The divisive and controversial 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show put on by radical rapper-activist Bad Bunny has been nominated for nine Emmys, the Television Academy announced Wednesday.
Despite prompting more than 2,000 FCC complaints, the politically-outspoken, far-left Puerto Rican singer’s halftime show – performed almost entirely in Spanish – has been widely celebrated by liberal, legacy media.
But, the Spanish-only performance has been criticized by English-speaking viewers for excluding them. Likewise, his repeated crotch-grabbing offended many of those watching the performance.
Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has become notorious for his LGBTQ advocacy, political activism, profanity and explicit sexual and drug-related content. He is known for wearing dresses and skirts for fashion magazine shoots and performances in order to flout social norms, for example. He is also an outspoken critic of capitalism and U.S. policies.
Nonetheless, Bad Bunny’s performance and halftime show were “critically acclaimed” and deemed worthy of multiple Emmy nominations by the entertainment industry as it becomes ever more overt about inserting radical propaganda inserted into its products.
The nine nominations Bad Bunny’s halftime show received include:
- Outstanding Variety Special (Live), lead performer.
- Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special.
- Outstanding Production Design for a Variety Special.
- Outstanding Choreography for Variety or Reality Programming.
- Outstanding Hairstyling for a Variety, Nonfiction or Reality Program.
- Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Special.
- Outstanding Technical Direction and Camerawork for a Special.
- Outstanding Music Direction.
- Outstanding Sound Mixing for a Variety Series or Special.
