Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Duolingo saw a sharp rise in Spanish learners following Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Halftime Show, according to a post shared by the language-learning app on social media. "Duolingo saw a 35 percent increase in Spanish learners last night. Better late than never," the company wrote on Threads on February 9, under its official account, @duolingo. The post, which included a graph showing a clear spike in Spanish lessons, has been liked more than 7,500 times to date.

More

Comments

Admin's note: Participants in this discussion must follow the site's moderation policy. Profanity will be filtered. Abusive conduct is not allowed.

The surge followed Bad Bunny's historymaking performance at the Super Bowl Halftime Show, where he became the first artist to sing primarily in Spanish during the most-watched sporting event in the U.S. Duolingo's official Threads account shared the data shortly after the night ended, highlighting the immediate impact the performance appeared to have on language learning behavior.

#1 | Posted by censored at 2026-02-11 07:28 PM | Reply

Another view ...

Surge in Spanish-study seekers follows Bad Bunny Super Bowl performance
www.mercurynews.com

... Aspiring Spanish speakers are flocking to learn the language in the wake of Bad Bunny's Super Bowl LX halftime show.

A spike in Duolingo activity preceding the much-heralded all-Spanish set hadn't changed much by Tuesday, though the language-app company acknowledged it is too soon to know whether that will stick.

"Is this what a one-night stand feels like?" Duolingo quipped on X about whether the interest would translate to an actual relationship.

The initial stats were promising, as indicated by postgame Google search trends reported by the website Canada Sports Betting. Surveying several Google Trends search terms referencing Bad Bunny and "learn Spanish," oddsmakers detected "major spikes in Spanish-related curiosity," the site reported. This showed a 122% increase in searches for "learn Spanish" in the U.S. during the 24 hours following the Super Bowl, and a 96% increase in Canada.

New Hampshire led the U.S. in "curiosity score" for a search surge for "Bad Bunny lyrics" and "Bad Bunny translation," followed by Rhode Island, Maine, Pennsylvania, and a tie for Colorado and Kentucky for relevant variations on those terms. ...

As many as 60 million people in the U.S. already speak Spanish, including 42 million at home, according to data from the Instituto Cervantes. In fact, U.S. Spanish speakers outnumber those in Spain and is on track to be second only to Mexico by 2060. ...


#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-02-11 07:41 PM | Reply

www.bbc.com

... He did choose to say one line in English, "God bless America", before listing nations of Central, South and North America as dancers carried their flags.

Behind them, a billboard message read "The only thing more powerful than hate is love", and he held a football at the end of the segment bearing the slogan in English: "Together, We Are America." ...

Despite that, President Donald Trump, who did not attend this year's Super Bowl, called Bad Bunny's set "absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!" on his social media platform Truth Social.

He added that it was "an affront to the Greatness of America" and "nobody understands a word this guy is saying". ...


#3 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-02-11 07:43 PM | Reply

The following HTML tags are allowed in comments: a href, b, i, p, br, ul, ol, li and blockquote. Others will be stripped out. Participants in this discussion must follow the site's moderation policy. Profanity will be filtered. Abusive conduct is not allowed.

Anyone can join this site and make comments. To post this comment, you must sign it with your Drudge Retort username. If you can't remember your username or password, use the lost password form to request it.
Username:
Password:

Home | Breaking News | Comments | User Blogs | Stats | Back Page | RSS Feed | RSS Spec | DMCA Compliance | Privacy

Drudge Retort