Bad Bunny Promises Unity, Doesn’t Mention ICE, in San Francisco

Puerto Rican reggaeton star Bad Bunny said Thursday that viewers can expect “a huge party” from his Super Bowl Halftime Show performance on Feb. 8 as speculation swirls as to whether he will use the platform to denounce the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies.

“I just want people to have fun,” the artist, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, said during a moderated conversation with Apple Music Radio’s Ebro Darden and Zane Lowe in San Francisco.

“I want to bring my culture to the stage. People only need to worry about dancing,” Bad Bunny said.

Bad Bunny made no mention of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the 30-minute conversation.

That’s a stark contrast to last week’s Grammy Awards, where the artist made forceful comments opposing the Trump administration’s ramped-up deportation efforts.

“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out. We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens and we are Americans,” Bad Bunny said in his acceptance speech for the Grammy for Best Música Urbana Album. He received applause from his industry peers, some of whom wore “ICE OUT” pins.

Bad Bunny’s highly anticipated halftime show comes as the artist reaches new heights of his skyrocketing career. Bad Bunny was the most-streamed artist on Spotify in 2025, racking up 19.8 billion streams; he also claimed that title in 2020, 2021 and 2022. He took home three Grammy awards last week, and became the first artist to win Album of the Year for an entirely Spanish-language record.

Bad Bunny said he is still processing his recent whirlwind of achievements while preparing to headline the largest concert in the United States.

“I have been very blessed because every step that I do in my career takes me to another level,” he said. “It’s been a beautiful and tough journey.”

At one point Bad Bunny lost his train of thought, apparently struggling to respond to questions in English, which is not his first language.

“I’m just trying to say all the English words that I know,” he joked.

The Trump administration and its allies have criticized the NFL for picking Bad Bunny to star in the halftime show, which regularly draws over 100 million viewers. The conservative non-profit Turning Point USA, founded by the late conservative icon Charlie Kirk, is holding an alternative halftime show that will livestream at the same time as the official one. The “All-American Halftime Show” will celebrate “faith, family, and freedom,” according to the event website. Rap-rock musician Kid Rock will headline.

“It’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred,” President Trump told the New York Post last month, referencing the NFL’s selection of Bad Bunny and storied Bay Area band Green Day, who will play the Super Bowl opening ceremony. Green Day have also been outspoken critics of the Trump administration.

At a Super Bowl LX press conference on Feb. 2, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell stood by the NFL’s choice, saying Bad Bunny is “one of the great artists in the world.”

Goodell continued that he believes Bad Bunny understands that the halftime show is a platform to “bring people together with their creativity and their talents.”

“Artists in the past have done that, and I think Bad Bunny understands that, and I think he’ll have a great performance,” Goodell said.

Goodell also responded to a question about whether he expects ICE enforcement operations around the Super Bowl by saying that every Super Bowl involves “unique assets at the federal, state and local level all working together. I see no change in that in preparations for the Super Bowl.”

In the lead-up to Super Bowl Sunday, Bad Bunny-themed parties, some dubbed the “Beinto Bowl,” are popping up all over the Bay Area, as has anti-ICE, Bad Bunny-themed graffiti on city streets.

This won’t be Bad Bunny’s first Super Bowl appearance. He performed during the Super Bowl LIV Halftime Show in 2020 as a guest of headliners Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. That performance included children in cage-like structures, a thinly veiled rebuke of the Trump administration policy of separating immigrant families during deportation proceedings.

Asked whether he was planning any surprises or special guests for Sunday’s performance, Bad Bunny deflected.

“You know I can’t answer that,” he said.