SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 08: Bad Bunny and Lady Gaga perform onstage during the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show at Levi’s Stadium on February 08, 2026 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
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Before Bad Bunny took the stage at Levi’s Stadium on Super Bowl Sunday, prominent Republicans had already denounced the NFL’s decision to book him. President Trump weighed in with, “I never heard of him. I don’t know who he is.” Turning Point USA staged a competing broadcast called “The All-American Halftime Show.” The FCC received over 2,000 complaints about the performance, criticising the choreography and Bad Bunny’s lyrics. On Wednesday morning, the Television Academy awarded Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio with nine Emmy nominations — more than any Super Bowl halftime show in history. The record was previously held by Lady Gaga, incidentally a guest performer on Ocasio’s now historic show.
The Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Starring Bad Bunny received nominations for Outstanding Variety Special (Live), Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special, Outstanding Production Design for a Variety Special, Outstanding Choreography for Variety or Reality Programming, Outstanding Hairstyling for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program, Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Special, Outstanding Music Direction, Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Variety Series or Special, and Outstanding Technical Direction and Camerawork for a Special. Bad Bunny is nominated twice in the Outstanding Variety Special (Live) category — once as a performer and once as a producer, listed under his legal name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio.
The previous record for most Emmy nominations received by a Super Bowl halftime show was six, set by Lady Gaga’s 2017 Super Bowl LI performance. Lady Gaga was also a guest on Bad Bunny’s show this year, alongside Ricky Martin. The halftime show is the seventh consecutive Super Bowl halftime performance to receive an Outstanding Variety Special (Live) nomination — a streak that incidentally began in 2020, when Bad Bunny appeared as a guest performer alongside Shakira and Jennifer Lopez.
The performance itself was already historic before awards conversations. It was the first Super Bowl halftime show headlined by a Latino solo artist and the first performed almost entirely in Spanish. It ended not with a song but with a phrase: stadium displays reading “The only thing more powerful than hate is love,” and Bad Bunny closing with the words “Together, we are America.”
The nominations arrive five months after Bad Bunny won three Grammy Awards at the 68th Annual Grammy Awards — Album of the Year and Best Música Urbana Album for Debí Tirar Más Fotos, and Best Global Music Performance for “EOO.” Debí Tirar Más Fotos was the first Spanish-language album to win Album of the Year in Grammy history. An Emmy win in September would bring him to two of the four awards required for EGOT status. The 78th Emmy Awards take place September 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, hosted by Mariska Hargitay.
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