Celebrity appearances, controversial ads and other Super Bowl takeaways
Gabriela Pomeroy
Getty ImagesLatin megastar Bad Bunny performed a medley of his top hits at the Super Bowl on Sunday in a star-studded show that was criticised as “terrible” by the US president.
The Puerto Rican singer, also known as Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, was joined on stage by a host of fellow music stars including Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin and Cardi B.
Sitting in the stands, Kim Kardashian and Lewis Hamilton made their first major public appearance together, after weeks of speculation about their romance. The seven-time Formula 1 world champion and the reality TV star were spotted chatting and smiling together during the game, and were caught on video by NBC News.
Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin and Cardi B joined Bad Bunny on stage
Getty ImagesFellow musical superstars Lady Gaga, Cardi B and Jessica Alba joined the dancers on stage alongside Bad Bunny, who was the world’s most-played artist in 2025 on Spotify, according to the streaming service.
Chilean-American actor Pedro Pascal and Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin also joined the performance, which was populated by a largely pan-American crowd of celebrities.
Lady Gaga – whose real name is whose real name is Stefani Germanotta – sang a salsa version of her hit Die With A Smile, and later posted on Instagram that it was an “absolute honour” to be a part of the show. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Martin also thanked Bad Bunny on social media after the show, saying he needed several hours to “process and understand the tsunami of emotions I’m feeling. Thank you.”
Described by Variety Magazine as “joyous, elaborate, unapologetic,” the performance was big on symbols of Puerto Rico – the US island territory in the Caribbean – and sung mainly in Spanish.
The set featured a traditional casita structure, block party salsa dancing, Puerto Rican flags and a mock sugarcane field. At one point Bad Bunny crashed through the casita’s roof, and for a few moments the set transformed into an altar as a couple was officially married on stage.
The Grammy-‘winning’ child was an actor
ReutersDuring the performance, Bad Bunny presented a young boy on stage with a trophy from the Grammy’s, prompting widespread speculation on social media that the boy might be Liam Conejo Ramos, the Ecuadorean 5-year-old who was detained by ICE agents in Minnesota in January and has since been released.
But it wasn’t him. The boy was in fact a professional child actor called Lincoln Fox.
Bad Bunny did not mention the immigration enforcement agency in Sunday’s performance, but has hit out against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown previously.
Accepting his own – real – album of the year award at the Grammy’s earlier this month, he said, “ICE out… we’re not aliens, we are humans.”
Trump criticised the halftime show as anti-American
Getty ImagesUS President Donald Trump, who did not attend this year’s Super Bowl after appearing in the stands last year, called Bad Bunny’s set “absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!”
Writing on his social media platform Truth Social, he said it was “an affront to the Greatness of America” and “nobody understands a word this guy is saying”.
The “dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching,” he added.
But others praised the show. Governor of California Gavin Newsom wrote on X: “America, the beautiful. THANK YOU, BAD BUNNY.”
A conservative halftime alternative headlined by Kid Rock
Conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA put on an alternative Super Bowl halftime lineup, The All-American Halftime Show, streaming their own performance online while Bad Bunny performed at the stadium in San Francisco and on TV.
The organisation founded by the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk said their YouTube stream was a protest against the NFL’s choice of Bad Bunny to headline the official performance.
The show started with a performance of the US national anthem the Star Spangled Banner, and starred Kid Rock – a vocal supporter of President Trump – and the country singers Lee Brice, Brantley Gilbert and Gabby Barrett.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on X during the show that “the Hegseth family is watching” the Kid Rock performance.
“From the war department, we salute Turning Point USA and every American who still believes freedom is worth defending,” he said in a separate video introducing the Kid Rock concert, adding that the Pentagon was “proud” to support the alternative halftime show.
AI companies fight it out in Super Bowl ads and Serena Williams promotes weight loss jab
ReutersThe Super Bowl is among the most expensive and high-profile marketing opportunities of the year in the US.
During the event, tennis champion Serena Williams featured in an advert for telehealth company Ro’s weight loss jab, saying she was 34lbs down and “healthier” thanks to the product.
Some fans took to social media to express their disappointment.
“We’re cooked,” one social media user posted on X, “the greatest female tennis player of all time is on Ozempic”, referring to the brand name of a different GLP-1 drug.
Another pointed out that Williams could be “doing so much to champion women’s sports or the importance of body positivity but instead is pushing a weight loss drug in her retirement.”
Williams, who won 23 grand slam titles, has previously spoken about her use of weight loss jabs. Her husband, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanion, is an investor in the company she advertises.
Meanwhile, AI companies featured heavily among the adverts. The AI company Anthropic ran an advert for its AI assistant Claude, with the commercial lobbing what appears to be some implicit criticism at rival AI software ChatGPT.
The Anthropic Super Bowl ad features a man talking to a therapist about how to communicate better with his mum – the kind of query a user might put to ChatGPT.
The therapist initially responds with some common-sense suggestions for the user, before jarringly veering into what appears to be a dating service for older women.
It then ends with the slogan: “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.”
Among other ads for AI products was an Alexa commercial, with a storyline focused on a rogue AI assistant. Scenes include a man – played by Chris Hemsworth – in his house accusing the Amazon AI product Alexa+ of plotting against him, with Alexa+ closing a garage door on his head and shutting the pool cover while he swims.