A week after Texas native Kar Shell posted a Change.org petition<\/a> calling for Lone Star legend George Strait to replace Bad Bunny<\/a> as the halftime performer at February\u2019s Super Bowl LX at Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. the effort had more than 54,000 signatures at press time.<\/p>\n \u201cGeorge Strait, known as the \u2018King of Country,\u2019 embodies the heart and soul of American music,\u201d reads the petition, which notes that the Super Bowl halftime show is one of the most-watched music events on TV every year. \u201cThe 2026 Super Bowl offers a unique opportunity to pay tribute to American music\u2019s rich heritage by featuring George Strait in its halftime show. His performances are known for their authenticity and raw emotion, qualities that are crucial as we aim to unite fans from coast to coast,\u201d it continues.<\/p>\n More from Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n Of course, Strait, 73, is not booked to play the game, which is why the petitioner asked the NFL and the show\u2019s talent team \u2014\u00a0Jay-Z\u2019s Roc Nation \u2014\u00a0to honor \u201cAmerican music heritage\u201d by replacing the Puerto Rican native with Strait, who, it says, \u201cembodies unity, tradition, and the timeless American music that truly deserves the 2026 Super Bowl spotlight.\u201d<\/p>\n In a clarifying message from Shell, the petitioner says the effort is aimed at keeping the Super Bowl \u201cfamily-friendly,\u201d arguing that after recent performances it says \u201ccrossed the line\u201d with imagery or themes not appropriate for children, the show should return to being a \u201cunifying event centered on talent, energy and good music \u2014\u00a0not shock value or adult themes.\u201d<\/p>\n It also says it wants to \u201ckeep politics out of the halftime show,\u201d arguing that the game is meant to bring people \u201cacross all backgrounds and beliefs\u201d together while avoiding messages that alienates fans for their \u201cviews, culture or language.\u201d It cites Benito\u2019s joke during a recent Saturday Night Live hosting stint warning viewers to brush up on their Spanish<\/a> because his set will be entirely in his native Spanish, adding that 78% of Americans speak only English and that music should \u201cbridge differences \u2014\u00a0not highlight them.\u201d<\/p>\n The final clarification is an argument that country music has been underrepresented on the halftime stage, swiping aside claims that Strait is \u201ctoo old,\u201d \u201cboring\u201d or wouldn\u2019t want the gig while suggesting other potential replacements such as Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, Dierks Bentley, Kenny Chensey or Dolly Parton.<\/p>\n While 54,000 signatures is decent for a change petition, by comparison, a Sept. 24 bid to urge the UN to protect Indian Muslims has racked up more than 1.2 million signatures in less than a month, while a 2019 plea to renew the Netflix series Anne With an E for a fourth season has nearly 1.8 million.<\/p>\n Though the petition appears to be a plea to keep the halftime show about the music, and not politics, a number of MAGA universe players \u2014\u00a0including Donald Trump \u2014\u00a0have weighed in with highly partisan takes on Bad Bunny\u2019s booking. Earlier this month, one of Trump\u2019s Department of Homeland Security advisers, former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, said on a conservative podcast that ICE troops will be on the ground at the game in search of people to deport as part of the administration\u2019s widespread deportation efforts.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally,\u201d Lewandowski said. \u201cNot the Super Bowl and nowhere else. We will find you and apprehend you<\/a> and put you in a detention facility and deport you.\u201d Those comments came just three days after Benito was announced as this year\u2019s performer. The booking made even more news in light of the fact that the rapper previously stated that he did not perform in the U.S. on his more recent tour over fears of immigrations officers possibly targeting his fans.<\/p>\n While Lewandowski called the Benito pick \u201cshameful,\u201d claiming that the wildly popular performer from the island nation that is a U.S. territory \u201chates America\u201d and arguing that \u201cwe should be trying to be inclusive, not exclusive,\u201d President Trump claimed not to know the Latin icon \u2014 dismissively referring to him as \u201cBad Bunny Rabbit\u201d in an interview \u2014\u00a0and called the choice \u201cabsolutely ridiculous<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n In the midst of the nearly monthlong U.S. government shutdown, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson took time out earlier this month to say that tapping Bad Bunny was a \u201cterrible decision<\/a>,\u201d slamming the rapper as someone who doesn\u2019t appeal \u201cto a broader audience.\u201d For context, Benito holds records as the first Latin artist to have\u00a0100 career Billboard Hot 100 songs<\/a>, as well as earning the first all-Spanish album to reach No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart (2020\u2019s\u00a0El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo). He has also tied Taylor Swift for having the most No. 1s on the Billboard Global 200 of any solo artist.<\/p>\n In a testament to the right\u2019s anger about the halftime show, the Charlie Kirk-founded right-wing political action group Turning Point USA announced that it plans to hold an alternate concert<\/a> featuring \u201canything in English\u201d it has dubbed the All American Halftime Show celebrating \u201cfaith, family and freedom\u201d; at press time no performers had been announced.<\/p>\n While a number of other networks and organizations have tried to siphon off some of the Super Bowl\u2019s massive audience over the years with cheeky competing events such as the Puppy Bowl and Lingerie Bowl, a Super Smash Bros. tournament or WWE halftime wrestling matches, the Turning Point show, if it happens, would be one of the first attempts to directly counter-program the halftime show out of pique over the optics of its performer.<\/p>\n Though the right appears quite spun up about the choice, Bad Bunny, who has racked up nearly 80 million Spotify listeners over his carer and was ranked as the most streamed artist on the service three years running (2020-2022), has gotten plenty of love and support from a number of fellow artists. Among those voicing loud and proud support for the pic are Jennifer Lopez<\/a>, Carlos Santana<\/a> and country star Shaboozey<\/a>, who said he thinks it\u2019s \u201cawesome\u2026 he\u2019s a global superstar, global icon \u2014 and an American citizen. There\u2019s no better choice.\u201d<\/p>\n Super Bowl LX will air on Feb. 8 at 6:30 p.m. and be broadcast on NBC and Telemundo and stream on Peacock and NFL+.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Billboard VIP Pass<\/p>\n Best of Billboard<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Billboard’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A week after Texas native Kar Shell posted a Change.org petition calling for Lone Star legend George Strait to replace Bad Bunny as the halftime performer at February\u2019s Super Bowl LX at Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. the effort had more than 54,000 signatures at press time. \u201cGeorge Strait, known as the \u2018King of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2021507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[345724,30802,398645,385320,22846,22389,317642,306473,398646,346955],"class_list":["post-2106441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-american-music","tag-bad-bunny","tag-change-org-petition","tag-corey-lewandowski","tag-country-music","tag-donald-trump","tag-george-strait","tag-halftime-show","tag-puerto-rican-native","tag-super-bowl"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Charli-XCX-and-George-Daniel-marry-for-second-time-in.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2106441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2106442,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2106441\/revisions\/2106442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2021507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2106441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2106441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2106441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/div>\n