Super Bowl 2026 halftime show live: What time Bad Bunny is on, how to watch and surprise guests

My colleagues will attest to this, we were taking bets on whether Puth would go “under or over” the usual two-minute mark for his national anthem performance. I said 1.56 and… I was bang on! Unbelievable. For the record, I’ve never actually bet money on this kind of thing because it feels weirdly unethical, I’m just psychic at this point.

The Puerto Rican singer will surprise audiences with a performance that will be a landmark moment for Latino culture

Sunday’s show is expected to be a “huge party” infused with Puerto Rican culture and full of dancing.

The singer recently told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden: “I just want people to have fun. It’s gonna be a huge party. I want to bring that to the stage, a lot of my culture.

“People only have to worry about dancing. I know I told people they had a month to learn Spanish, but they don’t even need to do that! It’s better that they learn to dance. There’s no better dance than the one that comes from the heart.”

It is also expected that he will make some form of political statement following his call for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers to leave cities alone and opt for love during his Grammy acceptance speech last week.

Ice officers have been sent to US cities as part of Mr Trump’s mass deportation initiative, and have come under strong criticism over their aggressive approach, most notably in Minnesota and Minneapolis, where about 2,000 federal agents have been deployed.

Most recently, Ice agents fatally shot two people on the streets of Minneapolis: Renee Good on January 7 and Alex Pretti on January 24.

This Seattle defense already looks formidable, with Mike Macdonald’s players producing a series of violent plays there. The Seahawks head coach has inspired high-end production from undrafted players such as Drake Thomas and Josh Jobe, and Drake Maye was bottled up there, too. The Patriots have a real problem already, merely extending drives and staggering the momentum that is currently spilling over for Seattle.

Here’s a report from my colleague Inga on Charlie Puth’s national anthem performance and how people are reacting:

Thanks to my colleague Jack Rathborn on the sports desk who explains:

Seattle with the ball first up, then, New England’s priority to remain in contention this half. To be more specific, stop the run, Ken Walker is expected to rush plenty. And while Jaxon Smith-Njigba is the man to stop in the passing game, what an amazing second option Cooper Kupp has been for Sam Darnold, with all his experience and blocking ability.

Seattle are rightfully 4.5-point favourites, an opening score could put New England behind the eight ball early. A young quarterback in Maye will not want the added stress of chasing and keeping up if they fall behind.

Apparently Kid Rock’s gig, organised by right-wing organisation Turning Point USA, has been hit by licensing restrictions on X so they’re now telling anyone who wants to watch him sing (anyone?) to tune in on YouTube. But people in the comments section are complaining that the YouTube app isn’t working on their phones. Carnage.