Jennifer Lopez is well aware of the heat Bad Bunny can bring and that’s why she’s so psyched that the Puerto Rican superstar has been tapped to headline the 2026 Super Bowl 60 halftime show. Chatting with the Today Show on Monday morning (Oct. 6) to promote her upcoming movie musical Kiss of the Spider Woman, Lopez was asked to share her reaction to the Puerto Rican superstar being tapped to headline next year’s Super Bowl halftime show.
Recalling that Benito was a special guest in 2020 when JLo and Shakira lit up Hard Rock Stadium in Miami during that year’s Super Bowl halftime celebration, Lopez recalled the “amazing time” the trio had creating what she called a “cultural moment.”
“I think he’s about to blow everybody’s minds,” Lopez said of Bad Bunny, who she predicted might be introducing himself to some in America who are not aware of his worldwide fame. Asked to respond to the controversy ginned up by some on the right who have complained about a Latin artist headlining the traditionally biggest TV moment of the year — with some in the Trump administration threatening to deploy ICE agents to Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium to search for undocumented attendees at what they called a “shameful” show — Lopez said she was unaware of any flap.
“I swear I don’t know,” she said about the push back from some quarters. “Why? Buy why? I don’t understand that. He’s one of the top artists in the world right now, probably the top.” And while it could have been any number of other acts, Lopez said she’s “super excited” to see Benito do his thing and for some non-fans to see what he’s capable of.
“I’m super excited for people to see him who think that because I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised because his music transcends language. It’s amazing what he’s done…” Lopez said of Bad Bunny. “I’m excited to see what he does. He puts on a great show. He’s a great entertainer.”
Though she did start he movie career with the 1997 musical biography Selena about Tejano music icon Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, Lopez told Today Show co-host Craig Melvin that the big screen remake of Kiss of the Spider Woman is her first proper movie musical in which she gets to show off her triple-threat singing, acting and dancing skills.
“This is like a dream come true. I get to sing, I get to dance, I get to play a Hollywood movie star,” said Lopez. “There was so much about it that were checks of the bucket list of when I was a little girl and was dreaming of doing this with my life.”
Melvin got a playful laugh out of Lopez when he deftly pivoted from talking about the touching love story at the heart of Kiss of the Spider Woman to noting that JLo filmed the movie in the midst of her divorce from Ben Affleck and that her ex is one of the movie’s executive producers. “If it wasn’t for Ben the movie would not have got made,” Lopez said generously of her former husband.
“Things happen… you have to keep going, but the movie is about escapism, about how movies and art save us in the hardest times of our lives,” she added. “Doing this project was such a dream come true for me and it really got me through, to survive a moment that was difficult in my personal life as well.”
Watch Lopez on the Today Show below.