Drake Maye on Bad Bunny at Super Bowl 60: When NFL Stardom Meets Global Pop

As Super Bowl 60 turns San Jose into the center of the sports universe, rookie star Drake Maye is sharing his support for Bad Bunny as the halftime performer, offering a window into how NFL players see one of the most polarizing pop icons of the past decade. Their unlikely crossover says a lot about where live sports, Latin music, and mainstream pop culture are heading.

Drake Maye speaking to media during Super Bowl 60 week in San Jose
Drake Maye talks to the media in San Jose ahead of Super Bowl 60, where Bad Bunny will headline the halftime show. (Image credit: MassLive)

While some corners of NFL fandom still expect a rock band or classic pop act at halftime, the league has clearly moved into a global streaming-era mindset. Maye recognizing Bad Bunny’s impact is more than a throwaway quote; it’s a small but telling sign of how younger players relate to a very different musical landscape than the one that shaped past Super Bowl traditions.


How We Got Here: Bad Bunny, the NFL, and a New Era of Halftime Shows

Bad Bunny’s path to Super Bowl 60 is the kind of run that used to take decades and now happens in under ten years. From SoundCloud-era upstart in Puerto Rico to one of Spotify’s most-streamed artists in the world, he’s the rare non-English-dominant performer who can anchor a U.S. TV institution without needing a “safer” co-headliner.

For the NFL, booking him is a calculated continuation of a trend. After years of legacy-leaning choices, the league pivoted:

  • Shakira and Jennifer Lopez at Super Bowl 54 signaled a Latin pop embrace.
  • The Dr. Dre–curated hip-hop showcase at Super Bowl 56 underscored rap’s institutional status.
  • Rihanna and Usher further cemented the halftime show as a streaming-era spectacle instead of a classic-rock placeholder.

Bad Bunny is a logical next step: a global Latin trap and reggaeton artist whose tours rival any stadium act and whose cultural impact bleeds into fashion, wrestling, and activism.

Massive stadium concert with elaborate light show and crowd
Stadium shows are now full-blown multimedia events, which makes a high-concept artist like Bad Bunny a natural fit for Super Bowl halftime.

What Drake Maye Actually Brings to This Conversation

Drake Maye isn’t a tastemaker in the music industry, but he is a face of the NFL’s next generation. So when he’s asked about Bad Bunny headlining halftime and responds with genuine appreciation rather than diplomatic deflection, it lands differently than an older veteran politely nodding along.

“You see how big he is around the world. Guys in the locker room are already talking about what he’ll play. It’s cool to be part of a Super Bowl where somebody like that is performing.”

Whether or not every player is blasting “Tití Me Preguntó” in the weight room, Maye’s tone mirrors a broader reality: today’s NFL locker rooms are bilingual, Spotify-obsessed spaces where Latin trap, regional Mexican, Afrobeats, and old-school hip-hop all coexist in the same pregame playlist.

American football player with helmet on walking through stadium tunnel
For younger NFL stars like Drake Maye, global pop and Latin trap are as foundational to game-day culture as classic rock once was.

Maye’s comments also undercut the cliché that football culture is monolithic. His quick endorsement acknowledges what ratings, ticket sales, and TikTok already told us: Bad Bunny isn’t niche, he’s the mainstream.


Why Bad Bunny at Super Bowl 60 Matters Culturally

Even for people who don’t follow Latin music closely, Bad Bunny has become hard to ignore. He’s headlined Coachella, sold out stadiums worldwide, and regularly tops global chart metrics. But a Super Bowl halftime show still hits a different demographic—casual viewers, older fans, and those who mostly interact with music as background noise to big events.

That’s why his selection has sparked debate. To some traditionalists, a Spanish-singing performer headlining America’s biggest broadcast feels like a departure. To others, it’s simply a long-overdue reflection of demographic reality and streaming dominance.

