Bad Bunny hit out at ICE raids days before Super Bowl halftime show announcement
Topics: Donald Trump, Immigration, Music, Super Bowl, US News, Bad Bunny
Ellie Kemp
Featured Image Credit: Paras Griffin/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Immigration, Music, Super Bowl, US News, Bad Bunny
Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny has admitted to being so 'concerned' about ICE raids that he won't include the US on his upcoming tour, but has now made one big exception.
The 31-year-old has been confirmed to headline next year's Super Bowl halftime show on February 8 2026 at the Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
Previous headliners have included Kendrick Lamar, Usher, Rihanna and The Weeknd. Now, Bad Bunny - real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio - is among those gracing one of the most-watched sporting events in the world.
Back in 2022, he became the first artist to have an all-Spanish album - Un Verano Sin Ti - hit number one on the US Billboard chart.
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He's also a three-time Grammy winner and ranked as the third most-streamed artist globally in 2024.
Music mogul Jay-Z, whose company Roc Nation produces the iconic half-time show, said what Bad Bunny has 'done and continues to do for Puerto Rico is truly inspiring,' adding: "We are honoured to have him on the world's biggest stage."
Despite his international success, Bad Bunny has skipped the US on his upcoming, 57-date Debí Tirar Más Fotos World Tour, which kicks off on November 21, 2025 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
He visits Latin America, then Asia and Oceania, before a final stint across Europe with the tour concluded in Brussels, Belgium at the King Baudouin Stadium on July 22, 2026.
But there are no US tour dates in his jam-packed schedule.
Bad Bunny previously told i-D magazine that he feared that ICE officers would raid the stadiums he was performing at.
"There were many reasons why I didn't show up in the US, and none of them were out of hate - I've performed there many times," he explained.
"People from the US could come here to see the show. Latinos and Puerto Ricans of the United States could also travel here, or to any part of the world.
"But there was the issue of - that, like, f**king ICE could be outside [my concert venue]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about."
And it wasn't the first time he spoke out about ICE operations, which have ramped up under president Donald Trump.
Back in June, the singer took to Instagram to criticize agents in Puerto Rico for not 'leaving these people working here alone'.
And on Tuesday (September 23), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that two million 'illegal aliens' have been 'removed or have self-deported' since Trump's inauguration on January 20.
Among them, more than 400,000 have been deported and 1.6 million have 'self-deported,' as per the DHS.
Almost 600,000 'illegal aliens' are set to have been deported by the end of Trump's first year back in office, which, if realized, would be the highest annual deportation total in recent US history.
ICE deported 271,484 people in the fiscal year ending September 30; nearly double the prior year.
It was the agency’s highest tally since 2014, when 315,943 people were removed.