Bad Bunny, the Son of a Teacher and a Truck Driver, to Headline the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show — His Life in 30+ Pics

A bunny costume, a church choir, grocery bags, lawsuits, Grammys, and a Super Bowl-sized controversy. Scroll through 30+ moments that quietly built Bad Bunny into the most talked-about halftime headliner of 2026.

One childhood photo changed everything, and not in the way anyone expected.

Scroll slowly: every image below adds another layer to how a quiet kid from Vega Baja, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, popularly known as Bad Bunny, became one of the most debated, celebrated, and unavoidable stars on the planet.

The Photo Everyone Still Talks About

Long before stadiums, Grammys, or Super Bowl rumors, there was one awkward moment frozen in time. During an appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon," Jimmy asked, "Did I hear this right that you got your name because – here's a photo of you as a child. You were dressed as a bunny."

Bad Bunny didn't deny it. "It's a bad bunny. It's a -- it's not the best bunny. It's a cute bunny." Pressed for details, he explained, "That was Easter day. I was at school. And, you know, I was using that stupid costume. I was so mad [...] I don't look mad, but I know -- I remember that I was mad. I was mad. You know, I was trying to smile like this with the basket full of eggs."

What started as a joke inside a classroom would later become a global name, proof that nothing about his rise followed a script.

Before the Name, There Was a Place

That bunny photo didn't come from fame; it came from Vega Baja, a town close enough to San Juan to feel its pull but far enough to live outside its orbit.

He grew up in a lower-middle-class, observant Catholic household. His father drove trucks. His mother taught English. Life revolved around bills, neighbors, illness, and routine, not ambition or celebrity.

Even small outings felt big. Trips to San Juan were rare, almost ceremonial. At most, they happened four or five times a year, usually to Plaza las Américas, the sprawling mall with a five-level parking garage that felt overwhelming to a kid from Vega Baja.

"You have to understand that I was just a country boy," he said. "I didn't even know where I was. I was standing there trying to ask someone, 'Where's Walmart? Where's GameStop?' Whenever I went to Plaza, I went to those little kiosks that had all kinds of candies, with the little bags, and you'd fill them up and weigh them."

That sense of being on the outside looking in would quietly shape everything that came next.

Where the Voice Took Shape

Before trap beats, controversy, or fashion headlines, there was a church—and a choir. As a kid, Bad Bunny sang in the Catholic church where his mother, Lysaurie Ocasio, worshiped. "I learned that I was the best in the choir and I worked the hardest," he said, laughing, though not really joking.

The church was hot. The services were long. But the music stayed with him. That discipline, that instinct to perform, never left, even when the setting changed completely.

The Long Way to Being Heard

Years later, that same voice was still searching for an audience.

By his teens, he was writing music. By his early 20s, he was bagging groceries at Econo while studying communications at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.

Fame wasn't knocking yet, so he knocked first. In 2016, he began uploading songs to SoundCloud. One track, "Diles," stood out. Then it spread. A producer noticed. Momentum followed. Almost overnight, the kid from Vega Baja wasn't invisible anymore.

Saying the Quiet Parts Out Loud

As his audience grew, so did his willingness to challenge expectations, especially around masculinity. In an interview with Rolling Stone, he said, "I have always felt like there [was] a part of me that is very feminine. But I never felt as masculine as I did the day I dressed up like a drag queen."

He added, "I may not be gay, but I'm a human who cares." The message resonated with many. It angered others. Either way, it made one thing clear: he wasn't interested in being safe.

Style, Statements, and Stepping Into the Ring

That defiance showed up everywhere, from how he dressed to how he lived. Painting his nails wasn't a stunt. It was self-expression. "I have always had my own style," he told Refinery29. "It's an art for me, just as music is."

When a nail salon in Spain refused to serve him because he was a man, he publicly called them out, then deleted his Twitter account altogether. Visibility, he learned, came with a price.

And somehow, that same instinct led him somewhere even more unexpected: the wrestling ring. A lifelong WWE fan, Bad Bunny performed "Booker T" at the 2021 "Royal Rumble," leaped from the top rope, and won the 24/7 Championship.

In 2023, the artist later wrestled in a San Juan Street Fight at "WWE: Backlash." Pop star, activist, wrestler, labels never quite stuck.

When Success Gets Complicated

With global fame came global scrutiny and legal trouble. His ex-girlfriend Carliz De La Cruz Hernández filed a lawsuit seeking at least $40 million, alleging that her voice, "Bad Bunny, baby," was used without permission in multiple songs.

Another lawsuit followed, this time for $16 million, tied to different recordings, according to Entertainment Weekly. At this level, even personal history becomes public record.

Fashion, Then History

By 2024, Bad Bunny wasn't just attending the Met Gala; he was co-chairing it. Wearing custom Maison Margiela Artisanal by John Galliano at the event, he once again rejected predictability. At this point, risk had become his signature.

In 2025, the "Me porto bonito" singer made history when the NFL announced him as the artist to headline the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show. When the news broke, the response was instant and not universally positive.

However, this decision by the NFL was quite controversial. On "Greg Kelly Reports," during a phone conversation that ranged from urban crime to government spending with President Donald Trump, host Greg Kelly steered the discussion toward the NFL's selection of Bad Bunny.

"The NFL just chose the bad bunny rabbit or whatever his name [is], this guy who hates ICE," Kelly said. "He doesn't like you. He accuses everything he doesn't like of racism." He added that Bad Bunny "does not seem like a unifying entertainer, and a lot of folks don't even know who he is."

When asked to weigh in, President Trump appeared bewildered. "I never heard of him. I don't know who he is. I don't know why they're doing it. It's like [sic] crazy," he said. "I think it's absolutely ridiculous."

His history-making streak continued. At the just-concluded 2026 Grammy Awards, Bad Bunny won three Grammys, adding to a career already stacked with records, tours, and cultural milestones. The industry, at least, had made up its mind.

From a frustrated kid in a bunny suit to one of the most polarizing halftime headliners in years, every photo tells a piece of the same story: none of this was accidental. And the biggest stage of all is still waiting.