The 2026 Super Bowl was always going to be a powder keg. But nobody—not the NFL, not the millions of viewers, and certainly not Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio—could have predicted that the night would end with a private jet idling on a tarmac and a cryptic, heartbreaking message left in the wake of a shattered history.
Less than four hours after the final whistle blew on Super Bowl LX, and just moments after he wiped his entire Instagram account clean, Bad Bunny was spotted at a private terminal near San Jose. Sources close to the artist confirm he boarded a flight destined for outside the continental United States, reportedly telling his core team, “Let me find peace somewhere else. I cannot be a hero in a place that wants to be a cage.”
The departure wasn’t just a travel itinerary; it was an escape. For an artist who has spent the last year refusing to tour the U.S. out of fear for his fans’ safety, the Super Bowl was supposed to be the one exception—the “huge party” that would bridge the gap. Instead, it became the catalyst for a total withdrawal.
The performance itself was a 13-minute masterpiece of Boricua joy. From the real-time wedding on the field to the surprise appearance by Lady Gaga, Benito turned Levi’s Stadium into a vibrant San Juan street festival. But while half the world danced, the other half sharpened their knives.
The backlash was instantaneous and vitriolic. Within minutes of the show’s conclusion:
The Truth Social Blast: President Trump labeled the performance “disgusting” and “terrible,” claiming “nobody understands a word this guy is saying.”
The TPUSA Factor: Turning Point USA’s alternative halftime show, headlined by Kid Rock, claimed a moral victory, with influencers calling Benito’s set “anti-American” for its use of foreign flags and Spanish lyrics.
The Wellness Check: Even a harmless praise post from Sesame Street’s Elmo became a battleground, with critics demanding “wellness checks” on the puppet for supporting a “hedonistic” artist.
For Benito, the noise wasn’t just “internet hate.” It was a confirmation of his deepest fears. Having spent the lead-up to the game being told by the DHS that ICE would be “all over” the stadium, the post-show atmosphere felt less like a celebration and more like a hunt.
The most chilling part of the night wasn’t the criticism, but the silence that followed. Bad Bunny’s decision to delete his Instagram—a platform where he has communicated directly with 46 million followers for years—marks the end of an era.
“He didn’t leave because he was tired,” whispered a source from his production camp. “He left because he realized that no matter how much beauty he brought to that stage, a large part of the country was only looking for a reason to deport the culture he represents.”
We often ask our superstars to be more than entertainers. We ask them to be diplomats, activists, and symbols of progress. Tonight, we saw the cost of that demand. Bad Bunny gave the United States a historic, record-breaking performance, and in return, he was met with a level of scrutiny that transcended music and entered the realm of the personal and the political.
His “peace somewhere else” is a haunting indictment of the current cultural climate. If the most-streamed artist on the planet doesn’t feel safe or welcome on its biggest stage, what does that say for the millions of people who look like him and speak like him but don’t have a private jet to escape on?
The “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” tour is scheduled to continue in Brazil and Australia later this month. For now, the United States remains a blank space on his map—a place where the music stopped, the lights went out, and the “Good Bunny” finally decided he had seen enough.