Super Bowl 2026: Cultural Takeaways

America’s most-watched television event is not just about sports, it captures the zeitgeist of the nation every year. Here are the top picks of the 2026 Super Bowl entertainment acts and ads, reflecting some of the hopes and anxieties of the times.

Super Bowl, the USA’s biggest annual sporting event, kicked off to a boring start, with NFL fans moaning about a defensive struggle between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, which saw not a single touchdown in the first half of the game.

But if there was little excitement in the game, there were plenty outside the playing field. America’s most-watched television event is not just about sports, it’s about culture, and the 2026 Super Bowl once again captured the country’s zeitgeist.

Here are some of the non-sporting highlights of the world superpower’s one-night ode to competition, capitalism and entertainment.

Bad Bunny proves not so bad

The top Super Bowl cultural moment is never a rabbit-out-of-a-hat act, and this year, it was a pre-announced big bunny.

Puerto Rican superstar Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, aka “Bad Bunny”, took the stage at the Levi’s Stadium on Sunday exactly a week after he delivered his searing Grammy-winning speech blasting ICE and the Trump administration’s immigration policies.

But at the Super Bowl, the 31-year-old superstar opted for far more subtle messaging. Instead of calling out the Republican president’s xenophobia, Bad Bunny delivered a triumphant celebration of diversity, love and above all, a tribute to his self-governed Caribbean home that is part of US “commonwealth” territory.

Politics of subtility was on full display as Bad Bunny belted out "El Apagon" (Blackout), a song that underscored the hypocrisy of the term “commonwealth” since Puerto Ricans still face Third World problems of an unreliable energy grid – which powers their displacement to the mainland.

On Sunday, Bad Bunny’s surprise star guests included Lady Gaga, whose Latin-inflected version of her hit "Die with a Smile" featured the only English lyrics in the show.

The historic all-Spanish act earned President Donald Trump’s ire. "Nobody understands a word this guy is saying," said Trump on his Truth Social account, putting himself at odds with more than 41 million Americans who speak Spanish. The show, he noted, was “an affront to the Greatness of America".

Green Day has had its day politically

California punk-pop vets Green Day took the pre-game stage this year to render a tribute to the Super Bowl's 60th edition.

Green Day lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong has been around since the 1980s and is not one to mince his political words. The expectations were high, particularly since Armstrong, at a San Francisco event just days before the Super Bowl, called on ICE agents to “quit their shitty jobs”.

But on Sunday, Green Day opted to omit their political hard-hitters – much to the delight of Fox News. “Trump critics take issue with Green Day's Super Bowl LX performance,” read a Fox headline above an explanatory, “Trump critics wanted Green Day to criticize the president on the Super Bowl stage".

- FRANCE 24

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