It wasn’t just Bad Bunny who made history at the Super Bowl halftime show. Another Puerto Rican singer might have done so, too.
Ricky Martin, who joined the fellow Puerto Rican star onstage during the halftime show performance, likely became the first openly gay man to perform on the stage.
Performing alongside monobloc chairs like the one featured on “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” album cover, Martin sang a verse from “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii,” a song that compares Hawaii’s colonization and statehood to the United States and Puerto Rico’s colonization as a U.S. territory. It also touches on themes of gentrification happening in both places.
Puerto Rican singer Ricky Martin performs during Super Bowl LX Patriots vs Seahawks Apple Music Halftime Show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, on Feb. 8, 2026.
Bad Bunny and the “Livin’ La Vida Loca” artist first collaborated back in 2018 on the 31-year-old’s “Caro” off his debut studio album, “X 100pre.”
Martin came out as gay in 2010 after years of facing questions over his sexuality.
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Martin, one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all time, recently praised Bad Bunny in an open letter published in Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día for headlining “stages around the world carrying his language, his accent, and his story.”
“I know what it means to succeed without letting go of where you come from,” Martin added. “I know how heavy it is, what it costs, and what is sacrificed when you decide not to change because others ask you to. That’s why what you have achieved is not just a historic musical accomplishment, it’s a cultural and human victory.”
“You won without changing the color of your voice,” Martin continued. “You won without erasing your roots. You won by staying true to Puerto Rico.”
New Kids on the Block’s Jonathan Knight has also performed at the Super Bowl
Jonathan Knight, a member of boyband New Kids on the Block, performed at Super Bowl 25 in 1991 before he came out publicly as gay.
Knight was outed in 2009.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ricky Martin joins Bad Bunny onstage at Super Bowl 60
