SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Bad Bunny says he’s approaching his highly anticipated Super Bowl halftime performance with a mix of excitement, gratitude and perspective.
“To be honest, I don’t know how I feel. There’s a lot. I’m still in the middle of my tour. I was at the Grammys last week. All that,” he said in English on Thursday at a press conference organized by Apple Music. Bad Bunny appeared on stage with his 2017 single “Chambea” in the background.
“I’m excited, but at the same time, I’m more excited for people than even for myself — my family, my friends, the people who have always believed in me,” he said. “This moment, the culture, that’s what makes these shows special.”
Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican superstar whose given name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is one of the most listened to artists on the planet. He will take the Super Bowl stage just a week after winning album of the year at the 2026 Grammys for “I Should Have Shot More.” It is the first time that an album completely in Spanish takes the main prize.
“It took me here,” he said of the album. “I wasn’t looking for album of the year at the Grammys or even the Latin Grammys.” The artist says he was looking to “connect with my roots.”
On Sunday, he is expected to sing only in Spanish, bringing Latino identity to the center of the most-watched television event in the United States.
During the conference, he joked that fans didn’t need to learn Spanish to enjoy his performance, but they should be prepared to dance.
Apple Music’s Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden hosted the conversation with Bad Bunny. Thursday’s event began with conversations with the pre-show artists at 1:00 pm ET.
This year, a long line formed long before the doors opened, with accredited media, including a notable presence of Spanish and Latin American media, filling the room almost an hour before the press conference began.
It marked a stark contrast to Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 press conference, when the room didn’t fill until about 15 minutes before the event.
The pre-game media session revealed some details about Bad Bunny’s performance, but headliners often keep secrets. Rihanna certainly did, waiting until her Super Bowl performance in 2023 to reveal that she was pregnant with her second child.
For example: Lowe mentioned that Bad Bunny’s performance will last 13 minutes.
When asked what viewers can expect, Bad Bunny said: “I just want people to have fun. It’s going to be a big party. What people can expect from me… a lot of my culture. Not really, I don’t want to give any spoilers.”
When asked if he will have surprise guests, he said: “That’s something I’m not going to tell you.”
He then said that he will actually have many guests watching, his friends, family, “the Latin community,” and people from all over the world who love his music.
The Super Bowl will take place on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, with the Seattle Seahawks taking on the New England Patriots.
Who else will perform at the Super Bowl?
The Super Bowl pre-show will kick off with several featured performers in Northern California: Charlie Puth will take the stage to sing the national anthem, Brandi Carlile will perform “America the Beautiful” and Coco Jones will sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
“I want them to feel inspired. I want everyone to know that music is an amazing thing,” Puth said of his performance.
“This is pretty much the best of the best,” Jones added. “This is the best… It’s hard to compete. Maybe my wedding will be up to par.”
The national anthem and “Lift Every Voice and Sing” will be performed by deaf artist Fred Beam in American Sign Language. Julian Ortiz will perform “America the Beautiful.”
Before the game, Green Day will play a set to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Super Bowl. The band, which has its roots in the Bay Area, plans to “make noise!” according to lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong.
For the first time in history, the halftime show will include a multilingual sign language interpretation program featuring Puerto Rican Sign Language, led by interpreter Celimar Rivera Cosme. She was also the performer at Bad Bunny’s historic residency in Puerto Rico last year, which attracted more than half a million fans.
All sign language performances for the pre-show and halftime shows will be presented in collaboration with Alexis Kashar of LOVE SIGN and Howard Rosenblum of Deaf Equality.
Associated Press writer Maria Sherman contributed to this report from New York.
For more information on the Super Bowl, visit https://apnews.com/hub/super-bowl
This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.