When the NFL announced Bad Bunny as the Super Bowl LX halftime performer back in September, the reaction was immediate and divided. Some celebrated the selection as a bold move; others called it tone‑deaf. The criticism ranged from people calling him the “wrong fit” for middle America to pundits framing the choice as somehow un‑American.

Ironically, much of the backlash painted Bad Bunny as a “non‑American” choice, when Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens and he is, by definition, an American artist, just one whose identity is unapologetically Latin American. That nuance actually matters for the NFL as he sits at the intersection of U.S. citizenship and Latin American culture, which is exactly where a huge portion of the league’s future fanbase lives.

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What strikes me about this situation isn't the controversy itself, it's how the league responded. Commissioner Roger Goodell backed the decision based on Bad Bunny's "global stature." CMO Tim Ellis was even more direct at a marketing conference: "Well, not everyone has to like everything we do. Bad Bunny is f---ing awesome".

That confidence comes from somewhere. The NFL clearly ran the numbers and decided that the strategic upside of this booking outweighs any potential blowback. One club executive told ESPN something that really stuck with me: "Last time with Kaepernick, that was players and owners and the president. Bad Bunny doesn't affect any of that... It's just a halftime show".

Whether you agree with that framing or not, it reveals how the league is thinking about risk calculus in 2026.

Just days ago, Bad Bunny's album Debí Tirar Más Fotos became the first Spanish-language album ever to win Album of the Year at the Grammys. I genuinely didn't see that coming, not because the album doesn't deserve it, but because the Recording Academy has historically been slow to recognise non-English releases at that level.

This changes the Super Bowl conversation entirely. The NFL didn't just book a popular Latin artist, they booked an artist who will walk onto that stage as a history-maker. The timing couldn't be better for the league's purposes.

Consider the streaming numbers backing this up:

This is an artist at the absolute peak of his powers.

Here's where the sports business angle really kicks in. The NFL's Hispanic fanbase now exceeds 39 million fans in the United States. That's the country's largest and youngest minority demographic, exactly the growth engine a mature league needs.

The data I've been looking at paints a compelling picture:

Spanish-language Super Bowl broadcasts have grown 340% since 2014 on Telemundo. The combined Spanish-language viewership for Super Bowl LIX hit 1.9 million, while TelevisaUnivision pulled 2.3 million for the previous year. These aren't massive numbers compared to the English broadcast, but the trajectory is what matters.

One detail I love explaining to casual fans is that Bad Bunny doesn’t actually get paid in the way people assume. The NFL isn’t cutting him a multimillion‑dollar appearance cheque. Instead, like other headliners, he gets a token performance fee at basic union scale while the league picks up the bill for the show itself, including production, staging, sets, effects, travel and logistics, which now typically sit in the low‑eight‑figure range.

Commercially, it’s close enough to zero that for someone at his level you can fairly say Bad Bunny “doesn’t get paid” to do the Super Bowl.

The real money sits around him, not with him. Apple Music is reportedly paying about 50 million dollars a year for the presenting rights to the Super Bowl halftime show in a five‑year deal, effectively putting a hard number on the value of 12–15 minutes of music inside a football game. At the same time, 30‑second ad spots for this year’s broadcast are coming in around the $10 million dollar mark, with total campaign spends often running into the tens of millions once you include production and surrounding media.

So the halftime window becomes a financial instrument. The NFL monetises it through sponsorship and ad inventory. Apple uses it as a global customer‑acquisition and engagement play for its music ecosystem. And the artist takes equity‑style upside instead of a fee: historically, halftime performers see triple‑digit spikes in streams and sales, big lifts in YouTube and socials, and a knock‑on effect on touring demand, ticket pricing and brand deals.

I always find it useful to look at what past halftime performers have generated:

Kendrick's 2025 performance actually surpassed Michael Jackson's legendary 1993 show (133.4 million). Bad Bunny, fresh off a Grammy win and riding unprecedented streaming dominance, is positioned to challenge those records.

What I find most interesting is how this fits into a broader pattern I've been tracking. The intersection of sports and music has accelerated dramatically:

When Bad Bunny takes the stage at Levi's Stadium, I'll be thinking about more than just the performance. I'll be watching the Spanish-language ratings closely. I'll be tracking social media engagement across markets. I'll be curious whether the Grammy momentum translates into record-breaking viewership.

Most of all, I'll be thinking about what this tells us about where sports business is heading. The NFL made a calculated bet that cultural relevance with growing demographics matters more than avoiding controversy with others. Whether that bet pays off will shape how leagues approach these decisions for years to come.

The halftime show has evolved from entertainment intermission to strategic business lever. Bad Bunny's performance this Sunday is the clearest example yet of how leagues are using music partnerships to drive audience growth, brand value, and global expansion.