Sheen said the NFL needed to “figure out the halftime show” and deliver “something that the diehard fans really want, as far as musically” rather than having Bad Bunny on.
In an October 2025 episode of Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast, Charlie Sheen said the NFL needed to “figure out the halftime show” and deliver “something that the diehard fans really want, as far as musically" rather than having Bad Bunny on. When Maher asked whether that was a “backhanded slight to Bad Bunny,” Sheen replied, “Yeah,” adding that other acts were more “germane to the experience of the game.”
Maher agreed at the time, saying he was unfamiliar with Bad Bunny’s work and joking that he was hoping for Eddie Rabbitt, who died in 1998.
The clip circulated again on Super Bowl Sunday. In November, his album Debí Tirar Más Fotos won Album of the Year at the Latin Grammys. Spotify later named him the most-streamed artist globally for 2025, with 19.8 billion streams, marking the fourth time he has topped the platform’s annual rankings.
On February 1, Bad Bunny became the first artist in Grammy history to win Album of the Year for a Spanish-language record. Accepting the award, he dedicated it to people who left their homelands to pursue opportunities. Earlier that night, while accepting Best Música Urbana Album, he said, “ICE out. We’re not savage. We’re not animals. We’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.”
Later today, Bad Bunny is scheduled to headline the Super Bowl LX halftime show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, making him the first solo Latino artist and first Spanish-language performer to do so.
The NFL has repeatedly defended the pick. Commissioner Roger Goodell called Bad Bunny “one of the greatest artists in the world,” while Jay-Z dismissed opposition to the choice as astroturfed. In 2024, NFL executive Marissa Solis said the league has more than 39 million Latino fans in the US, adding that future growth is “mathematically impossible without Latinos.”
Bad Bunny’s tours have sold over 2.4 million tickets and grossed $435 million, and he has debuted four Spanish-language albums at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Libby’s Desk
Commentary and must-reads from Libby’s desk, straight to your inbox.
TPM Newsletter
The Post Millennial’s top stories, delivered to your inbox.
