I Predicted the Bad Bunny Super Bowl Halftime Performance.

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at USF chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

When news came out about next year’s Super Bowl halftime show performance being performed by Bad Bunny, I was ecstatic. Mainly because I’m Puerto Rican, and it feels like we never get anything compared to other Latin American countries. But also because I predicted his performance. Since the pandemic, I’ve been carefully studying the trend of Super Bowl halftime performances; who typically gets them, the impact the Super Bowl halftime show leaves on culture, and why we even have Super Bowl halftime shows to begin with.

The Super Bowl halftime show has evolved through distinct cultural eras that mirror shifts in American pop entertainment. Early performances were corporate spectacles—mostly Disney-produced pageants with mascots, marching bands, and painfully sanitized patriotism. In 1993, Michael Jackson revolutionized the format, ushering in the Pop Icon Era, where the halftime show became a global stage for megastars. After the 2004 “wardrobe malfunction,” with Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake, the NFL retreated into the Dad Rock Era, booking safe, legacy acts like The Who and The Rolling Stones. But by the 2010s, pop and spectacle returned in full force with artists like Beyoncé, Madonna, and Katy Perry. Since 2021, the show has entered its Genre Celebration Era, spotlighting hip-hop, R&B, and trap as the new mainstream through performances by The Weeknd, Rihanna, Usher, and most recently, Kendrick Lamar.

Francis Specker/CBS ©2025 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

My predictions were fairly simple, I genuinely believed that the NFL was going to continue the trend of showcasing hip-hop, R&B, and trap artists. My first pick was Tyler, the Creator. My second prediction was the NFL retreating back to pop with Ariana Grande or Dua Lipa as potential performers.

My final prediction was the NFL keeping their attention close on hip-hop, R&B, and trap but for a different demographic of people, that’s also just as popular as American hip-hop, R&B, and trap. Bad Bunny, being a reggaeton artist, fits that description perfectly. Bad Bunny is a household name with the stage presence and the catalog of a Super Bowl halftime performer.

I got a little big headed after realizing I was correct.

But after seeing the general xenophobia towards people like me being expressed online after the news, I realized that the Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime performance is a lot bigger than just my amazing attention to detail and formulaic predictions.

We are entering the golden age of Puerto Rican culture being celebrated and accepted. We have an Afro-Latino Puerto Rican Spider-Man. We have a Puerto Rican EGOT winner (Rita Moreno). The biggest global superstar is a Puerto Rican man from the same city and neighborhood as my father. A Puerto Rican wrote Hamilton (which won 11 Tony Awards!). And of course, we have me — yes, me, some rando, the pinnacle of Puerto Rican excellence.

Yet, despite the current celebration of Puerto Rican culture and Latino heritage all together, there’s also never been a more dangerous time to be Latino and/or Hispanic.

Identifying as a Latino/Hispanic person comes with a lot of cultural weight. Despite appearing like a white lady, I’m 100% Latina on both sides, and I’ve dealt with a fair share of racist and xenophobic remarks and insults. Being Latina gives me a deeper understanding of systemic oppression that not only affects people like me, but others who experience discrimination worse than what I do. Being white-passing or presenting gives me the flexibility to use my privilege to speak up. I’m deeply proud to be Puerto Rican and Venezuelan, and no amount of hatred towards people like me or my friends and family will ever change that. I’ll always use my voice to speak up for those who can’t.

When people online say we should deport Bad Bunny and other Puerto Ricans, what I hear is: free flights to the Bronx, Kissimmee, and San Juan. When others tell me and my friends to go back to where we came from, we all know we’re already home. The Super Bowl halftime show will always be a reflection of the current American culture, and despite the ongoing violence and discrimination against Latinoamericanos and Hispanics, the NFL has decided to celebrate us. To spotlight our talent, our hard work, our existence.

Instead of being passive victims of racial violence, we are active participants in our own celebration on the world’s biggest stage. Isn’t that beautiful?