The Latin superstar Bad Bunny, who has won three Grammys while bringing Spanish-language music to the top of the charts, will headline the Super Bowl halftime show in February, the N.F.L. announced on Sunday.
The Super Bowl is consistently the most-watched television program of the year, with more than 130 million people viewing last season’s halftime show featuring the rapper Kendrick Lamar. The next Super Bowl will take place on Feb. 8, 2026, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., near San Francisco.
Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, was born in Puerto Rico and rose to fame through hits such as “MIA,” “Me Porto Bonito” and “Dákiti.” He has been nominated for 10 Grammys.
This will be the seventh halftime show produced by Roc Nation, the entertainment and sports company founded by Jay-Z. Its agreement with the N.F.L. came amid tensions over the league’s handling of protests by the quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who had begun kneeling during the national anthem to protest police violence against people of color.
The next Super Bowl halftime show will be broadcast on NBC.
There had been weeks of rumors that the pop star Taylor Swift would be the headliner. Her 21-month Eras Tour, which ended in December, grossed a record $2 billion in ticket sales, and she announced her engagement to the Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in August after nearly two years of dating. She will release her 12th original studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” on Friday.
“We would always love to have Taylor play,” Roger Goodell, the N.F.L. commissioner, said in a recent interview on the “Today” show, a comment that fed the speculation. “She is a special, special talent, and, obviously, she would be welcome at any time.”
The N.F.L. in 2019 partnered with Roc Nation, asking the company to produce the Super Bowl halftime shows. Since then, the halftime performances have predominantly featured hip-hop and R&B artists: Lamar, Usher, Rihanna and, in 2022, a medley including Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Eminem. The streaming service Apple Music became the show’s title sponsor in 2022.
Emmanuel Morgan reports on sports, pop culture and entertainment.
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