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Legendary rapper Jay-Z has come to the defense of Bad Bunny amid controversy over the Puerto Rican recording artist being tapped to perform at the Super Bowl LX halftime show.
Jay-Z’s company Roc Nation co-produces the halftime show for the NFL and reportedly makes the final decision on the headliner each year. This year, the selection of Bad Bunny has received backlash from fans.
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Bad Bunny performs on the Coachella stage at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, on Friday, April 21, 2023. (Jay Calderon/The Desert Sun/USA TODAY NETWORK)
But Jay-Z wasn’t buying the outrage.
“They love him. Don’t let them fool you,” he told TMZ Sports on Monday night.
Jay-Z didn’t go too far, telling the TMZ reporter that he “doesn’t have any scoops for you.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell defended the selection of Bad Bunny despite the Grammy Award winner’s comments about US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the past year.
“It’s carefully thought out,” Goodell said of the halftime show decision-making process. “I’m not sure we’ve ever picked an artist where we haven’t had some backlash or criticism. That’s pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people watching.”
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Bad Bunny, whose birth name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has come under fire from President Donald Trump and his supporters over his public comments about the president and his administration. The 31-year-old expressed fear of ICE, which is why he decided to take up residence in his native Puerto Rico to avoid being stopped in the United States.
He said last month that he did not book any US dates on his tour because he feared his fans would be detained by ICE agents.
“But there was the question of f—ing ICE being outside [my concert]. And that’s something we talked about and were very concerned about,” he told iD.
Bad Bunny also recorded and posted video of what he described as local ICE raids to social media in Puerto Rico.
“Look, those mother—–s are in these cars, RAV-4s. They’re here in Pontezuela,” he said in Spanish, referring to ICE working on Avenida Pontezuela in Carolina, a city east of Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell looks on during a news conference at Caesars Superdome on February 3, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana prior to the NFL Super Bowl LIX football game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. (Michael Owens/Getty Images)
Some NFL fans took issue not only with those comments, but with the fact that his hit songs were all sung in Spanish. But Goodell has no qualms about the show he expects from Bad Bunny.
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“We’re confident it’s going to be a great show,” Goodell said. “He understands the platform he’s on, and I think it’s going to be exciting and a unifying moment.”
