Green Day will open the Super Bowl 2026

[jakdokinori]

25 minutes ago, jengd said:

I also something about the Rebel Loon sticker on his guitar showing support for Minnesota.

I think that was at the Pier 29 show unless I'm mistaken, not the Super Bowl opening show.

[CocaColaX]

Being from Scotland & not the USA, don’t really know much if anything about the Super Bowl/NFL, but I really enjoyed the “mega mix”.  Why is no-one here talking about how great Billies voice sounded ?  🗽(I’ve also never heard of Bad Bunny either)

[jengd]

9 hours ago, jakdokinori said:

I think that was at the Pier 29 show unless I'm mistaken, not the Super Bowl opening show.

You are right, my bad. 😞 

7 hours ago, CocaColaX said:

Being from Scotland & not the USA, don’t really know much if anything about the Super Bowl/NFL, but I really enjoyed the “mega mix”.  Why is no-one here talking about how great Billies voice sounded ?  🗽(I’ve also never heard of Bad Bunny either)

same, same and same.  I thought it they sounded and looked great.

[Cris.]

On 2/10/2026 at 6:50 AM, Hermione said:

You don't get fined by the FCC for saying the words Trump or ICE. That's for breaking rules on profanity and nudity etc. It's not about owing it's about putting your money where your mouth is if you claim to be punk

Yes but the difference is he actually did it and didn't do a heavily censored version of it. Saying "God bless America" and then naming the Latin American countries is a significant statement. I am glad they played those songs but I feel them being censored the way they were removed their impact

But you could also claim Bad Bunny was a watered down version of himself. He has spoken out explicitly about ICE as recently as his Grammy acceptance speech the week before. He also dressed in drag in one of his music videos (Yo Perreo Sola, which is one of the songs he included in his Super Bowl performance), and if I'm not mistaken he's also worn dresses to some red carpet events or magazine shoots. I know there were rumors about him also wearing something like that for the Super Bowl. But he didn't. He could have also easily done a 15 minute medley with only songs that more political or more of a celebration of Puerto Rican culture, and skip all the dancing and sex songs and "I have a girlfriend in every country" songs.  He also didn't call out ICE even though he has done it before.

And I think it's okay that he didn't. He wanted to send out a message of unity and celebration of a culture, and directly calling out ICE would have been more divisive and would have been all people talked about afterwards. I think he presented the version of himself that he felt would be most palatable to most people without giving up his core essence (he couldn't give that up anyways, unless he had only sung covers with back up of All-American all white artists and dancers). 

My point is, I don't think Bad Bunny was particularly bold in anything he did. His act was still super powerful, without a doubt, especially because we're in a climate where looking like him, sounding like him, speaking his language, has almost become a crime in the US. But I think some people perceive it as exceptionally bold due to a lack of familiarity with his music and performances. Meanwhile there might be some people in his fan base, or queer folk, who are disappointed that he didn't use this platform to be the most bold he can be. 

Undoubtedly Bad Bunny's performance was more impactful and powerful, but he had more time, more budget, and just looking the way he does, and singing in Spanish, was going to be a statement, no matter which songs he chose or how the act had been choreographed. So as you say, not matter what, Bad Bunny's performance was always going to be more impactful.

 

On 2/10/2026 at 10:01 AM, Mollyluna said:

But maybe it was meant to be that way and GD respected that?

 

13 hours ago, Yosuke Hanamura said:

I don't wanna hear anybody else saying "Green Day played it safe"

 

On the other hand I also feel we are grasping at straws here.  He could have worn a t-shirt with a huge Virgen de Guadalupe on it if he really wanted to make a statement, not a tiny medallion that needs to be pointed out for people to notice it. I also doubt  that they are so deluded as to think that them singing "I'm not a part of the MAGA agenda" would have upstaged Bad Bunny (or at least I hope they are not that deluded 😅). Short of Billie dropping his pants and taking a a literal shit on a bucket of ice, I don't think there's anything Green Day could have done to upstage Bad Bunny. They just didn't have the time or space to do that. 

I think they chose to include two of their most political songs, and leave it at that, and just put their focus on putting the best show they could in just 5 minutes. We all know how much Billie struggled to put together a 30 minute set for iHeartRadio some years ago, imagine they pain they must have gone through trying to figure out how to make the most powerful 5 minute performance they could do.

We just have to accept they were not as bold or as political as we had expected them to be (I also think for non-American folks who are not familiar with the Super Bowl at all, such as myself, the expectation of how much stage time they'd get was way off. I certainly expected them to have a least 20 minutes  not realizing that not even the half time was that long. So my expectations of what they could do were also hyperinflated just because of how much more time I thought they had.)  

But their act was still political, and could have been even more watered down if they really hadn't wanted to make a statement at all (they could have just done a Time of Your Life, Basket Case, BOBD, WMUWSE, WICA medley, people would have still recognized the songs, and be done with that). 

