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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 comes from the president donald trumpat the Fall League’s annual meeting on Wednesday. This was the first time Goodell spoke about casting Bad Bunny, although the 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 cast an artist that we haven’t had adverse reactions or criticism from. It’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 has no US tour dates on his latest tour because he doesn’t want ICE raids at the events. (Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio MartÃnez Ocasio, has been criticized by Trump and his followers for his public comments about the president and his administration. The 31-year-old, who won three Grammy Awards, recently expressed his fears about US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), so he decided to do a residency in his native Puerto Rico to avoid stops in the United States.
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Early last month he said he had not booked any US dates for his tour for fear that his fans would be detained by ICE agents.
“But there was the issue that ICE might be outside.” [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and that worried us a lot,” he told iD.
Bad Bunny also recorded and posted videos of what he described as local ICE raids on social media in Puerto Rico.
“Look, those sons of bitches are in these cars, RAV-4. They’re here in Pontezuela,” he said in Spanish, mentioning ICE working on Avenida Pontezuela in Carolina, a city east of Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan.
“Motherfuckers, 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 City. (Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for The Met Museum/Vogue)
Some NFL fans took issue not only with those comments, but also with his hit songs sung in Spanish. But Goodell has no qualms about the show he expects from Bad Bunny.
“We’re sure 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 an exciting, bonding moment.”
Despite Bad Bunny’s enormous popularity around the world, Trump told Newsmax that he had never heard of Bad Bunny before the Super Bowl ad.
“I don’t know who it is,” Trump told the outlet. “I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s crazy. And then they blame it on some promoter they hired to do entertainment. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Still, the decision makes sense for Goodell.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell during a news conference at Caesars Superdome on Feb. 3, 2025, in New Orleans, before 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 milestone for us. It’s an important element of the 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.
