3 Ways Bad Bunny’s 2026 Super Bowl Performance Reflected International Law (in 1 minute)
By Yusra Suedi (PhD, Assistant Professor of International Law at University of Manchester)
With over 135 million viewers, Bad Bunny’s 2026 Super Bowl halftime show became the most-watched halftime performance of all time!
Here are 3 ways it reflected international law:
Puerto Rico has the right to self-determination
At its core, the performance was about Puerto Rico’s right to decide its own future.
Self-determination is one of the most important rights in international law. It means a people can choose their political status and control their own destiny.
Puerto Rico’s history makes this complicated: It was a Spanish colony for over 400 years.
In 1898, the U.S. took control after the Spanish–American War, and Puerto Rico has remained a U.S. territory ever since.
Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens… but they can’t vote for the U.S. president. They have their own government… but the U.S. Congress has the final say.
Basically, they’re free… but not fully free.
Puerto Rico has had independence movements against Spain and then the U.S. for over 150 years!
Self-determination protects their right to choose what they want for themselves.
Bad Bunny put that reality on the world’s biggest stage.
Cultural expression is a human right
Bad Bunny performed (almost) entirely in Spanish.
He didn’t switch to English to be understood. The world adapted to him.
International human rights law protects cultural expression.
It even recognizes language as a core part of cultural diversity.
Bad Bunny asserted those rights.
Migrants have rights and dignity under international law
At the end of the performance, he said “God Bless America” and named countries across North, Central, and South America while dancers carried their flags.
It was a reminder that “America” is bigger than one country: it’s a region, a people, a shared history.
This was a (subtle?) nod to migration — one of the most politically charged issues in the U.S. right now (!).
International law is clear: every person is born free and equal in dignity and rights.
No one can be discriminated against based on national origin.
Migrant workers have rights. Their dignity doesn’t depend on citizenship status.
Bad Bunny’s message: borders don’t define human worth.
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In one of my classes, I was recently teaching this with regard to decolonisation and wars of national liberation. They have not yet lost its relevance even though majority of territorial community has attained independence. Puerto Rico is a glaring example of a colony in contemporary times.