Unhealthy Bunny clapped again on the backlash to his upcoming Tremendous Bowl LX Halftime Present efficiency throughout an look on Saturday Night time Stay.
The ‘DTMF’ rapper, 31, wasted no time in addressing the controversy whereas internet hosting the season 51 premiere of the NBC sketch present on Saturday, October 4. (Doja Cat was the musical visitor on the SNL season premiere.)
He joked that he was simply internet hosting — relatively than performing as musical visitor too — as a result of he was nonetheless “drained” from his 31-date No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí residency in San Juan, Puerto Rico, over the summer time.
“You might not know this however I’m doing the Tremendous Bowl Halftime Present,” he introduced to large cheers from the Studio 8H viewers. “I’m very joyful and I feel everybody could be very joyful about it! Even Fox Information…”
Unhealthy Bunny is formally headlining the Tremendous Bowl LX Halftime Present in 2026. In an Instagram announcement video shared on Sunday, September 28, the “Moscow Mule” hitmaker, 31, was seen wearing a tailor-made go well with as he gazed into the digital camera lens. Because the video panned out, Unhealthy Bunny (actual identify Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) […]
SNL then confirmed a montage of reports protection crucial of his Tremendous Bowl spot, although it was edited to say: “Unhealthy Bunny is my favourite musician and he needs to be the subsequent president.”
“Actually, I’m very excited to be doing the Tremendous Bowl and I do know folks all world wide who love my music are additionally joyful,” he advised viewers again in Studio 8H.
After briefly talking in Spanish, Unhealthy Bunny quipped: “Should you didn’t perceive now what I simply mentioned, you might have 4 months to be taught!”
The monologue featured a visitor look from Jon Hamm, after Unhealthy Bunny confirmed footage of the previous Mad Males actor dancing throughout certainly one of his residency live shows.
‘The Nationwide Soccer League introduced on Sunday, September 28, that Unhealthy Bunny (actual identify Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) would headline the Tremendous Bowl LX Halftime Present in 2026, after he’d beforehand carried out with Jennifer Lopez and Shakira on the occasion in 2020.
Unhealthy Bunny on ‘Saturday Night time Stay’ season 51 premiere X/NBC
“What I’m feeling goes past myself,” Unhealthy Bunny mentioned in an announcement. “It’s for many who got here earlier than me and ran numerous yards so I may are available in and rating a landing … that is for my folks, my tradition and our historical past. Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL.”
The NFL confronted a swift backlash from many conservative politicians and public figures for reserving Unhealthy Bunny due to his current criticism of the Trump administration’s controversial immigration crackdown. Others objected as a result of his music is primarily within the Spanish language.
Former skilled race automobile driver Danica Patrick complained through X on Monday, September 29, that performing “no songs in English shouldn’t be allowed at certainly one of America’s highest rated tv occasions of the 12 months,” earlier than later calling for an alternate halftime present to be carried out in English.
“I don’t have any downside with somebody acting at halftime that isn’t from the USA, though Unhealthy Bunny is technically a citizen as a result of he was born in Puerto Rico,” Patrick, 43, mentioned on the “Warfare Room” podcast. “He wasn’t essentially born in America. I don’t care the place you’re really born. What I care about is that I can sing alongside to the music. His music is sort of nothing in English.”
She went on, “I don’t suppose it will likely be as a lot enjoyable. I don’t suppose it will likely be as uniting. What I might hate to see is that it could divide us once more, in yet one more approach.”
Former NFL star and “Bussin’ With the Boys” podcast host Taylor Lewan additionally shared his opposition to Unhealthy Bunny because the NFL’s choose throughout an look on Up & Adams on Tuesday, September 30 — and prompt one other megastar ought to have gotten the Halftime Present job.
“It ought to have been Taylor Swift,” Lewan, 34, insisted. “She has been integrating on this world of soccer. She’s been meshing two utterly totally different cultures into each other.”
When Unhealthy Bunny invited Belinda on stage throughout his Puerto Rico residency, followers weren’t positive in the event that they have been witnessing only a live performance — or the start of a narrative that felt destined to occur. It wasn’t a easy improvised duet. It was the assembly of two artists whose connection had began years earlier, when Benito […]
The controversy reached a fever pitch on Friday, October 3, when Homeland Safety Secretary and former South Dakota governor Kristi Noem promised to ship U.S. Immigration and Customized Enforcement (ICE) brokers to the Tremendous Bowl.
“There shall be ICE enforcement on the Tremendous Bowl. There shall be, as a result of the Division of Homeland Safety is chargeable for protecting it secure, so I’ve the accountability for ensuring all people who goes to the Tremendous Bowl has the chance to get pleasure from it and to depart, and that’s what America is about,” Noem, 53, advised right-wing podcast host Benny Johnson.
She then warned, “We’ll be throughout that place … We’re going to implement the regulation. So I feel folks shouldn’t be coming to the Tremendous Bowl except they’re law-abiding People who love this nation.”
Tremendous Bowl LX will air February 8, 2026, on NBC from Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Saturday Night time Stay’s subsequent new episode airs October 11 on NBC at 11:30p.m ET with host Amy Poehler and musical visitor Position Mannequin.
