NFL commissioner Roger Goodell reiterated Bad Bunny is the headline performer for the Super Bowl halftime show despite some criticism of the selection.
Goodell validated the league’s decision at the NFL’s fall meeting, saying there is no conversation about adjusting the act to appease critics.
“He’s one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world,” Goodell said. “That’s what we try to achieve.”
The artist, whose name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, is a native of Puerto Rico. His lyrics are mostly in Spanish. Since 2019, Bad Bunny has been a top-five streamed artist annually on the music platform Spotify, including the most streams in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
“I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback or criticism,” Goodell said. “It’s pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people that are watching.”
In a recent interview on the conservative news network Newsmax, President Donald Trump called the selection “absolutely ridiculous,” while also saying he was not familiar with Bad Bunny.
In 2022, Bad Bunny had 26.1 billion steams on Spotify and was the second most streamed artist in 2023 and the third most last year. As of this month, Bad Bunny’s 100.9 million followers on Spotify are ninth most of any artist on the platform.
“We’re confident it’s going to be a great show,” Goodell said. “He understands the platform that he’s on, and I think it’s going to be exciting and a united moment.”