Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny has refrained from holding concerts in the United States due to concerns about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions near his events.
However, the 31-year-old has made an exception for the Super Bowl halftime show, where he will be the headliner on February 8, 2026, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
Past headliners have included artists like Kendrick Lamar, Usher, Rihanna, and The Weeknd. Now, Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, joins the ranks of performers at one of the most-watched sporting events globally.
In 2022, Bad Bunny became the first artist to have an all-Spanish album, “Un Verano Sin Ti,” reach number one on the US Billboard chart. Additionally, he has won three Grammy awards and was ranked as the third most-streamed artist worldwide in 2024.
Jay-Z, the music mogul whose company Roc Nation produces the renowned halftime show, praised Bad Bunny by saying, “What Bad Bunny has done and continues to do for Puerto Rico is truly inspiring. We are honored to have him on the world’s biggest stage,” he added.
Despite his success on the global stage, Bad Bunny will not be performing in the US during his upcoming 57-date “Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour,” which begins on November 21, 2025, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
The tour will take him to Latin America, Asia, and Oceania, before concluding in Europe, with a final show in Brussels, Belgium, at the King Baudouin Stadium on July 22, 2026.
There are no scheduled US tour dates in his itinerary.
Bad Bunny previously expressed to i-D magazine his apprehensions about potential ICE raids at his concert venues.
“There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the US, and none of them were out of hate – I’ve performed there many times,” he explained. “People from the US could come here to see the show. Latinos and Puerto Ricans of the United States could also travel here, or to any part of the world.”
“But there was the issue that… ICE could be outside [my concert venue]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”
Bad Bunny has been vocal about ICE operations, which have increased under President Donald Trump’s administration.
In June, the singer took to Instagram to criticize agents in Puerto Rico, urging them to “leave these people working here alone.”
On Tuesday, September 23, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that two million “illegal aliens” had been “removed or have self-deported” since Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
Of these, over 400,000 have been deported, while 1.6 million have “self-deported,” according to the DHS.
Almost 600,000 “illegal aliens” are projected to be deported by the end of Trump’s first year back in office, potentially marking the highest annual deportation total in recent US history.
ICE deported 271,484 individuals in the fiscal year ending September 30, nearly double the previous year’s figure.
This was the agency’s highest removal count since 2014, when 315,943 individuals were deported.