by By Brendan Ellis
On September 29th, 2025, The National Football League or NFL announced that the headliner of that season’s Super Bowl halftime show would be award-winning artist, Bad Bunny. The Puerto Rican native is fresh off a tour in his home country that drew in millions of fan and is currently leading for most nominations in this year’s Latin Grammys. Despite Bad Bunny’s overwhelming success worldwide, the choice for him to be the star of the show was met with mixed feelings and criticism on social media seemingly instantly overnight.
Public outcry against the choice was allegedly due to Bad Bunny’s music being mainly in Spanish with a few of his songs being in English. This would come from users of social media, as well as, many celebrities and politicians such as House Speaker, Mike Johnson, and former NASCAR driver, Danica Patrick. Patrick would state in a post on X that, “No songs in English should not be allowed at one of America’s highest rated television events of the year,”. The NFL would stand firm on their choice of Bad Bunny as their headliner with the NFL’s Chief Marketing Officer, Tim Ellis, saying in an interview that, “Well, not everyone has to like everything we do. Bad Bunny is f—ing awesome,”.
Conservative party-aligned figures have been the main demographic critiquing this choice and are now attempting to have their own halftime show called the, “All- American Halftime Show”, hosted by Turning Point USA, a conservative advocacy group founded by the late Charlie Kirk. This controversy is being swept into ongoing ICE anti-immigration violence currently happening across the United States. Bad Bunny has been vocal about his sympathies for the immigrants facing these injustices. Additionally, in response to the complaints about his music being in a different language and being a foreigner, Bad Bunny, who is an American citizen would claim on Saturday Night Live, “You have four months to learn,”.
We are currently in the midst of the largest anti-immigration actions in American history with the mass deployment of ICE agents in almost all parts of the United States. The choice of Bad Bunny was always going to be a polarizing choice for the NFL due to these ongoing issues. However, with the NFL standing firm in their decision of Bad Bunny, it is a powerful decision to not fold under the political pressure almost all brands will see in today’s social media climate. Especially after prominent rapper, Kendrick Lamar, broke halftime show records with his performance in last years Super Bowl. This is an act of hope that all cultures will be recognized and celebrated on one of the biggest televised programs every year.
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Sources: Danica Patrick’s X (Here), Fansided’s Tiktok (Here), NPR’s Instagram (Here), ESPN, NY Times, ABC News
I really liked your blog post Brendan. The backlash against Bad Bunny is unjust, especially considering there have been more than a few other super bowl halftime performers who weren’t from the United States. Great work!
I really like this post! I think it’s crazy that there’s even backlash. Bad Bunny is a successful artist with American citizenship, so there’s no reason he shouldn’t be allowed to perform. Just because some people don’t know his music doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be part of the show. People should be celebrating his success, not turning it into a political argument.
Hi Brendan, this was a super cool trending topic to cover. I didn’t know about the backlash over Bad Bunny’s Spanish lyrics, this really highlights how some people still resist seeing Latinx culture as part of the American mainstream. I also liked how you pointed out the NFL’s decision to stand by him despite political pressure. I remember watching him say the quote “You have four months to learn,” on SNL, it was super cool to watch, I love how you talked about this in your blog post!
This was such a strong and timely analysis, Brendan! I really liked how you connected Bad Bunny’s selection as the Super Bowl headliner to the larger political and cultural tensions happening right now. You did a great job showing how something that seems purely entertainment-based can quickly become a reflection of national debates about identity and inclusion. I liked how you tied in Bad Bunny’s own response, which added personality and power to your post. Great work highlighting the intersection of music, media, and politics!