When do you remember there ever being two Super Bowl halftime shows?
For years, the halftime show has been arguably the most anticipated moment of the Super Bowl, with millions tuning in for the show itself rather than four quarters of occasionally mediocre football. Year by year, the country anticipates the reveal of the next halftime artist; the biggest night in sports crossing over with one of the biggest nights in music.
It is never guaranteed to be the best show in music, though it often comes close. Lately, it has been about something bigger than the music.
Kendrick Lamar set the standard. Mere weeks after the 2024 inauguration, with Samuel L. Jackson as “Uncle Sam” and a red, white, and blue motif in the background, Lamar proclaimed, “this is bigger than the music.”
One year later, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny took to Levi’s Stadium for a 13-minute celebration of Latin American culture and a declaration of what it means to be an American.
Let’s rewind, though…
Announced on Sept. 28, 2025, as the halftime performer, Bad Bunny was met with backlash for being un-American — as a Puerto Rican native, he is a U.S. citizen — despite the support of the National Football League (NFL) and Apple Music, the sponsors of the halftime show. Oliver Schusser, Apple’s vice president of Music, Sports, and Beats, said in a statement to the NFL, “The Halftime Show is the ultimate celebration of music and culture, and few artists embody that intersection more perfectly and authentically than Bad Bunny.”
Adding further fuel to the fire, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) announced amid the backlash that it would host its own “alternative, family-friendly” halftime show that would air simultaneously to the official NFL show. Advertised as “a halftime show with no agenda other than to celebrate faith, family, and freedom,” the All-American Halftime Show was headlined by country artist Kid Rock, as well as Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett.
Despite the attempt to draw viewers away from the halftime show, Super Bowl 60 drew 128.2 million viewers for the halftime performance, making it the fourth most-watched halftime show ever — Lamar tops that list, with Michael Jackson’s 1993 performance coming in second — while the prerecorded All-American Halftime Show drew 6.1 million viewers.
With guest appearances by Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, and cameos by Pedro Pascal, Cardi B, and Ronald Acuña Jr., among others, the aptly dubbed “Benito Bowl” highlighted immigration, Puerto Rican cultural motifs — i.e., the piragua cart and bodega scenes — and the growing electrical problem on the island following 2017’s Hurricane Maria, even hosting a live wedding during Gaga’s appearance.
It was the end, though — a declaration that “together we are America” — that brought together the themes of the show: unity in a time of divisiveness, because “America” is not only the states; it is Canada and Mexico and the Caribbean and South and Central America. Together, that is who makes America.
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