Bad Bunny to headline the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show: What to know about the Puerto Rican superstar

Bad Bunny has been announced as the headliner for the 2026 Super Bowl halftime show.

The NFL revealed on Sunday that the 31-year-old Puerto Rican rapper will perform at the game, which will be held in Santa Clara, Calif., on Feb. 8, 2026.

Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, confirmed that he had nabbed the coveted slot in an Instagram reel. It opens with Martínez up close, before eventually zooming out to see him sitting casually on a goal post.

“What I'm feeling goes beyond myself. It's for those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come in and score a touchdown,” Martínez said in a statement. “This is for my people, my culture, and our history. Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL.”

Much like last year’s headliner, Grammy-winning rapper Kendrick Lamar, Martínez has been dubbed by some as a controversial choice because of his criticism of President Trump. It also won't be the first time Martínez has performed at the Super Bowl. In 2020, he joined fellow Latin music superstars and headliners Shakira and Jennifer Lopez on stage during the halftime show.

Fresh off the heels of his two-month Puerto Rican residency, No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí, Martínez is also set to take the stage as host of Saturday Night Live’s Season 51 premiere on Oct. 4.

Here’s what you need to know about Bad Bunny.

He’s a trailblazer for Spanish-language rap

Martínez has been credited with helping Spanish-language rap achieve widespread popularity. He gained traction as a rapper in 2016 with the release of his song “Soy Peor,” before being featured on Cardi B’s Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single, “I Like It,” in 2018. Martínez’s third solo album, 2020’s El Último Tour Del Mundo, made history as the first all-Spanish language record to top the Billboard 200 chart.

Martínez has continued to push Spanish-language rap into the mainstream. Un Verano Sin Ti, his fourth solo album, was the bestselling record of 2022 and made history as the first Spanish-language album to be nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys. (It was also the first album by a Latin artist to have 10 billion streams on Spotify.) Martínez’s follow-up albums, 2023’s Que Va a Pasar Mañana and 2025’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos, have each taken the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 as well.

That Martínez performs primarily in Spanish is among the reasons why some conservative public figures are criticizing the NFL’s decision to have him headline the Super Bowl halftime show next year.

But the rapper-singer, who was Spotify’s most-streamed artist from 2020 to 2022, remains unbothered by the criticism.

“It’s just that I feel more comfortable in my own language. … I think in Spanish, I feel in Spanish, I eat in Spanish, I sing in Spanish,” Martínez told Vanity Fair in 2023, before addressing whether he’d ever sing in English, “I am never going to do it just because someone says I need to do it to reach a certain audience.”

He’s proud of his Puerto Rican heritage

Martínez’s Puerto Rican pride runs deep. The “Alambre Púa” rapper was born in Bayamón and raised in the northern part of Puerto Rico, specifically in Vega Baja. His latest LP, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, released in January, serves as a love letter to his Puerto Rican upbringing and the culture as a whole. He recorded the album entirely on the island and collaborated exclusively with local musicians.

As he told Vogue in May, Debí Tirar Más Fotos is “an album where you’re going to miss a love but also a place.” And the album’s 14th track, “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii,” which references the colonial history of Hawaii, is Martínez’s way of warning Puerto Ricans of the negative consequences of U.S. colonization — and the push to preserve their culture and identity.

Martínez’s recently concluded 31-date Puerto Rico residency was yet another way he has given back to the place he calls home. In addition to breaking records in sales and attendance, No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí generated an estimated $733 million for Puerto Rico, according to the Associated Press via data from Gaither International.

"I have always had the same passion [and] love for what I'm doing," Martínez said on stage during his Sept. 20 show. "I promise I will never change. I love you, Puerto Rico. … It doesn't matter what your issue or problem is, love will always be the solution.”

He’s an actor, too

When he’s not lighting up the stage, Martínez is appearing on the big and small screens. In the last four years, the “NUEVAYoL” rapper has maintained a steady presence in Hollywood, nabbing roles in blockbuster flicks like 2021’s F9, 2022’s Bullet Train and 2023’s Cassandro, and even appearing as himself at a handful of WWE events.

Martínez, who was also in a high-profile relationship with model Kendall Jenner for less than a year, most recently appeared in Happy Gilmore 2 alongside Adam Sandler and Caught Stealing alongside Austin Butler.

"When I’m performing in the stadium, everyone is watching me. When you are in a movie set, it’s very personal," Martínez told NBC’s Today show in August. "It’s like me and the actors. You know that there’s a camera, but sometimes you forget about. I think that’s when you really get into the role and get into the scene and get into the story.”

He’s politically outspoken

Martínez has long used his platform to spotlight Puerto Rican people and take a stance against Trump. He decided to exclude the United States from his upcoming “Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour” due to the ongoing immigration raids and mass deportations by the Trump administration.

The 57-show tour, which has sold a historic 2.6 million tickets in just one week, will visit a series of countries, including Sweden, Poland, Italy and Japan. Martínez told i-D magazine that he chose not to visit the United States because he feared that ICE would target his fans.

“There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the US, and none of them were out of hate — I’ve performed there many times. All of [the shows] have been successful. All of them have been magnificent,” he said. “Latinos and Puerto Ricans of the United States could also travel here [to Puerto Rico], or to any part of the world. But there was the issue of — like, f***ing ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”