The NFL introduced the musical headliner for Tremendous Bowl LX’s halftime present, and — a lot to MAGA’s chagrin — it’s not Child Rock.
Music’s most profitable spot went to a related artist who really sells albums: Unhealthy Bunny. Letting the Puerto Rican rapper and singer turned world megastar carry out 2026’s halftime present items right-wing influencers with a recent conduit for the previous grievance that woke tradition has permeated each crevice of American tradition, particularly the Tremendous Bowl.
Their proof: The NFL selected a predominantly Spanish-language artist who is understood to put on girls’s clothes, who endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024, and who has decried this yr’s immigration sweeps. Clearly, this determination was designed to irk them fairly than serve Unhealthy Bunny’s tens of millions and tens of millions of followers.
“The NFL is self-destructing yr after yr,” conservative commentator Benny Johnson wrote on X. He stated of Unhealthy Bunny: “Large Trump hater. Anti-ICE activist. No songs in English.”
Different critics accused the reggaeton artist of flip-flopping, significantly following Unhealthy Bunny’s statements earlier this month that he wouldn’t embody any mainland U.S. dates on his Debí Tirar Más Fotos world tour out of concern that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers may goal and detain his followers.
“There have been many the reason why I didn’t present up within the U.S., and none of them have been out of hate — I’ve carried out there many instances,” he stated to I-D journal. “However there was the problem of — like, f—ing ICE might be outdoors [my concert]. And it’s one thing that we have been speaking about and really involved about.”
The artist, whose actual identify is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, defined his determination to hitch the lengthy checklist of Tremendous Bowl halftime notables in a brief assertion following the NFL’s announcement Sunday.
“What I’m feeling goes past myself,” he stated. “It’s for individuals who got here earlier than me and ran numerous yards so I may are available in and rating a landing … that is for my folks, my tradition and our historical past. Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL.”
Unhealthy Bunny in glasses, not a gown.
(Jordan Strauss / Invision / AP)
The year-after-year determination to forged top-ranking pop artists and music legends within the featured Tremendous Bowl halftime spot is hardly a thriller. They’re stars that promote or performers that attraction to tens of millions. However that boring actuality hasn’t stopped the characterizations that the Unhealthy Bunny determination is a deep state conspiracy, designed to rot American households from the within out.
“Barack Obama’s finest pal Jay-Z runs the Tremendous Bowl choice course of by means of his firm Roc Nation which has an unique contract with the NFL. That is who chooses the halftime present, the most-watched musical efficiency in America,” wrote alt-right determine Jack Posobiec.
The NFL in 2019 partnered with rapper Jay Z’s leisure and sports activities firm, Roc Nation, to supply its Tremendous Bowl halftime reveals. The primary present underneath the brand new partnership featured 2020’s Latin music in performances by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. Since then the establishment’s halftime performances have largely featured hip-hop artists comparable to Kendrick Lamar, Rihanna and the OG trio of Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Eminem.
Lamar’s 2025 politically charged efficiency was the supply of condemnation from the best. Clad in purple, white and blue, his predominantly Black dance crew assembled in an American flag formation. And visitor star Samuel L. Jackson, dressed as Uncle Sam, referred to as out the nation’s systemic racism. Lamar had already rankled the best with 2017’s “The Coronary heart Half 4,” the place he referred to Trump as a “chump.”
Kendrick Lamar performs throughout halftime of the NFL Tremendous Bowl 59.
(Frank Franklin II / AP)
It’s considered one of many moments during the last decade which have galvanized conservative factions round calls to boycott the Tremendous Bowl, or no less than publicly bash the occasion. Beyoncé’s 2016 Tremendous Bowl halftime present was as soon as such flash level, the place she carried out “Formation” that includes dancers in Black Panther-inspired outfits and paid tribute to the Black Lives Matter motion.
At the very least these complaints have been rooted in a efficiency that truly occurred, versus claims that the NFL was manipulating video games for the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs to allow tight finish Travis Kelce and his then-girlfriend (now fiancée) Taylor Swift to endorse Joe Biden. Positive, completely possible.
But there needs to be no secret round why the Tremendous Bowl hasn’t featured wildly fashionable, globally celebrated MAGA-promoting performers: There aren’t any. It’s no surprise Child Rock and Lee Greenwood all the time appear to be the leisure of selection for Trump rallies.
Unhealthy Bunny is the most-streamed male artist on Spotify, working simply behind the platform’s most-streamed artist of all time, Swift. As of Sunday, his launch “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” turned the primary album of 2025 to surpass 7 billion streams on Spotify. And the 31-year-old artist simply completed a sold-out, month-long residency on the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Although the Tremendous Bowl remains to be 5 months away, those that aren’t among the many haters can take pleasure in an early kick off: Unhealthy Bunny is scheduled to host the brand new season opener of “SNL” this weekend.
