Benito Bowl: Bad Bunny fans celebrate cultural moment ahead of historic Super Bowl halftime show
As Grammy-winning singer and rapper Bad Bunny prepares to take the stage at Super Bowl LX on Sunday, fans of the Puerto Rican superstar are planning "Benito Bowl" watch parties across the country to celebrate as he becomes the first solo artist to perform at the halftime show only in Spanish.
"This is very significant for us, and particularly to the Puerto Rican community, [because] the island has been going through a lot," said Gabriel Alejandro Negron Torres, a Puerto Rican fan of Bad Bunny and a graduate student at New York University.
Torres shares the hometown of Vega Baja with the artist, where Torres said his family frequented the grocery store where Bad Bunny worked, and he first saw him perform at his high school as a local star in 2016. He said that seeing him take the stage at the Super Bowl will be "a source of pride."
"It's amazing to see that despite all the hardship, the fiscal crisis, the disasters and everything, we're able to receive joy from our own culture and roots," Torres said, reflecting on the destruction that ravaged Puerto Rico when Hurricane Maria struck the island in 2017. "But also seeing the rest of the world dancing following the rhythm of Puerto Rico's heartbeat through Bad Bunny's work, it's an amazing feeling. I think it's fully priceless for a lot of us."
Bad Bunny, whose legal name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is a six-time Grammy-winning singer, rapper and producer who sings only in Spanish. He was named Billboard's 2025 pop artist of the year and his sixth studio album, "DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS," which celebrates Puerto Rican culture, won "Album of the Year" at the Grammys on Feb. 1.
'Latinos need something to celebrate'
Bad Bunny has been outspoken on social justice issues, criticizing the first Trump administration's response to Hurricane Maria and speaking out against the current Trump administration's immigration policies.
He famously did not include the United States in his last tour, citing fears that his fans would be targeted by mass deportation efforts, and instead did a residency in Puerto Rico. He also spoke out against ICE raids while accepting the award of "Album of the Year" at the Grammys.
"Before I say thanks to God, I'm going to say ICE OUT," he said. "We're not savages, we're not animals. We are humans, and we are Americans."
Nelini Stamp, a Bad Bunny fan who serves as the director of strategy for the progressive Working Families Party, is organizing "Benito Bowl" watch parties in major cities, including Philadelphia, Los Angeles and Atlanta, where immigration raids have been taking place.
"It's amazing that it's happening at this moment in time. And yes, Latinos need something to celebrate," Stamp said, who went to a Bad Bunny show in Puerto Rico in September.
Stamp said that while the parties are intended to "celebrate" Bad Bunny's performance, the events will also include elements of political advocacy, including ICE watch training and educational resources about deportation defense.
"We need to tell people to unite and gather," Stamp said.
"We're going to have fun and celebrate. We're also going to talk about what you can do in this moment where you feel pretty powerless to fight for your communities through love," she added.
'A united moment'
While fans celebrated the NFL's decision to pick Bad Bunny, the move also drew swift backlash from some conservative commentators and politicians, including President Donald Trump.
"I've never heard of him. I don't know who he is. I don't know why they're doing it," Trump said in an Oct. 6 interview with the conservative outlet, Newsmax.
And in a January interview with the New York Post, Trump said he plans to skip this year's Super Bowl and criticized this year's acts -- Bad Bunny and rock band Green Day, both of whom have been openly critical of the Trump administration's policies.
"I'm anti-them. I think it's a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible," Trump said.
Amid the backlash, the NFL stood by its decision, with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell saying in October 2025 that the league is "confident it's going to be a great show."
"He understands the platform that he's on, and I think it's going to be exciting and a united moment," Goodell said, reiterating the sentiment while speaking with reporters ahead of the Super Bowl on Monday and calling Bad Bunny one of the "great artists in the world."
Bad Bunny addressed the backlash during an October appearance on "Saturday Night Live," where he joked that people have "four months" to learn Spanish before his halftime show.
Ahead of the Super Bowl, Bad Bunny told reporters at the Apple Music Halftime Show press conference on Thursday that he is feeling "grateful."
"I don't want to give any spoilers. It's going to be fun, it's going to be easy. I know I told people they have four months to learn Spanish, they don't even need to know Spanish," he said.
Heydy Martinez, a graduate student at New York University and a Bad Bunny fan since 2016, told ABC News that amid the debates that were sparked on campus about the cultural significance of Bad Bunny's show, she planned a panel discussion titled, "Benito Bowl: More than a Halftime Show," which took place on Thursday at NYU's Wagner School of Public Service. Torres, who is also a graduate student at NYU's Wagner School, also attended the panel.
"I think we can really acknowledge the importance of what this performance means for not only young Latinos, but also just what it means for Latinidad all throughout the U.S., and really even, outside of the U.S.," Martinez said. "Little kids seeing somebody that's from their island ... on this platform."
Martinez, who noted that many Bad Bunny fans don't speak Spanish, saw Bad Bunny in concert in her hometown of Philadelphia and in the Dominican Republic, where her family is from. She said she is "excited" about the halftime show and hopes that those who are listening to him for the first time will understand the "hype."
"For someone who hasn't really listened to him before and gets the opportunity to watch this performance, hopefully [they can] be like, 'OK, I see, I see the hype. I understand that this is beautiful'."
Super Bowl LX -- featuring the Seattle Seahawks versus the New England Patriots -- will be held at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026.
The game kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET/3:30 p.m. PT.
Read more about how to watch the game here.
