On The Dueling 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Shows

Reviews


In 2026, America got twice as much music during the Super Bowl halftime as they have in previous years, thanks to conservative political organization TPUSA running alternative programming headlined by Kid Rock in protest of the NFL booking Bad Bunny for the official halftime presentation. But just like so much of the packaging and portioning in the American diet, you got twice as much as you needed, but only half of the amount of the recommended daily nutrients.

Both presentations could have been way worse, and weren’t as bad as the greatest cynics had predicted they would be. Neither came across as especially creative, groundbreaking, or memorable. There was a lot of noise, a lot of light and movement to grab the attention of the attention economy. But ultimately, it all passed like flatulence in a stiff wind, and the low scoring defensive battle that turned into a blowout on the field was much more compelling.

On NBC and as part of the official Super Bowl presentation, Bad Bunny came out and quickly launched into what is best characterized as a choreographed dance routine set to a backing track, including clearly lip syncing through certain portions of the presentation. But this is basically the par for the course for any Super Bowl halftime show at this point, so it’s less of an indictment of Bad Bunny’s artistry and more a resignation to the reality of things.

But what Bad Bunny was able to do compared to previous Super Bowl Halftime appearances is to make the performance feel intimate as opposed to grandiose. As opposed to a larger-than-life stage setup with pyrotechnics and other such visual stimulus, the performance space was set up like a small agrarian Puerto Rican town, complete with a mercantile and barber shop, including people getting their hair cut during the performance.

One of the biggest social contagions surrounding Bad Bunny’s appearance was how his supposed gender bending would be on parade for puritanical America to have to digest, complete with Bad Bunny potentially dawning a dress on stage. None of this transpired whatsoever. Instead, one of the subplots of the performance was a proposal and a wedding, not to mention the constant shots of booty women twerking for the camera.

Forget the promotion of queer ideology. Bad Bunny’s presentation was conventional, in some respects traditional, and distinctly heterosexual, including the objectification of the dancers. It was also pretty forgettable. It was a confectionery of visual and audio stimulus to fill 13 minutes.

And though there was certainly some social commentary in the approach of the performance, it ultimately didn’t say much, except at the end when Bad Bunny said “God bless America,” along with naming off many of the South American and Caribbean countries that his music appeals to, along with the flags of these countries being presented, conveniently pandering to these media markets, which is the entire reason the NFL hired Bad Bunny in the first place.

And with all the talk of how the whole presentation would be in Spanish, Lady Gaga made and appearance, and lo and behold, sang in English. Fellow Puerto Rican Ricky Martin also made an appearance. None of the greatest fears of Bad Bunny’s appearance were realized, though none of the big promises of a major, world-changing event were either.

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Meanwhile over on TPUSA’s YouTube channel, social media properties, and on the channels of other select media partners, the Kid Rock-led “All-American Halftime Show” was going down. They were actually able to get a head start on the official Super Bowl Halftime since they didn’t have to wait for the field to be cleared, and started soon after the last play of the first half of the game.

Though the alternative halftime has been characterized as “country” due to the inclusion of mainstream Nashville stars and the misnomer that Kid Rock is a country star himself, there really wasn’t anything country about it at all … until the very end.

After a rock guitar instrumental of the “Star Spangled Banner,” the performances started off with Brantley Gilbert’s decidedly rock band playing a decidedly rock song. This led into a rendition of “Dirt Road Anthem”—a rap track that Gilbert co-wrote with Colt Ford, and Jason Aldean made into a mega country radio hit in 2011, setting the table for the rise of the Bro-Country era.

Both Brantley Gilbert’s participation, and his song selection underscored just how culturally irrelevant this whole thing was. Gabby Barrett then came out and sang a couple of songs, but was also performing to snap tracks/drum loops. The vocals were certainly live, but they were also pretty washed out. And the event was clearly pre-recorded in a sound stage as opposed to presented live. There was a limited audience in attendance, but you just didn’t get the live energy you got from the official Halftime performance.

Lee Brice came out and sang a couple of his older hits in “Drinking Class” and “Hard To Love.” Similarly to Gabby Barrett, nothing was especially bad, but nothing was really exceptional either. The reason you watch a Super Bowl Halftime is to see something remarkable—once in a lifetime presentations or collaborations. The All-American Halftime Show just felt like a COVID-era YouTube telethon.

Kid Rock came out to the godawful “Bawitdaba,” bringing incredible energy, but not really anything unique. Folks can go watch him perform the song at Woodstock ’99 and be much more stimulated than seeing it taped inside a warehouse seven hours previous.

But perhaps the best moment of both Halftime presentations came at the end of the TPUSA show. After all the hullabaloo of “Bawitdaba,” the presentation cut to a string section and the mood completely shifted. Then Kid Rock came out presented under his real name Robert Ritchie with an acoustic guitar, and backed by pedal steel, sang the song “Til You Can’t,” popularized by Cody Johnson, and written by Ben Stennis and Matt Rogers.

The song was a #1 in 2022. It won the CMA’s Single of the Year and Video of the Year in 2022, and the Grammy for Best Country Song in 2023. It’s a five-time Platinum song, and arguably resulted in the best performance of the entire Super Bowl season, and maybe it’s only memorable moment. By peeling back all the production, Kid Rock revealed what so many of these big production halftime shows are often missing: actual “moments.”

The criticism for failing to deliver genuine “moments” also goes for the pre Super Bowl performances. Coco Jones lip syncing to an over-produced “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was decidedly unremarkable. Brandi Carlile was tapped to sing “America The Beautiful,” and did a fine job. But the somewhat syncopated, off-tempo timing of her delivery made for an unconventional performance that was hard to get lost in. She was accompanied by the string duo SistaStrings, who deserved to be shouted out and weren’t, and were cut away from when they took lead in a stanza.

Charlie Puth’s National Anthem might go down as one of the worst in Super Bowl history. Clearly lip synced and poorly produced, it just felt weak and uninspired all the way around. Who though that was a good idea? It was worse than even Brantley Gilbert.

A lot of folks predicted the alternative Super Bowl presentation would be a bust. It might take some time to get the full numbers in. But just on YouTube, at it’s peak, over 5 million people were watching in real time. At the end of Sunday, 18.4 million had viewed it. The cope that nobody would pay attention to The All-American Halftime Show was always unfounded. Of course it will get significantly less numbers than Bad Bunny, but the TPUSA show already got more people to tune in than the Grammy Awards.

Ultimately though, it feels like America was failed all around by the entire process. The Super Bowl Halftime became unnecessarily politicized by both sides, and once again the American consumer is served an inferior product. America is divided down the middle due to politics, and then fractured into 1,000 pieces by the balkanization of culture due to social media siloing. It’s going to take an incredible artist, an incredible leader, or an incredible moment to put humpty dumpty back together again.

Bad Bunny tried. And with his final performance, Kid Rock did too. But the well was already poisoned. We’re living in two different worlds, rooting for two different teams, trying to find some commonality that too many just don’t want to attain. Maybe at some point music can build that bridge. But 2026 and the Super Bowl Halftime show was the year that bridge was burned. Hopefully it’s not for good.

Hopefully in the future, one artist, and one moment can bring us all back together. That artist is out there. But the NFL has to book them, and take the awesome responsibility they’ve been granted as a preeminent American cultural institution with the ability to bring people together seriously.

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