ByMatt Craig,
Forbes Staff.
L
ast September, after a sold-out summer residency of 31 concerts in his native San Juan, Bad Bunny announced that he would not be playing any shows in the United States during his 2026 world tour because of the looming threat of ICE to his predominantly Hispanic fan base. But two weeks later, another announcement marked a rather large exception—the 31-year-old King of Latin Trap had been chosen to headline the halftime show of Super Bowl LX in San Francisco.
While Bad Bunny’s selection drew a predictable amount of MAGA backlash, including from President Donald Trump, it also signals the arrival of Latin music as a cultural force, and its importance in the NFL’s increasingly global ambitions. According to Spotify, the genre has increased in popularity by 2,500% over the past decade, from accounting for 8% of all streams on the platform to an impressive 27% now. Bad Bunny, who racked up 19.8 billion streams in 2025, was Spotify’s most-streamed artist of the year.