[Flashback]

On 2/9/2026 at 6:04 PM, GDFan2019 said:

New single coming soon?

Don't get your expectations too high. My Chemical Romance had probably 10 different logos in the last years and they didn't release a new album 😅

[The Grohl]

3 hours ago, Cris. said:

But you could also claim Bad Bunny was a watered down version of himself. He has spoken out explicitly about ICE as recently as his Grammy acceptance speech the week before. He also dressed in drag in one of his music videos (Yo Perreo Sola, which is one of the songs he included in his Super Bowl performance), and if I'm not mistaken he's also worn dresses to some red carpet events or magazine shoots. I know there were rumors about him also wearing something like that for the Super Bowl. But he didn't. He could have also easily done a 15 minute medley with only songs that more political or more of a celebration of Puerto Rican culture, and skip all the dancing and sex songs and "I have a girlfriend in every country" songs.  He also didn't call out ICE even though he has done it before.

And I think it's okay that he didn't. He wanted to send out a message of unity and celebration of a culture, and directly calling out ICE would have been more divisive and would have been all people talked about afterwards. I think he presented the version of himself that he felt would be most palatable to most people without giving up his core essence (he couldn't give that up anyways, unless he had only sung covers with back up of All-American all white artists and dancers). 

My point is, I don't think Bad Bunny was particularly bold in anything he did. His act was still super powerful, without a doubt, especially because we're in a climate where looking like him, sounding like him, speaking his language, has almost become a crime in the US. But I think some people perceive it as exceptionally bold due to a lack of familiarity with his music and performances. Meanwhile there might be some people in his fan base, or queer folk, who are disappointed that he didn't use this platform to be the most bold he can be. 

Undoubtedly Bad Bunny's performance was more impactful and powerful, but he had more time, more budget, and just looking the way he does, and singing in Spanish, was going to be a statement, no matter which songs he chose or how the act had been choreographed. So as you say, not matter what, Bad Bunny's performance was always going to be more impactful.

 

 

 

On the other hand I also feel we are grasping at straws here.  He could have worn a t-shirt with a huge Virgen de Guadalupe on it if he really wanted to make a statement, not a tiny medallion that needs to be pointed out for people to notice it. I also doubt  that they are so deluded as to think that them singing "I'm not a part of the MAGA agenda" would have upstaged Bad Bunny (or at least I hope they are not that deluded 😅). Short of Billie dropping his pants and taking a a literal shit on a bucket of ice, I don't think there's anything Green Day could have done to upstage Bad Bunny. They just didn't have the time or space to do that. 

I think they chose to include two of their most political songs, and leave it at that, and just put their focus on putting the best show they could in just 5 minutes. We all know how much Billie struggled to put together a 30 minute set for iHeartRadio some years ago, imagine they pain they must have gone through trying to figure out how to make the most powerful 5 minute performance they could do.

We just have to accept they were not as bold or as political as we had expected them to be (I also think for non-American folks who are not familiar with the Super Bowl at all, such as myself, the expectation of how much stage time they'd get was way off. I certainly expected them to have a least 20 minutes  not realizing that not even the half time was that long. So my expectations of what they could do were also hyperinflated just because of how much more time I thought they had.)  

But their act was still political, and could have been even more watered down if they really hadn't wanted to make a statement at all (they could have just done a Time of Your Life, Basket Case, BOBD, WMUWSE, WICA medley, people would have still recognized the songs, and be done with that). 

Well said. I do think one small moment from Bad Bunny's performance I don't see talked about is the quick shot of two men grinding on each other. That also sends a message even if it was brief. 

[Hermione]

3 hours ago, The Grohl said:

Well said. I do think one small moment from Bad Bunny's performance I don't see talked about is the quick shot of two men grinding on each other. That also sends a message even if it was brief. 

There's a female couple in the ballroom dancing part too. There's lots of cool things I'm hearing about in the performance, for example the old lady who serves him a drink is the founder of a club in New York that was a sanctuary to Puerto Rican immigrants back in the day. There's a Puerto Rican independence flag. And the whole thing just proudly celebrating the culture and contributions it makes, and naming all the countries as American. Not a big fan of his music but it's a masterpiece of a performance I think, I can't stop watching it 

Like I do think it's cool that GD picked American Idiot and Holiday to play obviously. But not being able to even play them in full just made it fall flat as a protest imo. It's a shame they couldn't think of something else to add to make more of a statement without going against their contract if they didn't want to just go all out and break it. I'll stop complaining how though because I'm glad it made me watch the Bad Bunny performance lol

[The Grohl]

1 hour ago, Hermione said:

