As Bad Bunny was announced as the headliner for next year’s Super Bowl Halftime show, we reveal how the Puerto Rican star became one of the most famous artists in the world
06:45 ET, 29 Sep 2025Updated 10:08 ET, 29 Sep 2025
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Bad Bunny will lead headline the Apple Music Super Bowl halftime show next year.
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The Puerto Rican star will bring his Latin trap and reggaeton swagger to the NFL’s biggest stage at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Northern California, on February 8, 2026. Following yesterday’s announcement by the Apple Music and Roc Nation, Bad Bunny said he wanted to dedicate the major achievement to “my people, my culture, and our history.”
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The 31-year-old, who is fresh off a historic Puerto Rico residency that drew more than half a million fans, has become one of the world’s most streamed artists. Here, we look at his professional and personal highlights, including his romance with Kendall Jenner.
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Childhood and family life
Bad Bunny was born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio on March 10, 1994, in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, which is located around 30 miles west of San Juan. He grew up in a lower middle-class household in the Almirante Sur neighborhood. His father was a truck driver, while his mother taught English. He is the eldest child and has two younger brothers, Bernie and Bysael.
As a fan of reggaeton, as a young boy he liked performers such as Daddy Yankee and Vico C. He sang in his local Catholic church until the age of 13 before he began to make his own beats and started free-styling at school. He enrolled in the audiovisual-communications program at the University of Puerto Rico’s Arecibo campus and bagged groceries at a supermarket to support his study.
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Rise to fame and origin of name
His rise to fame began in 2016 when his SoundCloud track Diles caught the attention of producer DJ Luian. This led to a deal with Hear This Music and a remix featuring established artists. Bad Bunny gained significant momentum with his solo hit Soy Peor and further expanded his audience through viral YouTube music videos and collaborations with major artists like Cardi B and Drake on I Like It.
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His debut album, X 100PRE, cemented his status, and over the years he has become one of the most recognizable artists worldwide. He is credited with helping Spanish-language rap music achieve mainstream popularity – and his songs are famous also among non-Spanish speakers.
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In 2018, he revealed how he came to choose Bad Bunny as his name, as he told ET, “I felt that I had to do something different and creative. “When I was a little boy in school I had to dress up as a bunny and there’s a picture of me with an annoyed face, and when I saw it, I thought I should name myself ‘Bad Bunny.’
“It’s a name I knew would market well. A bunny is something so common that I thought to myself, every time someone sees one, they’ll remember my music.”
Hit songs, albums and major awards
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After releasing his 2016 single Diles, Bad Bunny began receiving calls from producers while at work in the grocery store. He later found a manager, Noah Assad, who helped him develop a plan to get attention by releasing singles and videos on YouTube instead of trying to sign with major record labels. The following year, he released a number of successful singles such as Pa Ti, Loco Pero Millonario and Sensualidad.
I Like It, which came out in 2018, received a Grammy nomination and became a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 that July. His album X 100PRE came out on Christmas Eve 2018 and quickly climbed to No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart. The album received a Latin Grammy for Best Urban Music Album and became diamond-certified by May 2019.
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The following month, Bad Bunny released another collaboration with J Balvin, an EP called Oasis, which earned a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Rock, Urban, or Alternative Album. He also performed at the 2020 Super Bowl halftime alongside Shakira, Jennifer Lopez and J Balvin.
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That same year, he released his reggaeton album YHLQMDLG (Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana, which translates to “I do whatever I want”) which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 and won a Grammy for Best Latin Pop or Urban Album. Another album that came out in May 2020 was Las Que No Iban a Salir – and later that year, he released his single Dakiti.
But that wasn’t all, as on Thanksgiving 2020 Bad Bunny released his third album of the year, El Último Tour del Mundo, which became the first all-Spanish album to launch at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, and it later won Best Música Urbana Album at the 2022 Grammys. In December 2020, Spotify declared Bad Bunny the Artist of the Year, with more than eight billion streams on the platform.
His fourth studio album, Un Verano Sin Ti, came out in May 2022. It also debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and and won the Grammy for Best Música Urbana Album. It also earned him a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year – it was his first nod in the category and the first time a Spanish-language album was competing for the top honor.
In 2023, his album Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Mañana (which meansNobody knows what will happen tomorrow) came out, earning him yet another Grammy nomination for Best Música Urbana Album. His latest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos (I should have taken more photos) was released in January this year and spent four weeks atop the Billboard 200.
The name of his latest album was also the name of his world tour. The tour avoided the US due to his concerns about ICE raids at his shows. Among his famous songs that came out over the years are Me Porto Bonito, Tití Me Preguntó, Yonaguni and Ojitos Lindos.
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Engaged in activism
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The rapper is known for engaging in activism and promoting the causes he believes in. In his song Estamos Bien, he recalled the devastation of Hurricane Maria in 2017 and when he performed it on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, he reminded the audience that many people in Puerto Rico were still without power a year on.
In 2019, he took part in protests demanding the resignation of Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló and urged people to vote the following year. He has also addressed domestic violence in Latin America and in 2020 he brought attention to the murder of a trans woman in Puerto Rico. During the pandemic, he serenaded New Yorkers while riding on top of a truck through the city and also sang to health workers at Harlem Hospital.
His Good Bunny Foundation, which has operated in Puerto Rico since 2018, helps children in poverty. Its mission is “to encourage children and young people from sectors with limited resources in Puerto Rico to develop in music, arts and sports.”
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Fashion and acting career
In addition to his musical success, Bad Bunny has also embarked on some modeling and acting ventures, designing clothes and sneakers for Adidas, and even collaborating with Lionel Messi. He also put his own spin on a series of Crocs which quickly sold out.
The rapper appeared in some TV shows as well, including Narcos: Mexico in 2021, and appeared in the action movie Bullet Train alongside Brad Pitt in 2022. This year, he played a waiter-turned-caddy in Adam Sandler’s Happy Gilmore 2. He also starred in Caught Stealing alongside Austin Butler.
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Kendall Jenner romance
Bad Bunny and Kardashians star Kendall Jenner, 29, sparked dating rumors after they were spotted leaving a Los Angeles restaurant together in February 2023 after a supposed double date with Justin and Hailey Bieber. At the time, a source claimed the rapper had recently moved to Los Angeles and they had “started hanging out.”
In April that year, the pair were seen riding horses together and Kendall was later seen dancing along to Bad Bunny’s set at Coachella. They were later seen getting closer in the Coachella crowd, with a photographer describing them as “very cozy.” Later that month, they were seen on a date night in New York City and an insider said Kendall was “happy” while describing the rapper as “a gentleman and charming.”
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In May 2023, Bad Bunny and Kendall attended the Met Gala afterparty together – and days later, they attended a Lakers game together. That summer, sources said things were becoming serious between the couple.
They attended various events together over the coming months, including Milan Fashion Week in September and the Saturday Night Live afterparty in October. However, in December a source told People the pair had ended their relationship. In February 2024, there were claims that Kendall and her ex Devin Booker were “slowly navigating a restart.”
However, in May that year, there were new rumors that Kendall and Bad Bunny had rekindled their romance after being photographed at the Après Met 2 Met Gala afterparty. She also attended his concert in Orlando that month – and multiple sources confirmed they were back together. Then in September, reports suggested the pair had ended things again, even though they are believed to have remained friendly.
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