Bad Bunny’s record-breaking week: spreading love from the Grammys to the Super Bowl

The last eight days have been particularly eventful for Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny (USA), who spent last Sunday adding three more Grammys to his collection and yesterday headlining at the halftime show for Super Bowl LX. 

Thanks to the success of his most recent studio album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS (“I Should Have Taken More Photos”, 2025) the “King of Latin Trap” became the new Guinness World Records title holder for the first Spanish-language album to win a Grammy award for Album of the Year at last week’s Grammys, in an emotional and powerful moment that quickly went viral online. 

He followed up the success with an electric performance yesterday at the Super Bowl, where he brought out Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin in an epic celebration of Puerto Rican culture and pan-American pride. Within 24 hours of the performance, Apple Music announced that his show became the most watched in Super Bowl history, with millions of views across an array of related content including the live stream and social media footage.

With these two appearances, Bad Bunny (whose real name is Benito Martínez Ocasio) has expanded his list of world records to 12, two of which come after the worldwide success of DtMF. 

In addition to his record for his Grammys AOTY win, he was also the most streamed act on Spotify in 2025, which contributed to the crowd’s enthusiasm at this year’s Super Bowl. 

The popularity of his recent music is in part due to Bad Bunny’s secure reputation as a reggaeton hitmaker, who has created and produced a wide range of chart-topping songs for years. His recent album serves as a love letter to Puerto Rico and the people, culture, and sounds that have defined his generation – with popular tracks like “BAILE INoLVIDABLE”, “DTMF”, and “NUEVAYoL” featuring these evolving rhythms. 

At this year’s Grammys, he won three of his six nominations for the body of work, including Album of the Year, Best Música Urbana Album, and Best Global Music Performance for his song “EoO”. 

Read more stories about record-breaking musicians in our dedicated Arts and Entertainment section!

However, Bad Bunny has been churning out hits for years now –  he also has awards for the most streamed album on Spotify of all time for his fourth album Un Verano Sin Ti (“A Summer Without You”, 2022), and he released the first all Spanish-language album to top the Billboard 200 in 2020 with his third album El Último Tour del Mundo (“The Last World Tour”, 2020).

He also made headlines last year after announcing a historic 31-show residency in Puerto Rico, which drew over half a million attendees and brought a major boost to the island’s economy.

And this was actually the second Super Bowl appearance for the star, who showed up as a guest performer during J. Lo and Shakira’s headline performance in 2020. Nevertheless, this year was the first halftime show done largely in Spanish – and despite the change in language, it was clear that the focus was to highlight pan-American unity. 

Performers waved flags from dozens of American countries, Bad Bunny deliberately listed each nation in the hemisphere, and he held a football that said “Together, we are America” and danced under a jumbotron that read “The only thing more powerful than hate is love”.

In addition to his music, Bad Bunny brought out some big names for the show: Lady Gaga to sing a Latin version of her chart-topping hit “Die with a Smile”, and legendary Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin to perform a stirring rendition of “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii” (“What Happened to Hawaii”).

The performance also featured a real-life wedding between two passionate Bad Bunny fans, a bunch of celebrity dancers like Cardi B, Pedro Pascal, and Karol G, and a number of nods to Puerto Rican culture. A crowd surrounded the stage dressed as sugar cane and traditional agricultural workers, exploding power lines referenced the country’s frequent infrastructure black-outs, and Bad Bunny even invited real businesses like Villa’s Tacos and NYC Caribbean social club owner Toñita Cay to take part.

A touching moment also took place when Bad Bunny handed off his Grammy to a young boy dressed as a childhood version of himself, cementing the performance’s message of love, representation, and shared joy.

“My name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, and if I'm here today at Super Bowl 60, it's because I never, ever stopped believing in myself,” he said directly to the camera in the middle of the show. 

“You should also believe in yourself. You're worth more than you think. Trust me.”

After the show, the musicians flowed out of the stadium and into the streets of Santa Clara, California, bringing the party to the passionate crowd gathered outside of the game. For the rest of the night, the city was filled with the sounds of Bad Bunny and other influential Latin artists, as a celebration of the indomitable power of music and love over all. 

And in the future, we can’t wait to see what other incredible moments come from this record-breaking musician. 

Congratulations, Bad Bunny – you are Officially Amazing!

Header image: John Salangsang / Shutterstock