Right-wing influencers are throwing tantrums after the National Football League announced that Puerto Rican rapper, singer, and LGBTQ ally Bad Bunny will headline the Super Bowl LX halftime show on February 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
The Sept. 28 announcement, made jointly by the NFL, Apple Music, and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, noted that the show will be co-produced by Emmy-winning Jesse Collins and directed by Hamish Hamilton.
Bad Bunny has won three Grammys and 12 Latin Grammys, and leads this year’s Latin Grammy nominations with 12 heading into the Nov. 13 ceremony at the MGM Grand in Nevada. The 31-year-old recently wrapped a record-setting Puerto Rico residency at San Juan’s El Choli, drawing more than half a million fans, with the final show breaking livestream viewership records on Prime Video and Twitch, according to CBS News.
One of the world’s most-streamed artists, Bad Bunny has surpassed 100 billion streams and, in 2022, topped Taylor Swift with the year’s most-played album on Spotify. His sixth studio album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, also spent weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 earlier this year.
Though his reggaeton-driven music isn’t overtly political, Bad Bunny has used his platform to champion human rights, including LGBTQ rights, and to call out corruption, exploitation, and gentrification. He also allowed Joe Biden to use one of his songs in 2020 and endorsed Kamala Harris in last year’s presidential race.
While not LGBTQ himself, Bad Bunny has been a vocal ally. During a 2020 appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he wore a shirt reading in Spanish: “They killed Alexa… Not a man in a skirt,” condemning media portrayals of Alexa Negrón Luciano, a trans woman murdered in Puerto Rico after being attacked with a paintball gun. Two of her assailants later pleaded guilty to hate crime charges.
In a promo video posted by the NFL, Bad Bunny wears a pava — the traditional Puerto Rican straw hat long associated with rural laborers and island culture. The clip shows him perched on a goalpost as his song “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” plays, a track that reflects on the struggles of Puerto Ricans who leave their homeland to find opportunity.
Bad Bunny said in a statement that the performance is about more than just him: “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. Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL.”
Conservatives went into full meltdown mode over Bad Bunny’s selection, with some urging Americans to boycott the NFL. Axios noted one viral post with 2.7 million views that called him “a demonic Marxist” intentionally given the Super Bowl stage “in the middle of a Christian revival.”
Activist Robby Starbuck, a frequent critic of LGBTQ and DEI initiatives, blasted Bad Bunny, complaining that his songs “aren’t even in English” and predicting he would “find some way to push a woke message” during the show.
“Does this guy really scream American football to anyone?” Starbuck wrote on X. “This isn’t about music, it’s about putting a guy on stage who hates Trump and MAGA.”
“The NFL is amplifying an anti-American, anti-law enforcement, anti-God, cross dresser and putting him on its biggest stage,” screeched columnist Armando Salguero, senior NFL writer for the right-wing sports site OutKick.
Former sports commentator turned conservative podcaster Jason Whitlock told TMZ he’d do anything to get the NFL to rescind its offer to Bad Bunny, calling the choice a “horrific decision.”
“Bad Bunny is putting out a form of music intended to groom kids into sexual fluidity, to normalize…it’s gonna be a drag show!” Whitlock said.
Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom — building a reputation as Democrats’ troller-in-chief with Trump-style online jabs — mocked conservatives upset over Bad Bunny’s selection on X.
“Im bOyCoTtInG ThE SuPeR BoWl bEcAuSe bAd bUnNy dReSsEd iN DrAg,” the governor’s press office wrote in a post, attaching a now-infamous photo of Republican Vice President JD Vance dressed in drag.
Christina Aguilera has partnered with Grindr as part of the promotion for her upcoming headlining set at San Francisco’s Portola Music Festival on September 20. According to a September 15 announcement from the LGBTQ app, Aguilera -- dubbed Grindr's new “wingwoman” -- will lend her voice as a notification alert, letting users know they’ve got a message from a potential match.
From September 15 to 22, Grindr will swap its iconic “bloop” notification for the opening notes of Aguilera’s 1999 No. 1 hit “Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You),” promoting her Portola performance in the process.
In March 2022, Justine Lindsay made history as the NFL’s first openly transgender cheerleader. Three seasons later, the Carolina Panthers TopCat is stepping away from the squad to pursue pageantry and community outreach.
In a statement to Outsports, Lindsay said she wanted to grow beyond the sidelines, striving to be “recognized not just as an NFL cheerleader, but as someone making a positive impact, especially during these uncertain times.”
The announcement marks a reversal, as some news outlets had previously reported she would return for the 2025–2026 season.
Cracker Barrel has removed the "Pride" section of its website, which once highlighted the chain's sponsorship of the Nashville Pride Parade. Visitors are now redirected to a "Culture and Belonging" page.
The company insists the change was part of routine site updates, not a reaction to backlash from right-wing conservatives.
"In connection with the Company's brand work, we have recently made updates to the Cracker Barrel website, including adding new content and removing out-of-date content," a spokesperson told Fox News Digital.
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