From making Grammy history to headlining the Super Bowl halftime show, here’s how Bad Bunny continues to redefine Latino representation.
On February 1, 2026, the Recording Academy awarded Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS as the album of the year at the 68th Grammy Awards. This win made history as the album is the first all Spanish-language album to win the award.
This win highlights much of Bad Bunny’s success over the years, along with the influence he has built as a musician in the 21st century.
Born in Puerto Rico, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has always held pride for his homeland. His album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, can be seen embedding Puerto Rican culture throughout the 17 tracks.
Puerto Rican Homage
Throughout his career, Bad Bunny has stayed loyal to releasing music in Spanish, not crossing over to English music. He has also stayed loyal to elevating Puerto Rican culture. In his 2025 Met Gala look, a notable piece that he wore was a Puerto Rican pava hat.
The pava hat represents the jibaros, rural workers or farmers found in Puerto Rico. His Met Gala look helped honor the Puerto Rican working class along with their resistance and pride.
Bad Bunny’s current world tour for his album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS, includes 46 stadium dates around the world, along with 31 shows in Puerto Rico. Noticeably, the United States was skipped.
The first nine shows of his 31-night residency were available to only Puerto Rican residents. In an interview with I-D Magazine, Bad Bunny revealed he chose to skip the U.S. out of concern that ICE could potentially be outside his shows targeting his Latino fanbase.
Grammy History
Bad Bunny has been in the spotlight for over 10 years. He has used his music as a form of protest while also fighting for social change. While accepting his Grammy award for Best Música Urbana Album, he said, “We’re not savages, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens – we are humans and we are Americans.”
He was one of many artists to criticize the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operations at the 68th Grammy awards.
In his final acceptance speech for the album of the year, Bad Bunny dedicated his win to, “all the people that had to leave their homeland, their country to follow their dreams.”
Latin Representation on the Screen
On Oct. 4, 2025, Bad Bunny hosted the premiere of Saturday Night Live’s 51st season. Throughout the episode, he delivered segments of his monologue in Spanish.
This appearance came nearly a week after he was announced as the next Super Bowl halftime show headliner on September 28.
Later on in the episode, Bad Bunny helped honor an iconic TV series in Latin American history in a sketch. He portrayed the character of Quico in this sketch, honoring the iconic Spanish sitcom El Chavo del Ocho, alongside other SNL actors like Marcello Hernandez and Sarah Sherman.
Challenging Norms
While using his platform to speak out politically, Bad Bunny has also used his platform to redefine masculinity in Latino culture. Throughout his career, he has been seen wearing “nontraditional” fashion items like skirts, dresses, nail polish and earrings.
In his 2020 music video for “Yo Perreo Sola,” he is seen throughout the video dressed in women’s clothing and makeup.
Earlier that year, Bad Bunny performed on the Tonight Show wearing dangly earrings, a skirt and a T-shirt that referenced the then-recent killing of a transgender woman in Puerto Rico.
In a culture where boys are often shamed and told they cannot wear certain items due to gender norms, Bad Bunny has helped redefine what it means to be masculine in a Latino community through his fashion statements.
Bad Bunny has not been shy to incorporate political themes into his music. Some of his songs with political themes include, “El Apagón,” “Una Velita,” “Compositor del Año” and “NUEVAYoL.” These songs all carry various themes of immigration, social justice and government corruption.
Super Bowl Halftime Show
On Sunday, Bad Bunny made history as the first solo Latino artist to headline the Super Bowl halftime show. He previously made a guest appearance at the 2020 halftime show, alongside one of that year’s headliners, Shakira.
His halftime show was a heartfelt tribute to Latino culture, determination and love overpowering hate. His performance included dancers of all ages as they helped pay tribute to various aspects of Latino culture and experiences.
The performance opens up with the line, “Qué rico es ser Latino.”
Some aspects of Latino culture that Bad Bunny added throughout his performance include jibaros, street vendors, dance and a Latino wedding filled with music and the universal experience of sleeping across chairs next to each other as kids at a party.
While Bad Bunny used dance to help portray different Latino experiences and cultural moments, he also reminded viewers the importance of determination and believing in yourself. In translation, Bad Bunny raps to the camera that he got to the Super Bowl because he never stopped believing in himself, reminding viewers that they also should believe in themselves.
A memorable moment in the show is when the camera pans to a little boy and his parents sitting on a couch, watching Bad Bunny win his Grammy award on a small box TV. Bad Bunny then appears and hands a Grammy award to the little boy, telling him to always believe in himself.
To end his performance, backup dancers run the field holding different flags to various Latin American countries. He named Puerto Rico along with all of the countries in the American continents: Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, the United States and Canada.
One of the final shots of his performance included a billboard behind him saying, “The only thing more powerful than hate is love” as he holds a football to the camera, with the words, “Together, we are America.”
In the midst of controversy as being the 2026 Super Bowl headliner, Bad Bunny was able to shed a positive light on Latino culture and Puerto Rican history. His performance can be seen as a reminder to Latinos across the country that we must always believe in ourselves and see how far we can go.
Bad Bunny did not just perform at the Super Bowl halftime show; he affirmed that Latino culture, language and stories belong in this country, defining his place as a Latino icon in the 21st century.
Header Image by Alex Carrasquillo
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