Bad Bunny Closes NFL Halftime Show With ‘God Bless America’ Then Proceeds To List Hispanic Countries With Their Flags Flying
Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin joining Bad Bunny on the Super Bowl halftime stage ensured that this performance was never going to exist in a cultural vacuum. From the moment his name was announced, the appearance carried political weight, largely because Bad Bunny had already made himself a flashpoint through his public criticism of ICE.
The show itself leaned fully into that context, presenting a celebration of Latino heritage that was performed mostly in Spanish and framed as an assertion of cultural presence rather than a neutral pop spectacle.
Bad Bunny closing out his Super Bowl Halftime performance ️
"God Bless America: Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Perú, Ecuador, Brasil, Colombia, [...] United States, Canadá, and my motherland, mi barrio, Puerto Rico, seguimo aquí." pic.twitter.com/cThVRa7u6F
— Modern Notoriety (@ModernNotoriety) February 9, 2026
The NFL insisted ahead of time that the halftime show would not be political, but that claim was always going to be difficult to sustain. The Super Bowl is the most-watched broadcast in the country, and anything placed on that stage is inevitably magnified. Language choices alone carry meaning at that scale, and performing primarily in Spanish was guaranteed to be interpreted as more than an artistic decision, regardless of intent.
Midway through the performance, Bad Bunny made a deliberate pivot into English, delivering a simple but loaded line: “God bless America.” That phrase, long associated with patriotic ritual, was followed by a broader redefinition of what “America” meant in the context of the show.
He proceeded to name countries across the Americas while a parade of flags moved across the stage, shifting the idea of America from a nation-state to a hemispheric identity. It was an expansive vision, but also one that subtly challenged more traditional understandings of national symbolism.
The NFL having a Super Bowl Halftime Show where their performer sings ENTIRELY in Spanish & waves other nation’s flags, is % a political statement.
Bad Bunny will go down as the worst halftime show in the history of the league.
America deserved better for its 250th birthday. pic.twitter.com/Glu9BLT5Tp
— Jon Root (@JonnyRoot_) February 9, 2026
The closing imagery reinforced that framing. As the performance wound down, Bad Bunny held up a spiked football stamped with the English words “Together, We Are America,” an unmistakable attempt to merge the NFL’s most iconic symbol with a message of collective identity.
His final line, delivered in Spanish — “We’re still here” — landed as the most pointed moment of the night. In isolation, it reads as a statement of endurance. In context, it carried a clear resonance with immigration debates and the controversies that had surrounded his selection.
