As expected, Bad Bunny delivered one of the best Super Bowl halftime performances in years. It was a beautifully choreographed, staged, and performed tribute to Latin America, with a host of killer guest stars, all centered around a message that you’d think even MAGA could get behind: “God bless America”.
But, for those not in the mood for that, Turning Point USA’s “All-American” Super Bowl halftime show was there to provide some suitably Trumpian counter-programming. And this came in the form of the 55-year-old Kid Rock bouncing around in jean shorts and a fedora. Worse, he didn’t even bother to actually sing the song!
I’m sorry this cannot be real pic.twitter.com/xiYYoUwH8T
— Tim Hogan (@timjhogan) February 9, 2026
I’m not going to get all snooty about Kid Rock’s music. Back in the late 90s, he was dumb fun party music and, smartly, this performance was centered on his genuinely fun song ‘Bawitdaba’. Hey, it’s not exactly deep, but if you want something to jump up and down to while drunk, you could do far worse.
But c’mon Kid Rock, you could at least turn the mic on and actually perform your own music! TPUSA is giving you a huge audience, why not at least try? Even more egregiously, it appears the whole thing was pre-recorded, meaning if he’d forgotten the words they could have just done another take!
Imagine that a solid one-third of the country vests all of their pride and hope and dreams in you to carry forth the torch of Real America and you show up and lip sync your one hit while wearing jean shorts.
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) February 9, 2026
Kid Rock hates his fans. No other conclusion. https://t.co/hOX1SMwMel
Kid Rock might have been the worst lip sync of all time. pic.twitter.com/gz8chlA0wC
— Clemsontyger (@Clemsontyger) February 9, 2026
Bad Bunny seamlessly choreographed an 11 minute history of an island and an immigrant family featuring hundreds of dancers, and actors and scenes. Kid Rock couldn't lip sync to his recorded music in a sound studio.
— Oscar Romero showed us the way. (@steve_sherwood) February 9, 2026
“What a complete and utter embarrassment”
UPDATE: Due to licensing restrictions, we are unable to stream The All-American Halftime Show on X.
— Turning Point USA (@TPUSA) February 8, 2026
Head on over to our YouTube channel tonight around 8PM ET to watch the full show
The TPUSA show also nearly descended into farce before it had even begun. Mere minutes before the stream was scheduled to begin on X, they released a statement explaining: “Due to licensing restrictions, we are unable to stream The All-American Halftime Show on X”, before asking viewers to switch over to YouTube.
To be fair, TPUSA’s show hit a high of 5 million viewers, which is nothing to sniff at. However, that’s dwarfed by the estimated 125 million viewers who enjoyed the actual halftime show and got to watch Bad Bunny firmly establish himself as one of the all-time great Super Bowl performers.
Oh well, I guess the sight of a middle-aged man posing while half-assedly pretending to sing is okay too. I can only imagine TPUSA is secretly a bit annoyed at Kid Rock. They threw him the easiest possible pitch, and he fumbled it.
