Featured Image Credit: Gladys Vega/Getty Images
Topics: US News, Music, Super Bowl, Sport
Ellie Kemp
You'd assume Super Bowl halftime performers would be raking in the money, so it's surprising to learn that none of them actually get paid for their shows.
It doesn't matter if you're Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar or this year's headliner, Bad Bunny; the NFL simply doesn't pay artists outright for their performances.
That might sound harsh, but it might be one of the only times when being paid in 'exposure' actually means something.
As NME reported, the league does cover all production and travel costs. So while Bad Bunny won’t be walking away with a cheque, he also won’t be footing the bill for what is essentially a stadium-sized live show.
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And that’s where Apple Music comes in.
According to sports business writer Joe Pompliano, Apple Music pays the NFL around $50 million a year to sponsor the Super Bowl halftime show. From that deal, artists are given a budget of roughly $15 million to spend on production alone. That sounds more like it!
That money goes towards everything from set design and dancers to security, marketing and thousands of part-time workers. What it doesn’t include is an actual wage for the artist performing.
It's not all about the money for Super Bowl halftimers anyway.
Last year, Lamar’s halftime performance pulled in 133.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched halftime show in history.
In the days that followed, his music saw massive spikes across streaming platforms - and even before his halftime stint, Bad Bunny was seeing similar effects.
Data from Sudoku Bliss showed that searches for 'Bad Bunny tour' jumped by 1,567 percent in the 24 hours following his Grammy wins, as excitement around his upcoming halftime show continued to build.
The same search term was also up 525 percent compared to the previous week.
It’s not just Google searches either. Since that same night, Bad Bunny has gained more than 900,000 new Instagram followers, pushing his total to more than 50.9 million.
No doubt he'll see a similar increase after his Super Bowl performance too.
To put the value of the halftime show into even further context, businesses are forking out millions for their own Super Bowl adverts.
According to NBCUniversal’s head of global advertising, Mike Marshall, 30-second commercials sold for around $8 million, with some brands paying more than $10 million.
Marketing expert Peter Koeppel told The Independent that even when a Super Bowl ad doesn’t pay off immediately, the long-term value is hard to beat.
“If a business can afford to produce one of these stellar spots, they stand to build awareness on a scale unmatched by other outlets,” he said, adding that what really matters is whether people are talking about it afterwards.
The same rule applies to halftime performers, of course.
Instead of paying millions for a 30-second ad, artists get roughly 13 minutes in front of one of the biggest audiences on the planet.
You might argue it's the kind of exposure money simply can't buy.
Bad Bunny has been a vocal critic of President Donald Trump and his policies over the years, particularly regarding immigration and his native Puerto Rico. Let’s take a look at where it all began…
In 2017, the federal government faced backlash for its slow and disorganised response to the aftermath of the storm, which caused widespread destruction, power outages and thousands of deaths.
During a benefit concert, Bad Bunny donned a T-shirt reading ‘¿Eres Twittero o Presidente?’ which translates to ‘Are You a Tweeter or President?’
Seven years later, he released the track ‘Una Velita’, which appeared to hit out at the Trump administration’s handling of the disaster.
The translated lyrics say: “They let 5,000 people die / And we will never forget that.”
During the run-up to the 2024 US election, Bad Bunny showed his support for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
The musician posted a clip of the vice president’s plans for Puerto Rico not long after comedian Tony Hinchcliffe referred to the territory as a ‘floating island of garbage’ at a Trump rally.
A Trump campaign spokesperson later said: “This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign.”
In the music video for ‘NUEVAYoL’, released on the Fourth of July last year, Bad Bunny appeared to take a not-so-subtle swipe at the US president.
Following a shot of a Puerto Rican flag draped on the Statue of Liberty, a voice that sounds suspiciously similar to Trump can be heard saying: “I made a mistake. I want to apologise to the immigrants in America. I mean the United States – I know America is the whole continent.
“I want to say that this country is nothing without the immigrants. This country is nothing without Mexicans, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Venezuelans, Cubans…”
Bad Bunny opted to leave mainland US out of his world tour due to concerns over ICE following immigration crackdowns amid Trump’s return to office.
“There were many reasons why I didn't show up in the US, and none of them were out of hate,” he told I-D magazine in September. “But there was the issue of – like, [expletive] ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it's something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”
Moments before the Super Bowl announcement, Bad Bunny tweeted in Spanish that after ‘thinking these last few days, I think I'll do one date in the United States’.
In a statement, he said his performance would be for ‘my people, my culture, and our history’.
Despite excitement from fans and the NFL calling the decision ‘carefully thought through’, the move sparked backlash from critics unhappy about a Spanish-speaking artist headlining the biggest American sporting event of the year.
Seemingly forgetting that Puerto Rico is in fact a US territory, one conservative commentator labelled Bad Bunny ‘anti-American’ while petitions to replace him were created, and Turning Point USA, the right-wing organisation founded by the late Charlie Kirk, even announced it would be hosting a rival halftime show.
Trump also weighed in on the global music icon performing at the Super Bowl, telling Newsmax's Greg Kelly: “I’ve never heard of him.
“I don’t know who he is… I don’t know why they’re doing it. It’s crazy. And then they blame it on some promoter they hired to pick up entertainment — I think it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
During his SNL opening monologue in October, Bad Bunny jokingly addressed conservative backlash over his upcoming halftime show.
“You might not know this, but I’m doing the Super Bowl halftime show and I’m very happy,” he said. “I think everyone is happy about it - even Fox News.”
After delivering a heartfelt message in Spanish, he switched back to English and told viewers ‘if you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn’.
In January, the POTUS confirmed that he would not be attending the Super Bowl while slamming the performers.
“I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible,” he told the New York Post of Bad Bunny and Green Day - another longtime critic of his.
However, Trump insisted this was not the reason for his absence, adding that ‘it’s just too far away’.
Bad Bunny made history at the 2026 Grammys by becoming the first artist to win Album of the Year for a Spanish-language release.
He also picked up two other awards and used his time on stage to share a message of hope amid nationwide protests against the actions of ICE.
“Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say ‘ICE OUT’. We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens, we’re Americans,” the rapper said, before adding: “The only thing that's more powerful than hate is love.”