“When you put Bad Bunny on that stage, you’re not being ‘edgy’—you’re acknowledging who actually drives global pop culture right now.” — Pop culture critic quoted in coverage of the Super Bowl 60 lineup
  • Representation: A Puerto Rican artist leading halftime underscores the NFL’s push to speak to Latino and bilingual audiences more directly.
  • Global reach: The league is increasingly positioning the Super Bowl as a worldwide event, not just an American one; a globally dominant artist reinforces that pitch.
  • Genre validation: Reggaeton and Latin trap, once sidelined as club subgenres, are now being treated as tentpoles on par with pop and rock.
Crowd at a concert with hands up and warm stage lighting
Latin music’s ascent from club circuits to global stadiums set the stage for a Bad Bunny Super Bowl takeover.

The Backlash Question: Why Is This Choice “Polarizing”?

Reports around Super Bowl 60 prep have framed Bad Bunny as a “polarizing” choice in some circles. That label isn’t shocking; halftime nearly always becomes a generational Rorschach test where nostalgia, taste, and broader culture wars mix together.

The pushback generally falls into a few familiar buckets:

  1. Language anxiety: Some viewers still expect English-dominant performances, even though the charts stopped caring about that years ago.
  2. Genre bias: Latin trap and reggaeton carry old stereotypes, despite having evolved into complex, chart-topping pop ecosystems.
  3. “Not my era” fatigue: Every generation eventually reaches the point where the Super Bowl no longer programs to them specifically—and that friction shows up online.
Person scrolling social media on a smartphone in a stadium environment
Social media has turned every halftime booking into an instant referendum on generational taste and cultural politics.

Drake Maye’s calm endorsement doesn’t erase those tensions, but it quietly undercuts the idea that Bad Bunny is some fringe pick forced onto football. When one of the game’s central figures sounds like a fan, it makes the halftime choice feel less like corporate pandering and more like an organic reflection of the locker room’s actual playlists.


Early Verdict: Does Bad Bunny Fit the Super Bowl 60 Stage?

Without the actual performance rolled out yet, we’re effectively reviewing the idea of Bad Bunny as a halftime headliner—and on that level, it’s a strong, if strategically risky, choice.

Strengths:

  • He has the catalog and stage experience to pull off a 12–15 minute stadium-sized spectacle.
  • His global fanbase can help boost international engagement and streaming replays.
  • He brings built-in narrative: a Puerto Rican star owning the centerpiece of America’s signature sports broadcast.

Potential weaknesses:

  • Some older or casual viewers may feel disconnected if most of the set stays in Spanish.
  • His more experimental, mood-driven tracks could be hard to translate into quick TV-friendly medleys.
  • The inevitable guest features—if not chosen carefully—could clutter the show instead of elevating it.

On balance, pairing Drake Maye’s breakout Super Bowl appearance with Bad Bunny’s halftime takeover feels like smart synergy between where the NFL’s talent is headed and where global pop is already living. It won’t please everyone, but halftime shows almost never do anymore. What it does promise is a performance that reflects the actual sound of 2020s stadium culture rather than a safe throwback.

Super Bowl 60 Halftime Show – Bad Bunny (Anticipated Booking)
4/5 for ambition, relevance, and cultural impact potential.


What This Means for Future Super Bowls

If Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl 60 halftime show lands—or simply floods social feeds the way his tour clips usually do—it could normalize a broader range of headliners: more non-English-dominant artists, more genre hybrids, more regionally rooted stars with global reach.

Drake Maye’s casual co-sign is part of that picture. Today’s NFL stars grew up in algorithm-driven music ecosystems, not radio silos. As long as that’s true, the idea of a “safe” halftime act will keep shifting away from legacy rock toward whoever actually dominates screens and arenas in real time.

Super Bowl 60 in San Jose isn’t just a game; it’s a test case for how far the NFL is willing to lean into global pop culture.

In that sense, Super Bowl 60 isn’t just about Maye chasing a ring or Bad Bunny chasing another viral moment. It’s about whether America’s most traditional sports spectacle can fully embrace what its younger fans—and its own players—are already listening to on the bus ride to the stadium.