Bad Bunny’s Message to the Super Bowl Audience: “You Don’t Have to Learn Spanish”

As anticipation reaches a fever pitch forward of Super Bowl LX, Bad Bunny is reframing the dialog round his headline Halftime Present, telling followers they “do not have to study Spanish” to get pleasure from the efficiency, although he’d slightly they study to dance. Coming off main wins at the 2026 Grammy Awards, the Puerto Rican celebrity used a pre‑Super Bowl press convention in San Francisco to give a heat however pointed preview of what viewers can count on on Sunday, February 8, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.

Bad Bunny, whose actual title is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has been at the middle of widespread cultural dialog since his choice as the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Present headliner, the first Latino and Spanish‑talking artist to achieve this as a solo act. The choice has been celebrated as historic by hundreds of thousands of followers and cultural commentators, however it’s additionally ignited backlash from critics who argue his Spanish‑dominant catalog will not resonate with the broader Super Bowl viewers.

At the press convention, Bad Bunny leaned into celebration over controversy. Requested what he needs the nation to take away from his halftime set, he stated the focus needs to be on pleasure and tradition slightly than language limitations, emphasizing that everybody ought to really feel welcome at his present. “It is going to be an enormous celebration,” he stated, noting that whereas he’ll convey “plenty of my tradition” to the stage, he did not need to spoil the particulars. He passionately reframed fan expectations, telling attendees:

“Folks solely have to fear about… I do know that I instructed them that they’d 4 months to study Spanish. They do not even have to study Spanish. It is higher in the event that they study to dance. There isn’t any higher dance than the one which comes from the coronary heart, the heartbeat dance, that is the solely factor they want to fear about and revel in.”

The “4 months to study Spanish” line has change into certainly one of the defining memes of the Super Bowl promotional cycle. It originated not at the press convention however throughout Bad Bunny’s October look on Saturday Evening Dwell, the place he seized on criticism of his efficiency’s linguistic make-up. Going through conservative commentators who urged the Super Bowl viewers would not embrace primarily Spanish lyrics, he delivered a gap monologue, half in English, half in Spanish, ending with a playful problem: “In case you did not perceive what I simply stated, you may have 4 months to study.” That second drew widespread media protection and have become shorthand for cultural pushback in opposition to his critics.

Criticism has not been restricted to language alone. Some conservative commentators and political figures have framed his choice as a political assertion, pointing to Bad Bunny’s previous feedback about immigration enforcement and U.S. insurance policies. His outspoken 2026 Grammy acceptance speech, the place he addressed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions and referred to as for compassion, solely amplified the cultural divide. Former President Donald Trump and others publicly denounced his halftime position, with some even organizing various occasions as political statements.

Regardless of that noise, Bad Bunny has continued to emphasize inclusivity and cultural satisfaction. At the press convention, he additionally spoke emotionally about what this efficiency means to him personally, crediting his household, particularly his mom, for help all through his profession. He described the halftime present not simply as a efficiency, however as a celebration of roots, neighborhood and pleasure.

The Super Bowl LX Half‑time Present, produced by Jesse Collins and Roc Nation and directed by Hamish Hamilton, will likely be broadcast reside on NBC, Telemundo, Peacock and NFL+, bringing Bad Bunny’s vibrant musical universe to certainly one of the world’s largest reside tv audiences. His inclusion spotlights Latin tradition on an iconic stage lengthy dominated by English‑language acts, and it displays a broader shift in American leisure the place linguistic variety is more and more embraced.

Amid all the chatter about whether or not English needs to be a part of his set, Bad Bunny’s core message stays rooted in celebration, not confrontation. At as we speak’s interview, he made one factor clear: the present will “mirror my tradition” and invite everybody to transfer with it, no matter what language they converse. Dance, he quipped, transcends translation, and that is one thing each Super Bowl fan can perceive.

With simply days to go, his message of pleasure over division may very well be the lasting legacy of this yr’s Super Bowl efficiency an invite to the world to get pleasure from rhythm over rhetoric, heartbeat dance over hesitation.

Initially printed on Latin Occasions