What to expect from Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show

NEW YORK (AP) — There are stages, and then there is the Super Bowl halftime show.

On Sunday, fresh off his historic win at the Grammy Awards for his love letter to Puerto Rico, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” Bad Bunny will once again surprise audiences with a performance poised to be a historic moment for Latino culture.

But what can you expect from his collection?

What we know

Apple Music’s Zane Lowe mentioned that Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime performance is 13 minutes long during an interview with the star on Thursday. Historically, their running time was 12 to 15 minutes.

In the same conversation, Bad Bunny gave some details about what viewers will see on Sunday.

“It’s going to be a huge party,” he said, cheerfully dodging questions about the surprise guests and other details. “What people can expect from me… I want to bring to the stage, of course, a lot of my culture. But I really don’t want to, I don’t want to spoil anything. It will be fun.”

Further: A minute-and-a-half-long trailer for the halftime show was released last month, setting a light-hearted tone for his performance. In it, Bad Bunny approaches a Flamboyan Tree — more on that below — and presses play on his single “Baile Inolvidable” (“Unforgettable Dance”).

Watch the trailer in the player above.

The song is a modern salsa, performed with students at El Libre de Música San Juan. It is a featured song from “Debí Tirar Más Fotos”, an album that combines folkloric traditions in local Borinquen genres such as bomba, plena, salsa and música jíbara with contemporary styles such as reggaeton, trap and pop.

In the clip, Bad Bunny swings around while being joined by dancers of different sexes, races, and ages: among them a traditional salsa dancer in a red dress, a firefighter, a cowboy, and Vegito wearing a pava (“Vegeto” is an affectionate term for an older man and “pava” is a type of straw hat). It represents the international appeal of the star. He is currently the most streamed artist globally on Spotify.

Will Bad Bunny perform entirely in Spanish?

All of Bad Bunny’s music was recorded in Spanish, so it seems like a safe bet. If he includes English in his repertoire, it is more likely to appear in a spoken intervention – or to be featured in the text.

In October, Bad Bunny hosted Saturday Night Live and said a few sentences in Spanish during his opening monologue. When he concluded his speech, he joked in English: “If you don’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn it,” referring to the Super Bowl and his critics.

On Thursday, he joked that fans don’t actually need to learn Spanish to enjoy his set, but they should be prepared to dance.

What codes can we expect?

There’s no way to know for sure, but here are some educated guesses.

Puerto Rican flags: In his song “La Mudanza” Bad Bunny sings, “Aquí mataron gente por sacar la bandera / Por eso es que ahora yo la llevo donde quiera.” In English: “Here they killed people because they showed science / That’s why I carry it everywhere I want now.” It appears to be a reference to Law No. 53 of 1948, known as the Gag Law, a ruling by the Puerto Rican Legislative Assembly that attempted to suppress the independence movement on the island and criminalized the display of the Puerto Rican flag. It was abolished in 1952. It is also one of the many reasons why Puerto Ricans are known for waving their flag with pride for their island.

The Puerto Rican flag will almost certainly appear in some form on the Super Bowl stage. But their colors are noteworthy. If it appears red, white, and blue, this is the current flag of Puerto Rico from 1952. If there are flags that feature light blue, this reflects the Puerto Rican independence movement. The black and white version of the flag has become synonymous with Puerto Rico’s struggle and resilience. If there is a flag that closely resembles the flag of the Dominican Republic, it is known as El Grito de Lares, a symbol of the Lares Revolution – the first short-lived revolt against Spanish rule in Puerto Rico in the 19th century.

Puerto Rican expressions: There may be few Puerto Rican expressions spoken on stage, other than those in Bad Bunny’s music. This could be anything from “Wepa!” Which is used in moments of excitement, not unlike screaming “Wow!”. Its popularity grew after the release of Alfonso Velez’s 1974 salsa song “El Jolgorio (Wepa Wepa Wepa).” Or “Acho, PR es otra cosa,” a phrase that became a fan chant during Bad Bunny’s performance of “Voy a llevarte pa’ PR” during his residency. It translates to “Damn, PR is something else.”

Casita: At Bad Bunny’s residency in Puerto Rico last summer, he performed on two stages. One was built to resemble a casita (“little house”), for Bari di Marchesina, a house party. These structures are synonymous with Puerto Rico and the Caribbean in general.

Pavas: A likely familiar symbol to Bad Bunny fans everywhere, the pava is a straw hat traditionally worn by the jibaro, or rural farmers in Puerto Rico. It has become a symbol of pride for the island. The singer even wore a leather version of the hat on the red carpet at the 2025 Met Gala.

Flamboyan tree: The second of two phases in Bad Bunny’s residency focused on showcasing the natural beauty of the island with its fiery trees and bananas. The former is a common feature in Puerto Rican art for its flowers, which commonly appear in brilliant red, orange and yellow colors. The image of the tree conjures Puerto Rico almost immediately as does the sound of its national nocturnal resident, el coqui (a frog with a distinctive call heard only at night).

El Sapo Concho: Not to be mistaken with el coquí, el sapo concho is the endangered Puerto Rican crested frog that Bad Bunny used an animated version of in his visuals for “Debí Tirar Más Fotos.”

Traditional Puerto Rican Instruments: Since much of Bad Bunny’s music is derived from the music of bomba and plena, it’s likely that few of those traditional instruments will be on stage. Look for the cuatro (a small four-stringed guitar), the gueiro/guera (a percussion instrument made from a hollow gourd), the palito (also a percussion instrument similar to two long wooden sticks), sincero (cow bell) and maracas. For bomba songs, specifically, there may be a bariel (drum) and for plena songs, a banderita (tambourine).

Will there be special guests during the halftime show?

It’s impossible to predict, but it would be surprising if other artists didn’t join Bad Bunny — especially other giants of Latin music, and perhaps other Puerto Rican artists. Chuwi’s band joined Benito every night of his stay in San Juan. It wouldn’t be far-fetched to see them on stage for their collaboration “Weltita.”

Other potential guests, if the residency is a frame to follow, could include Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez, Yung Miko, Wisin E. Yandel, Gilberto Santa Rosa, and Alfonso Velez. But the list goes on and on.

Will it be a political performance?

That is in the eye of the beholder. But there is historical precedent for that in the Super Bowl. In 2020, the NFL asked Jennifer Lopez to cut a clip showing children in cages during her halftime performance, a criticism of US immigration policies. I refused. (Bad Bunny was actually a guest during the halftime show, which was headlined by Lopez and Shakira.)

Last year, Kendrick Lamar’s set was a witty confrontation of American history and racial dynamics through metaphor, with actor Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam, complaining that the performance was “too loud, too brash, too ghetto” and reminding Lamar to “play the game.”

Bad Bunny has never shied away from political messages. He has criticized President Donald Trump for everything from his hurricane response in his native Puerto Rico to his treatment of immigrants. At the Grammys Sunday, he said “ICE Out” while accepting his first televised award that night. His latest tour skipped the continental United States. He said in an interview that he was at least partly inspired by concerns that his fans might be targeted by immigration agents.

Trump, a Republican, said he had no plans to attend this year’s game, unlike last year, and mocked Bad Bunny as a “terrible choice.”