Puerto Rico’s Bad Bunny’s halftime show during Super Bowl LX, to be played this Sunday, is expected to unseat Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s performance at Super Bowl LIV as the most-watched Latino show in U.S. television history, according to experts.
The performance of the Colombian artist and the American with Puerto Rican roots was watched by 103 million viewers in 2020, according to Nielsen ratings.
However, it is expected to be surpassed this year by Bad Bunny’s ‘show’, who was the most played artist on the Spotify platform in 2025.
“Bad Bunny doesn’t just appeal to Latinos, Spotify named him the number one artist of the year. We didn’t do all that; it was the whole world that did,” Stacie de Armas, senior vice president of Insights and Inclusive Initiatives at Nielsen, told EFE.
Despite the criticism the artist and the NFL have faced over the choice of Bad Bunny, including some coming from U.S. President Donald Trump, the expert suggested that the Puerto Rican, “has long been acclaimed and adored by the entire United States.”
Last year, the Super Bowl registered an audience of 127.7 million viewers, which would be enough to surpass the Shakira and Jennifer Lopez show, as well as other outstanding Latin performances.
Will Bad Bunny achieve the long-awaited feat?
La Loba and JLo were the stars of the halftime show of the 2020 Super Bowl, which took place at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, and became one of the most memorable performances in recent years by bringing two Latin stars together on stage.
According to Nielsen figures, as many as 103 million viewers witnessed the choreographies of both, a record number to date for a performance by a Latin artist in the United States.
Tracks such as Shakira’s ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ or ‘Waka Waka’ and Jennifer Lopez’s ‘On the Floor’ offered the world “a powerful message of female empowerment,” according to the ratings agency.
On that occasion, other Latin artists such as Bad Bunny, J Balvin and Emme Muñiz also participated as guest artists.
Cuban-American Gloria Estefan’s halftime performance at Super Bowl XXXIII in 1999 registered 83.7 million viewers, making it the second most-watched show by a Latino star on national television.
The show was inspired by Estefan’s hometown of Miami, under the theme ‘A Celebration of Soul, Salsa and Swing’, and featured support from Stevie Wonder and the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy band.
This was the second time that Estefan participated in a halftime show of the most watched annual event in the United States, following her performance in 1992.
The Cuban-American artist also holds the third most broadcast Latin show, when she closed the ‘Winter Magic’ show at Super Bowl XXVI in 1992, which was watched by 79.6 million viewers.
The show celebrated the winter season and the Winter Olympic Games that would take place that year in the French city of Albertville and Estefan made her appearance a few minutes before the end on a stage where she performed songs like ‘Get on your feet’ or ‘Live for Loving You’.
The airing of the ‘Lucy Is Enceinte’ episode of the ‘I Love Lucy’ series attracted approximately 45 million viewers, representing nearly three-quarters of U.S. television households.
In this series, Cuban-American musician Desi Arnaz played Ricky Ricardo and appeared alongside his real-life wife Lucille Ball.
The historic episode starred Arnaz, who performed several songs that led to the revelation of Lucy’s pregnancy on live television, a milestone for television at the time.
Spanish singer Antonio Banderas and Mexican guitarist Carlos Santana gave an emotional performance of the song ‘Across the River’ from the movie ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ during the 2005 Oscar gala, which was watched by 42 million viewers.
Moments after his performance, Uruguayan Jorge Drexler, the song’s original author, went up to receive his award in the ‘Best Original Song’ category and, as he was unable to sing beforehand, he used his speech time to sing the winning song a cappella, reported Agencia EFE.
Find out more at ‘QueOnnda.com’.