{"id":457619,"date":"2026-02-09T04:30:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T04:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/457619\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T04:30:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T04:30:07","slug":"bad-bunny-stuns-the-super-bowl-with-lady-gaga-ricky-martin-and-a-real-wedding-ceremony-as-pedro-pascal-jessica-alba-and-more-party-on-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/457619\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Bunny Stuns the Super Bowl With Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin and a Real Wedding Ceremony as Pedro Pascal, Jessica Alba and More Party on Stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bad Bunny promised \u201cthe world will dance\u201d<\/a> in his advertisement before the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show, and his joyous, elaborate, unapologetic, unity-themed performance did not disappoint as he \u2014 with Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin and many more \u2014\u00a0raced through a medley of his songs, introducing them and himself to many of the more than 100 million viewers.<\/p>\n

The show was steeped in the tradition of Latin America and especially his native Puerto Rico, as the elaborate set included a house (similar to the one in his \u201cNo Me Quiero Ir de Aqu\u00ed\u201d residency on in Puerto Rico \u2014 which was previewed in Variety\u2018s Bad Bunny cover story<\/a> last June \u2014 transforming the space into a Puerto Rico vecindad, with a barber shop, liquor store, and the iconic \u201ccasita,\u201d the small house where he would welcome celebrity guests during his Puerto Rico residency. On Sunday night, Karol G, Cardi B Young, Miko Jessica Alba and Pedro Pascal were spotted dancing under the casita\u2019s roof as the performance moved through a mock sugar-cane field, a giant dancefloor filled with exuberant dancers \u2014\u00a0and an actual wedding, his rep confirms. The performance was so loaded with Easter eggs and subtle political references that his fans will be decoding it for weeks.<\/p>\n

More from Variety<\/p>\n

But unity was a key theme \u2014\u00a0toward the end of the performance, Bad Bunny said \u201cGod Bless America\u201d \u2014\u00a0and then named every country in North, South and Latin America, including the United States and Canada, as the billboard flashed in giant letters: \u201cThe only thing more powerful than hate is love,\u201d a direct rebuke to the many haters on the right who criticized his performance before it had even happened.<\/p>\n

At the center of the performance, Gaga sang a salsa-inflected version of her 2024 hit with Bruno Mars, \u201cDie With a Smile,\u201d as the couple were married onstage.<\/p>\n

In another nod to Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny welcomed fellow native Ricky Martin to the stage for a brief version of \u201clo que le pas\u00f3 a Haw\u00e1i\u201d\u2014 from Bad Bunny\u2019s Grammy-winning latest album, \u201cDeb\u00ed tirar m\u00e1s fotos.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

At another point during the performance, his Grammy acceptance speech was replayed on a small television as a young boy \u2014 who certainly resembled Liam, the 5-year-old who was incarcerated by ICE in Minneapolis last month \u2014 and then Bad Bunny handed him his Grammy Award.<\/p>\n

In another nod to Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny welcomed fellow native Ricky Martin to the stage for a surprise duet of \u201cTKSONG.\u201d Just a few days ago, Martin wrote an open letter to Bad Bunny in Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo D\u00eda praising Bad Bunny for headlining \u201cstages around the world carrying his language, his accent, and his story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou won without changing the color of your voice. You won without erasing your roots,\u201d he wrote. \u201cYou won by staying true to Puerto Rico.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin\u2019s appearance at the Super Bowl halftime show makes sense thematically also because he became the face of Latin music\u2019s U.S. crossover in the late 1990s, particularly with his smash single \u201cLiving La Vida Loca.\u201d While they didn\u2019t perform the track on Sunday, Martin and Bad Bunny joined forces on \u201cC\u00e1ntalo\u201d from Martin\u2019s \u201cPausa\u201d EP in 2020.<\/p>\n

Leading up to Sunday\u2019s halftime show, much of the conversation revolved around whether Bad Bunny would make a political statement onstage. Last year, he made headlines by saying he would skip touring the United States to prevent ICE from targeting fans outside of his shows.<\/p>\n

He doubled down on that sentiment at the Grammy Awards last Sunday. \u201cBefore I say thanks to God, I\u2019m going to say ICE out,\u201d he said in English on the Grammys stage after winning his awards. \u201cWe\u2019re not savage, we\u2019re not animals, we\u2019re not aliens,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are humans and we are Americans.\u201dThe hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that\u2019s more powerful than hate is love, so, please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the game, a group of protestors took Tasman Drive near the East Side entry of the stadium carrying \u201cICE OUT\u201d towels and \u201cAbolish ICE Now\u201d posters as Seahawks and Patriots fans started to funnel their way into the stadium.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Bad Bunny sat down with Ebro Darden and Zane Lowe of Apple Music for a press conference event, and shared that he wanted the show to be a \u201chuge party\u201d for everyone. He said, \u201cThey don\u2019t even have to learn Spanish. It\u2019s better if they learn to dance. There\u2019s no better dance than the one that comes from the heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s halftime show made history as the first mostly Spanish-language performance at the Big Game. Bad Bunny was one of the Super Bowl show guests back in 2020, when he and J Balvin took the stage for \u201cI Like It\u201d during Shakira and Jennifer Lopez headlining performance. Gloria Estefan, who performed during the halftime show in 1992 with Miami Sound Machine, is the only other previous Latin halftime performer.<\/p>\n

Gaga, who turned in a memorable performance as the Super Bowl halftime headline performer in 2017, told People earlier this week that she has \u201cendless admiration for Benito.\u201d When asked if she had any advice for him ahead of the halftime show, she said, \u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t think he needs any from me\u2026 He knows who he is, and that\u2019s the only thing that matters when you step onto that stage. All he has to do is be the beautiful person he already is, and the world will feel his heart.\u201d Back in 2023, Gaga also surprised Bad Bunny by introducing his performance as musical guest on \u201cSaturday Night Live.\u201d<\/p>\n

Best of Variety<\/p>\n

Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bad Bunny promised \u201cthe world will dance\u201d in his advertisement before the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457620,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[37472,5897,236,88,3287,3140,349,2520,5898,63843,213849],"class_list":{"0":"post-457619","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-apple-music","9":"tag-bad-bunny","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-lady-gaga","13":"tag-latin-america","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-performance","16":"tag-puerto-rico","17":"tag-ricky-martin","18":"tag-the-performance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457619\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}