also think, at the same time, it puts a lot of people in a vulnerable position, and it’s going to stop a lot of people from coming to the Super Bowl.”

On Sept. 8, the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on ethnicity-based accusations for deportations in Los Angeles, and allowed for factors like language, type of work, accent, and location to be a deciding vote. Huber-Verjan said that the Trump administration’s response to Bad Bunny’s upcoming performance is a representation of the recent ruling.

“This whole situation reflects racial profiling because just because Bad Bunny is Puerto Rican, Donald Trump does not like the idea of him being an image [of America],” Huber-Verjan said. “Just because he doesn’t speak English too well and all of his songs are sung in Spanish, [Trump] is racially profiling based off what he is on the outside. And same thing for all the viewers.”

Marcy Ponce-Cruz (’28) is on the board for Hermanas Unidas and said she has been following this event closely since the issue arose, as she is also a fan of Bad Bunny’s music. Bad Bunny’s performance will ultimately be a way to represent the hispanic community on a mainstream platform, Ponce-Cruz said.

“I feel like Bad Bunny is going to have a lot of representation. I know it’s not really political, but I know and I hope he does do something big so he represents everyone in the Hispanic community and Latin community,” Ponce-Cruz said. “And especially with the oppression that all of us have been facing, I feel like it’s going to be a big, big thing.”