There's a female couple in the ballroom dancing part too. There's lots of cool things I'm hearing about in the performance, for example the old lady who serves him a drink is the founder of a club in New York that was a sanctuary to Puerto Rican immigrants back in the day. There's a Puerto Rican independence flag. And the whole thing just proudly celebrating the culture and contributions it makes, and naming all the countries as American. Not a big fan of his music but it's a masterpiece of a performance I think, I can't stop watching it 

Like I do think it's cool that GD picked American Idiot and Holiday to play obviously. But not being able to even play them in full just made it fall flat as a protest imo. It's a shame they couldn't think of something else to add to make more of a statement without going against their contract if they didn't want to just go all out and break it. I'll stop complaining how though because I'm glad it made me watch the Bad Bunny performance lol

You're so right! I've really been enjoying unpacking all the cultural references in Bad Bunny's performance, like the reference to Puerto Rico's multiple, extended power outages and as you mentioned the flag, which I wasn't aware of! It reminds me of unpacking Kendrick Lamr's performance last year, which was also fantastic.

[AlissaGoesRAWR]

The more I think about it, I think Green Day's approach really played into the halftime messaging — "the only thing more powerful than hate is love." I really think going on a pissed-off tirade would have just played into what the right wants and taken away from Bad Bunny.

It's sort of like a "don't stoop to their level" thing and the performances spoke for themselves.

[arcadiagay]

Another Super Bowl Instagram post!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DUoU4JED-CK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[Cris.]

2 hours ago, Hermione said:

There's a female couple in the ballroom dancing part too. There's lots of cool things I'm hearing about in the performance, for example the old lady who serves him a drink is the founder of a club in New York that was a sanctuary to Puerto Rican immigrants back in the day. There's a Puerto Rican independence flag. And the whole thing just proudly celebrating the culture and contributions it makes, and naming all the countries as American. Not a big fan of his music but it's a masterpiece of a performance I think, I can't stop watching it 

Like I do think it's cool that GD picked American Idiot and Holiday to play obviously. But not being able to even play them in full just made it fall flat as a protest imo. It's a shame they couldn't think of something else to add to make more of a statement without going against their contract if they didn't want to just go all out and break it. I'll stop complaining how though because I'm glad it made me watch the Bad Bunny performance lol

I noticed the two guys dancing like on the 4th watch or so, but I still haven't spotted the female couple! I'll keep an eye out for them next time I watch it. 

As for unpacking all the cultural references, I can help with the ones I've spotted  (more through a Venezuelan lens, than a Puerto Rican one as I've never been to the island, but it's obvious now there is a lot in common)

1. The sugar cane plantations and the people working them (will be relevant again later), this is a very common crop throughout the Caribbean and a very important one during colonial times.

2. The fresh coconut cart -- a staple in Caribbean countries (in every city I'd say, but more prevalent the closer you are to the sea). 

3. The guys playing domino, again a staple. 

4. The shaved ice cart (apparently called piraguas in Puerto Rican slang, in Venezuela we call them raspaditos) 

5. Tacos, obviously (apparently a real tacos stand, from what I've read). 

6. The boxers, one of the sports where Caribbean countries shine. 

7. The house, is a typical style of house in these countries. 

8. The people in the porch of the house, I didn't recognize most but there's a mix celebrities and athletes with different Latin American heritage, including one Venezuelan baseball player for the mayor leagues.  

9. The decorations inside the house when he falls in. I'm 95% sure the figurines of the virgin Mary are of La Milagrosa, which is one of the most popular representations of the Virgin Mary in the region. 

10. The song playing when he comes out of the house is Daddy Yankee's Gasolina, which is the first song that popularized reggeaton throughout the entire region (Daddy Yankee is also Puerto Rican), and I think the choreography with the guys pushing the car wheels might be a reference for the video of that song (I remember there were cars in the video -- I remember there being a lot of cars in that video). 

11. I think using his full name, Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, is also a deliberate choice. In Latin America we all have these 2 names, 2 last names, that the rest of the world often doesn't know what to make of them  

12. The full salsa band playing at the wedding and everyone dancing. This is what every wedding looks like, with everyone dancing and salsa being one of the main types of music we dance to during wedding parties. 

13. THE KID SLEEPING ON THE CHAIRS. This broke South American internet  we all felt our childhood experiences seen and validated. Wedding parties can go on until 6AM the next day easily, with the adults drinking and dancing and the kids lining up chairs to lay down and sleep. 

14. NuevaYol... the name of the song is spelled like that to reflect the Puerto Rican accent (Rs become Ls, and those hard sounds at the end of the word, like Ks, are dropped -- also common in Cuba and other parts of the Caribbean). Then the song itself samples from a salsa song from the 70s or 80s by El Gran Combo, a Puerto Rican salsa band. 

