Bad Bunny will perform ‘great’ half-time show, says NFL boss

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has said he expects “a great performance” from Bad Bunny during the half-time show at Super Bowl 60.

The Puerto Rican pop star is this year’s headliner for the set, with the championship game in Santa Clara, California, this weekend expected to be watched by more than 120 million in the US alone.

The 31-year-old will be the first solo male Latin artist to perform the half-time show and is expected to be the first artist to perform the set entirely in Spanish.

On Sunday he made history as he became the first Latin artist ever to win album of the year at the Grammy Awards, where he and dozens of stars railed against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

The decision to choose Bad Bunny for the NFL half-time show has divided opinion among the US public, partly because of Bad Bunny’s political comments.

Speaking at a news conference on Monday, NFL Commissioner Goodell said: “Bad Bunny is one of the greatest artists in the world and that’s one of the reasons we chose him, but the other reason is he understood the platform he was on.

“This platform is used to unite people and to be able to bring people together with their creativity, with their talent, and to be able to use this moment to do that. I think artists in the past have done that.

“I think Bad Bunny understands that and I think he’ll have a great performance.”

The singer, who was Spotify’s most streamed artist in four of the past six years, said he avoided the US on his current world tour because of concerns that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would conduct raids on fans at his concerts.

Speaking at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, he defended immigrants and said “ICE out”.

Asked if there would be any ICE enforcement operations around the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend, Goodell said: “Security’s obviously one of the things we focus on the most.

“It’s a tier-one level event. That involves unique assets at a federal level, state level and local level all working together.

“I see no change in that with the preparations for the Super Bowl. We’re working with all three of those levels and doing everything we can to ensure a safe environment.”