02/12/2026
What a great production! And message!
How Bad Bunny outsmarted the NFL with a live Super Bowl trick:
Thirteen minutes of pure madness, a record amount of fireworks, hundreds of people dressed to look like bushes and incredible energy - that's how Bad Bunny "conquered" the Super Bowl can be described.
The Latin star, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, spared neither budget nor imagination. His Super Bowl 60 halftime performance was logistically one of the most demanding ever performed. The goal was to make Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara look like his hometown of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, but the NFL strictly prohibits the introduction of heavy scenery that could destroy the grass.
Producers Bruce and Sheli Rogers' solution was simple, yet crazy: if you can't bring plants, bring people. Since they were only allowed to use 25 vehicles to transport the equipment, they hired 380 extras in costumes of tall grass, palm trees and sugar cane. What looked like a lush jungle on TV were actually dancers swaying to the rhythm of the music and forming a "living" landscape.
"Bed Bunny got his house (aka casita), vintage truck and atmosphere he wanted, but the plants were alive in a way he probably didn't imagine," Rogers revealed. The extras ran in, formed a maze through which the rapper passed, and disappeared all within seven minutes.
Show
Pedro Pascal, who danced with the singer in the casita, Cardi B, Jessica Alba, Karol G took turns on the stage, and Ricky Martin joined them. The biggest surprise was Lady Gaga who sang "Die With a Smile" in salsa rhythm during the actual wedding in front of 100 million viewers.
The fireworks broke the record with 9,852 pyrotechnic elements, and the finale with huge Puerto Rican flags in the sky ended the show with a message of unity. The entire set, with 400 extras and hundreds of dancers, had to be set up in just seven and a half minutes.
"It was very dramatic and intense," admitted Bruce Rogers. "But in the end it made for a better show." And he was right – Bad Bunny brought Puerto Rico to the scene, and the world got a spectacle that it will remember for a long time.
