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The NFL remains committed to having Bad Bunny perform during the Super Bowl LX halftime show, Commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday.
Goodell addressed the controversy surrounding the Grammy-winning Puerto Rican artist, some of which came from the president Donald Trumpat the Fall League’s annual meeting Wednesday. This was the first time Goodell discussed the choice of Bad Bunny, although the negative reaction is nothing new to him.
“It’s carefully thought out,” Goodell said of the decision-making process for the halftime show. “I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist without getting some backlash or criticism. That’s pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people watching.”
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Latin music artist Bad Bunny said in a new interview that he didn’t have U.S. tour dates for his latest tour because he didn’t want ICE raids at the events. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
Bad Bunny, whose birth name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has been criticized by Trump and his supporters due to his public comments about the president and his administration. The 31-year-old, who won three Grammys, recently expressed his fears about United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which is why he decided to do a residency in his native Puerto Rico to avoid stopovers in the United States.
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He said earlier last month that he had not booked any U.S. dates for his tour, fearing his fans would be arrested by ICE agents.
“But there was the problem that fucking ICE might be outside. [my concert]. And that’s something that we were talking about and that we’re very concerned about,” he told iD.
Bad Bunny also recorded and posted video of what he described as local ICE raids on social media in Puerto Rico.
“Look, these motherfuckers are in these cars, RAV-4s. They’re here in Pontezuela,” he said in Spanish, mentioning that ICE was working on Avenida Pontezuela in Carolina, a city east of Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan.
“Sons of bitches, instead of leaving people alone and working there,” he added.
Bad Bunny attends the 2025 Met Gala celebrating “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 5, 2025, in New York. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for the Met Museum/Vogue)
Some NFL fans had a problem not only with these comments, but also with his hit songs sung in Spanish. But Goodell has no qualms about seeing the spectacle he expects from Bad Bunny.
“We’re confident it’s going to be a great show,” Goodell said. “He understands the platform he’s on, and I think it’s going to be exciting and a moment of unity.”
Despite Bad Bunny’s enormous worldwide popularity, Trump told Newsmax that he had never heard of Bad Bunny before the Super Bowl announcement.
“I don’t know who he is,” Trump told the outlet. “I don’t know why they do this. It’s crazy. And then they blame it on a promoter that they hired to provide entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
The decision makes sense for Goodell, however.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell during a press conference at Caesars Superdome on February 3, 2025, in New Orleans, ahead of the Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. (Michael Owens/Getty Images)
“He is one of the most important and popular artists in the world,” the commissioner said. “That’s what we’re trying to achieve. It’s an important step for us. It’s an important part of entertainment value.”
So, Bad Bunny will prepare for his Super Bowl halftime show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on February 8, 2026.