15. The Ricky Martin bit. So Ricky Martin is another Puerto Rican legend. The setting, with the plastic chairs (ubiquitous to any garden or porch along South America, or at least the Caribbean), the banana or plantain trees on the background (another staple), is a copy of Bad Bunny's latest album, from which the song Ricky Martin sings is taken: "They want to take away from the river, and also the beach, they want my neughbourood, and that grandma leaves. No, don't give up the flag, and don't forget the lelolai, that I don't want them to do to you what happened to Hawaii". That whole song is very political. 

16. Back to Bad Bunny, El Apagon, this is a song with some political themes to it as well, El Apagon means the The Blackout, and it's touches upon the frequent power blackouts in Puerto Rico, that's why it star with the power lines exploding. 

17. The flag he's holding with the lighter blue color is not the official PR flag (which has the same blue tone as the US flag instead) and it's considered more of a resistance flag. 

18. Por la manana cafe por la tarde ron, ya estamos en la calle sal de tu balcon. So remember all those sugar canes? They are used, among another things, to produce rhum, the staple liquor of the Caribbean. These are flavours of home, coffee in the morning, rhum in the afternoon/evening. And people sitting out in the porch by the side of the road either to drink to coffee in the morning or the rhum in the evening and speaking to the neighbors as they walk by. 

I'm sure there are many things that I missed, especially those that might be more specific to Puerto Rico and not just to the whole Caribbean. 

I did not catch all of this the first time I watched it. By the end of it all I knew was that I had this very strong sense of nostalgia that I couldn't quite explain, like seeing old pictures or videos from Venezuela, and I was tearing up (or as my people would say, se me aguo el guarapo) which became full blown tears when Debi Tirar Mas Fotos started playing. 

I've re-watched it many times since to understand what the fuck happened, because crying to a Bad Bunny performance was not in my bingo card for 2026  And I've picked up on more details each time... other things I didn't notice until pointed out on the internet. 

[Mollyluna]

26 minutes ago, arcadiagay said:

Another Super Bowl Instagram post!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DUoU4JED-CK/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Yes, Ryan Baxley posted these pics on his IG too.
 

I especially like this one:

 

I‘m aware that the speculations about the Guadeloupe pendant might be bit over the top. But nevertheless it’s interesting that in the photos of the rehearsals Billie isn’t wearing it yet. 

[arcadiagay]

1 hour ago, Mollyluna said:

Yes, Ryan Baxley posted these pics on his IG too.
 

I especially like this one:

 

I‘m aware that the speculations about the Guadeloupe pendant might be bit over the top. But nevertheless it’s interesting that in the photos of the rehearsals Billie isn’t wearing it yet. 

I must've missed his post. 😅

I think it's just hidden under his shirt. It looks like he is wearing it in these photos of him arriving.

On 2/8/2026 at 10:40 PM, desertrose said:

The World Famous KROQ 

 

Billie Joe Armstrong arrives at Levi's Stadium ahead of Green Day's pre-game performance.

( Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

 

 

[pacejunkie punk]

More photos. Note slides 5 and 12 the band members got Green Day custom Superbowl rings:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DUoRHnAEpYD/?igsh=MThvZ2U5MXFwaGczNQ==

[arcadiagay]

5 minutes ago, pacejunkie punk said:

More photos. Note slides 5 and 12 the band members got Green Day custom Superbowl rings:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DUoRHnAEpYD/?igsh=MThvZ2U5MXFwaGczNQ==

I really like the detail with their logo "inside" the ring.

[With a Peculiar Name]

On 2/9/2026 at 3:07 PM, Rumpelstiltskin2000 said:

I have to confess I've not kept up with the thread but I just wanted to say how excited I was to hear Billie scream "Welcome to the Bay! NFL 60!" I'm not from there but how cool is that for him and the guys coming from playing shitty venues feeling like there was possibly no hope to opening the Super Bowl on home soil. Absolutely amazing. I was so proud that was my band (figuratively of course )

Yes! I loved that moment too! Although I had been hoping they might make a statement even though I knew it was unrealistic, after actually seeing the whole thing and the photos that have been on Instagram, I really can understand why they didn’t. I think that being part of that event was a big deal for them. It’s a big cultural event in the US. And for it to be the 60th, and in the Bay Area makes it even better.

And then to be surrounded by the MVPs, which included some Bay Area legends, probably made it even more meaningful for them. There’s no way you were a kid in Northern California when they were and aren’t at least a little bit impressed by Joe Montana and Steve Young (although being fellow Bay Area celebrities, they’ve probably met before). And I think that since the performance was during the ceremony where those MVPs were being honored, it would have taken away from that honor if there had been a big political statement then.

The black and white Instagram photo of all of them showed that they had so much family there, which in my mind shows that it was a big deal for them. So all that being said, I’m happy for them. I think it was pretty cool they were part of that.

And I know it’s already been said, but I do think the songs themselves were still a political message for the average viewer, even if they were shortened into a medley. 
 

[Mollyluna]

Another IG post about the rings: