Kid Rock Falls Flat in Painfully Long, Decisive Super Bowl Halftime Show
Turning Point USA’s “All-American Halftime Show” failed in its attempt to eclipse Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show, lasting more than 10 minutes longer than the Puerto Rican superstar’s dynamic performance on Sunday.
The show faced problems before it even began, and Turning Point announced that it would not air video on X due to licensing issues.
The “All-American Halftime Show,” which lasted half an hour and was apparently filmed indoors in front of a crowd of dozens of people, began before Bad Bunny sang a single line, and continued even when the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots returned to the field for the third quarter.
Country music stars Brantley Gilbert and Lee Brice, along with former “American Idol” star Gabby Barrett, opened the show. After Brice’s performance of his song “Drinking Class,” he declared that Charlie Kirk, the slain conservative podcaster who co-founded Turning Point USA, “gave people microphones so they could say what they thought.” Brice then sang a song in which he seemingly disparaged trans children and emphasized that “it’s not easy being a country in this country today.”
Kid Rock, a friend of President Donald Trump, took the stage and sang his song “Bawitdaba” as pyrotechnics lit up the stage as an American flag unfurled behind him.
“My name is Boy!” he shouted, moments before beginning to jump on stage with a couple of jerks.
After a classical music interlude in a strange location, Kid Rock returned wearing a new outfit and carrying an acoustic guitar to perform a cover of Cody Johnson’s “‘Til You Can’t” in a tribute to Kirk.
As the song faded, photographs of Kirk and his family adorned screens around the stage and clips of the late right-wing activist played.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
Kirk’s organizing machine announced plans for his patriotic counterprogramming last October amid conservative outrage over Bad Bunny’s choice to headline the Super Bowl.
At the time, House Speaker Mike Johnson called the Spanish-speaking singer “a terrible decision,” while an outraged Trump called the league’s choice “absolutely ridiculous” in an interview with Newsmax.
“I don’t know who it is. I don’t know why they’re doing it; it’s like crazy,” Trump said of the hitmaker, who has been the most streamed artist in the world for the past four years in a row.
While touring his Grammy-winning album “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” Bad Bunny decided not to play concerts in the continental United States for fear that immigration enforcement would use the shows to attack his fans.
“It’s something we were talking about and were very concerned about,” the singer said in a fall 2025 interview with iD magazine.
Kevin Mazur via Getty Images
In a statement made after Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance was announced last September, Trump administration officials promised that Immigration and Customs Enforcement would be present at the football game in Santa Clara, California.
“There is no place you can provide safe haven for people who are in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl, not anywhere else,” said Corey Lewandowski, senior adviser to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. “We will find you. We will arrest you. We will put you in a detention center and we will deport you.”
However, DHS dropped the threat before the big game, according to a memo from the Super Bowl host committee that was detailed by The Washington Post on Tuesday.