Puerto Rican megastar Bad Bunny is officially taking the biggest stage in sports — the Super Bowl LX Halftime Show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on February 8, 2026. The NFL announced Sunday that the reggaeton and Latin trap icon, who recently wrapped a record-breaking residency in Puerto Rico, will headline the show.
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In a statement following the announcement, Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, reflected on the moment’s significance:
“What I’m feeling goes beyond myself. It’s for those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come in and score a touchdown… this is for my people, my culture, and our history.”
The decision sparked plenty of discussion online, particularly about who won’t be performing, Taylor Swift, whose star power and upcoming wedding to Chiefs star TE Travis Kelce would make her the absolute perfect pick to play the halftime show.
But ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith had a surprising reaction: he not only backed Bad Bunny’s selection, but argued that Swift’s turn should come later, and somewhere else.
“Bad Bunny is an international superstar in the streaming stratosphere where everything is going,” Smith said on his Show.
“Number two, it’s in Northern California, Palo Alto or wherever the San Francisco 49ers play their games. Next year, the Super Bowl’s going to be at SoFi in L.A. That’s where I went to see Taylor Swift, not once, but twice.”
Smith went on to emphasize that SoFi Stadium, home of the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers, would be the perfect stage for Swift:
“Taylor Swift and Swifties turned up at SoFi and they turned it out. That is where she should perform the halftime Super Bowl show, not in Northern California.”
It’s hard to argue with his logic. SoFi Stadium is the largest venue in the NFL, seating around 70,000 fans (expandable to 100,000) with state-of-the-art design and acoustics. It’s also the place where Swift made history in August 2023, performing six sold-out shows during The Eras Tour. The performances were so seismic that a Caltech study found the crowd’s energy literally made the ground shake like a small earthquake.
Despite being one of the most requested artists for years, Taylor Swift has no plans to perform at any Super Bowl halftime show.
The Super Bowl halftime show is famously unpaid; while the NFL covers production, travel, and crew expenses, the performers themselves don’t receive a paycheck. For megastars like Swift, that’s not the issue; the exposure alone typically boosts streaming numbers and album sales overnight.
But according to reports from Complex and Inc., Swift’s refusal came down to ownership rights. As a champion of artistic control, famously re-recording her first six albums to regain ownership of her masters, Swift reportedly wanted to retain the rights to her halftime performance. The NFL apparently “flatly refused,” and talks broke down there.
And truthfully, Swift doesn’t need the platform. She already fills NFL stadiums on her own. Six sold-out nights at SoFi Stadium in August 2023 proved that, complete with an earthquake-level crowd reaction. The Eras Tour has grossed over a billion dollars, and Swift holds four Album of the Year Grammys — more than any living artist.
Bad Bunny, a cultural force with immense global reach, is a fitting choice for Levi’s Stadium in multicultural Northern California. Meanwhile, when the Super Bowl returns to SoFi Stadium, the house that shook for The Eras Tour, Taylor Swift would be the ideal act to bring music, spectacle, and emotion to football’s biggest stage.
