Bad Bunny’s highly-anticipated Super Bowl 60 halftime show enthralled viewers on Sunday, February 8 — but not everybody was as enthusiastic.
Steven Van Zandt, best known for his role on The Sopranos and his spot in Bruce Springsteen‘s E Street Band, took to social media after the Puerto Rican rapper’s performance.
“Expanding to the Latino audience is one thing. Doing a show EXCLUSIVELY for the Latino audience? They’re gonna hear about this one,” Van Zandt wrote via X.
He added in a separate post, “I not only love Latin music, I MAKE Latin music. It was a helluva production, and I’m very happy about his enormous success, but I’m sorry, no subtitles was a bad decision and an insult to the audience. Subtitles would have been “countering division,” having none encourages it.”
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Bad Bunny’s selection as Super Bowl 60 halftime show performer proved divisive well before he hit the stage on Sunday, with conservative political organization Turning Point USA — which was founded by the late Charlie Kirk — organizing their own halftime show as alternative programming.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the NFL’s choice shortly after it was announced in September 2025.
“I’ve never heard of him,” Trump, 79, told Newsmax in October 2025. “I don’t know who he is. I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s, like, crazy.”
He added, “I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Trump also addressed Bad Bunny performing at halftime during an interview with the New York Post in January.
“I think it’s a terrible choice,” he said. “All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”
Trump said he would not be attending Super Bowl 60 in person because the flight to Santa Clara wasn’t so long.
“I would go, if you know, it was a little bit shorter,” he told the Post.
Before his performance on Sunday, Bad Bunny explained how the show was meant to be inclusive, even for English speakers who might not be familiar with his music.
“They don’t even have to learn Spanish,” the Puerto Rican rapper said Thursday, February 5, during the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Press Conference. “It’s better they learn to dance. There’s no better dance than the one that comes from the heart. That’s the only thing that they need to worry about.”
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He added, “I just want people to have fun.”
During the Thursday press conference, Bad Bunny also got emotional while discussing his mother, Lysaurie Ocasio, and her unwavering support throughout his life.
“She believed in me, and I’m not talking about my music career,” he said. “I’m just talking about everything. She believed in me as a person, as a human. She believed in my decisions, in my opinions, in my taste, in my choices.”
He continued, “She believed I could be a good person. I think that it was what got me here, you know?”
