<\/p>\n
Just twice: That\u2019s how many times Super Bowl halftime performers have sent a song to No.\u00a01 the week after their televised extravaganza. Last February, Kendrick Lamar sent \u201cNot Like Us<\/a>,\u201d his incendiary Drake diss record, back to the top spot<\/a> after his playful, strutting halftime show<\/a>. And this year, Benito Antonio Mart\u00ednez Ocasio\u2014the 31-year-old known the world over as Bad Bunny\u2014leaps to the top of the Hot\u00a0100<\/a> with \u201cDTMF,\u201d the de facto title track to his Grammy-winning 2025 album Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos<\/em><\/a> and the final song he performed in his halftime show.<\/p>\n As a hit song, \u201cDTMF\u201d is historic for a number of reasons. It\u2019s Bad Bunny\u2019s first No.\u00a01 on the all-genre Hot\u00a0100 as a lead artist. Prior to this, he\u2019d topped Billboard\u2019s Hot Latin Songs<\/a> chart numerous<\/a> times<\/a> but only ever topped the Hot\u00a0100 once as a supporting artist, way back in 2018, on Cardi B\u2019s \u201cI\u00a0Like It<\/a>,\u201d which featured Bunny as well as J Balvin. While Benito\u2019s \u201cI Like It\u201d vocals were all in Spanish, Cardi\u2019s single was primarily in English. \u201cDTMF\u201d ups the ante: It\u2019s entirely in Spanish. The last time a mostly<\/em> Spanish-language song was on top of the Hot\u00a0100 was 2017, when \u201cDespacito<\/a>\u201d\u2014the Luis Fonsi\u2013Daddy Yankee jam that was remixed with a new vocal from English speaker Justin Bieber\u2014was No. 1 for a then-record<\/a> 16 weeks. The last time an all<\/em>-Spanish song was No.\u00a01 was three decades before that, in 1987, when Los Lobos\u2019 remake of the Ritchie Valens \u201950s classic \u201cLa Bamba<\/a>\u201d was on top for three weeks. In between \u201cLa Bamba\u201d and \u201cDespacito,\u201d Los Del Rio\u2019s \u201cMacarena<\/a>\u201d was No.\u00a01 in 1996 for 14 weeks, but like \u201cDespacito,\u201d it reached the top thanks to a remix, by the Bayside Boys, that added some hokey English to the front of the record. Bottom line, in the history of the Hot\u00a0100 and Latin-pop crossover, Bad Bunny\u2019s \u201cDTMF\u201d is only the fourth Spanish-speaking No.\u00a01 and only the second all-Spanish No.\u00a01\u2014and it didn\u2019t need a Hollywood movie, a dance craze, or Justin Bieber to get there.<\/p>\n OK, it did need the Grammys and the big game\u2014although \u201cDTMF\u201d was already a humongous hit even before Benito won all those statuettes or got the NFL\u2019s invitation (more on that in a moment). The answer to why is this song No.\u00a01<\/a> is not complicated\u2014it\u2019s the Super Bowl. The week after the Grammys and the day after the game, \u201cDTMF\u201d re-debuted on the Hot\u00a0100 at No.\u00a010<\/a>. It then shot to No.\u00a01 a week later, after Americans had had time to digest the halftime show and pile onto streaming services to sample Bad Bunny\u2019s wares.<\/p>\n But why this song specifically? Benito performed nearly a dozen songs<\/a> in his halftime showcase, not counting quick samples of reggaet\u00f3n classics like Daddy Yankee\u2019s \u201cGasolina<\/a>,\u201d and including Lady Gaga\u2019s salsa remix of her anglophone smash \u201cDie With a Smile<\/a>\u201d and Latin-pop legend Ricky Martin\u2019s cover of Bunny\u2019s own anti-colonialist anthem \u201cLo Que Le Pas\u00f3 a Hawaii<\/a>.\u201d The weirdest part: \u201cDTMF\u201d was the last song Benito performed, and he all but threw it away, singing it as he was leaving the field and yanking the audio monitors from his ears in triumph. Fans of the song\u2014and I am one\u2014got a distracted, somewhat unsatisfying version of \u201cDTMF\u201d in what was otherwise a very satisfying, moving, joyous halftime show<\/a>.<\/p>\n