Bad Bunny is Jay-Z’s Next Super Bowl Halftime Headliner

A popular refrain in the group chats after Kendrick Lamar’s exhilarating but uncompromising Super Bowl Halftime Show was the joke that the NFL—and by extension, Jay-Z, who plays a significant role in selecting halftime performers as part of his entertainment company Roc Nation’s ongoing deal with the league—would have to compromise next year. The assumption was that as a concession for the very Black, very rap show Jay gave Kendrick the latitude to deliver at Super Bowl LIX, Jay and the league would be obligated to give the next halftime show to a performer with a more broadly palatable middle-of-the-mall appeal, someone less likely to use one of entertainment’s biggest stages to poke at thorny themes like race in America, and (most likely) someone white, i.e. a Post Malone or Taylor Swift. One for us, one for “them.” Of course, you heard the same sentiment in 2022, after Snoop Dogg hit a C-Walk on the 50 yard line in the midst of a rap-heavy set spearheaded by Dr. Dre. Instead, the next two halftime performers were Rihanna and Usher—crowd-pleasing, non-controversial choices for sure, but picks that still upheld the loose mission to program the halftime show for “the culture,” after decades of scraps and marginalization in favor of dated and boring choices.

And if Jay-Z is facing pressure to deliver a Super Bowl that won’t cause a Thanksgiving-table outburst from your conservative uncle, then he isn’t showing it. Bad Bunny, who the NFL announced yesterday will headline the halftime show at Super Bowl LIX in February, isn’t a rapper per se, but he’s enjoying an exemplary year not quite unlike Kendrick was at this time in 2024, with a residency in his native Puerto Rico that’s unprecedented from a star of his magnitude, bringing stars like Jon Hamm and Austin Butler to his doorstep to bear witness. (And turn up.) And while a lot of the predictions about what statements Benito might use his set to make are extremely premature, they aren’t without reason or basis. The narrative writes itself: Spanish-language artist, beloved by millions in the States, politically outspoken in general and especially lately with regards to ICE and this current administration, playing the biggest musical event in America. It’s a safe bet he’s going to have some provocations up his sleeve to make your average Fox News pundit’s face melt like Raiders of the Lost Ark.

We’re all putting the cart before the horse a bit, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s another impressive Eurostep from Jay-Z, who has weathered blowback from his company’s controversial partnership with the NFL and its Commissioner Roger Goodell to deliver increasingly relevant blockbuster (and Emmy-winning) halftime shows. Many saw their initial union as ultimately more beneficial to Goodell and the league, using Jay’s cultural capital as a cover to blitz through the minefield surrounding Colin Kaepernick’s National Anthem kneeling and subsequent blackballing. Your mileage may vary on Jay and the Roc’s position to build rather than boycott. (For his part, Jay rapped: “Why would I sell out? I’m already rich, don’t make no sense/Got more money than Goodell, a whole NFL bench”) But Jay has used that same cultural capital to at least hold the NFL to a bare minimum of representation.

Bad Bunny will be the sixth halftime performance Jay’s overseen; he started with Shakira and J.Lo to complement a Super Bowl held in Miami and has only managed to outdo himself every year since, with selections that make a ton of commercial sense and capitalize on genuine, pre-existing buzz, but nevertheless feel notably distinct. The Weeknd and Rihanna are hardly controversial picks but arguably got the call much sooner in their careers than they would in the previous regime (and Rihanna’s appearance was an event unto itself, as a brief respite in one of music’s most frustrating sabbaticals). Dr. Dre’s victory lap in LA’s SoFi stadium now has every artist feeling entitled to hometown consideration. Usher was the perfect cap to a year of a surging reaffirmation of his charm and his catalog. Now BB stands to have the opportunity to deliver an even more politically charged set than Kendrick’s. Never mind the talk about who might’ve been in consideration or even a higher pick in any given year of Jay’s tenure—in the end, when you take a step back, it’s a pretty impressive run.

So is Jay keeping Goodell at bay, or is that concern a totally far-off scenario that’s only being imagined by external observers to begin with? Is Bad Bunny’s appointment, revealed after weeks of anxious hand-wringing that a performer hadn’t been announced yet, the result of last-minute scrambling (after certain names allegedly walked away) or was it premeditated? As it often is with Jay-Z, the calculations don’t really matter, as long as the answer is another win. (Just two weeks ago Jay faced heat on social media for sitting with Ivana Trump and Jared Kushner at an event he hosted; now the most sensitive base in politics is already looking toward the halftime show as if it’ll be a liberal rally.) One thing seems certain: he surely isn’t concerned about playing nice for “them.”