Featured Image Credit: CBS Photo Archive / Contributor / Getty
One of the biggest events of the year is just around the corner, and with the Super Bowl taking up the first 11 of the USA's most-watched TV broadcasts of all time, it's earned its place in the history books.
In fact, 2025's Super Bowl LIX remains the most-watched US broadcast ever, with a halftime show that boasted Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Samuel L. Jackson, and more. 2026's Super Bowl halftime show is expected to pull out all the stops, and although Taylor Swift was a frontrunner to headline, it's now been confirmed that Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, will lead the entertainment.
Fresh off his Grammy Awards win for Album of the Year, Best Música Urbana Album, and Best Global Music Performance, Ocasio should be celebrating. However, with Bad Bunny joining Billie Eilish in using the Grammys to share his thoughts on the escalating situation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, there has been further controversy about him headlining the Super Bowl.
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Alongside the likes of Marvel's Mark Ruffalo and Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito making their feelings clear, Bad Bunny used his platform at the Grammys to tell the world: "Before I say thanks to God, I'm gonna say ICE out. We're not savage, we're not animals, we're not aliens, we are humans, and we are Americans."
Elsewhere, the widowed Erika Kirk has stepped up to take charge of Turning Point USA in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's September 2025 assassination. We've already seen her usher in a new era when Nicki Minaj and JD Vance appeared at AmericaFest, and now, TPSUA has announced an "All-American Halftime Show" that vows to promote "faith, family and freedom."
Streaming across TPSUA's social platforms in direct competition to the Super Bowl’s halftime show, it will be led by Trump ally Kid Rock, as well as support from country artists including Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett. Cheering his appearance, Kid Rock said: "We’re approaching this show like David and Goliath. Competing with the pro football machine and a global pop superstar is almost impossible…or is it?”
Speaking to Fox News, TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet continued: "The All-American Halftime Show is an opportunity for all Americans to enjoy a halftime show with no agenda other than to celebrate faith, family, and freedom.
Turning Point USA has announced the performers for their alternative Super Bowl halftime show:
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) February 2, 2026
Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett pic.twitter.com/epTYU3NbmY
"We can't wait to watch the incredible show they're about to put on. We know millions around the country will be watching too."
Even before Bad Bunny reprimanded ICE at the Grammys, there had been backlash against his announcement. Despite Ocasio being an American citizen of Puerto Rican descent, vocal critics have said he's not 'American enough' to lead the Super Bowl. President Trump decried Bad Bunny and fellow halftime performer Green Day, who've also been critical of his administration. Although the POTUS used the excuse of the stadium being too far away as a reason he won’t be attending, he added (via The New York Post): "I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible."
The Grammys wasn't Bad Bunny's only shot fired at President Trump. He famously released 2025's "Nuevayol", featuring an imitation of Trump's voice that said: "I want to apologize to the immigrants in America...This country is nothing without the immigrants. This country is nothing without Mexicans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Cubans."
