Bad Bunny has earned his first Emmy nomination, with his historic Super Bowl LX Halftime Show scoring nine nods from the Television Academy—the most nominations ever for a Super Bowl halftime performance, according to reports .
The Puerto Rican superstar's February performance, which drew 128.2 million viewers and was delivered largely in Spanish, is nominated in the Outstanding Variety Special (Live) category . In a unique twist, Bad Bunny appears twice in that category: once as the featured performer and again under his birth name, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, for his role as supervising producer .
The show faces stiff competition in its top category, going up against the 83rd Annual Golden Globes, the 68th Annual Grammy Awards, the Oscars, and the 78th Annual Tony Awards .
The nominations come as something of a vindication for the artist. The halftime show drew sharp criticism at the time, most notably from President Donald Trump, who posted on social media: "Nobody understands a word this guy is saying" . The Television Academy, however, clearly saw the performance differently.
Beyond the marquee variety special nomination, the show picked up nods for Outstanding Choreography For Variety Or Reality Programming, Outstanding Directing For A Variety Special, Outstanding Hairstyling For A Variety, Nonfiction Or Reality Program, Outstanding Production Design For A Variety Special, Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction For A Special, Outstanding Music Direction, plus nominations for Technical Direction/Camerawork and Sound Mixing .
The nine nominations break the previous record of six held by Lady Gaga's Super Bowl LI Halftime Show in 2017 . The performance marks the seventh consecutive Super Bowl halftime show to receive an Emmy nomination in the variety special category, following shows headlined by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira (2020), The Weeknd (2021), the all-star hip-hop show that won in 2022, Rihanna (2023), Usher (2024), and Kendrick Lamar (2025) .
Bad Bunny is already enjoying a landmark year. Earlier this year, he won three Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year for Debí TiRAR MáS FOToS—making history as the first non-English-language album to take home that top prize .
Emmy voting closes on August 26, with the Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony set for September 14 in Los Angeles .
Why this matters
Only one Super Bowl halftime show has ever won the Outstanding Variety Special (Live) Emmy—the 2022 hip-hop showcase featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and others . A win for Bad Bunny would make him the first Latino artist to claim this Emmy and bring him one step closer to EGOT status (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) . The nominations also highlight growing recognition for Spanish-language performances in mainstream U.S. television awards.
