QuickTake:

Less than a month after his return concert performance in Eugene, Giancarlo Guerrero conducted string musicians during Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show.

Around 4½ minutes into Bad Bunny’s halftime performance at Super Bowl LX, Eugene music lovers may have jumped out of their seats after spotting a familiar face.

Giancarlo Guerrero, music director of the Eugene Symphony from 2002 to 2009, conducted a group of young string musicians and appeared on camera during the broadcast while Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known as Bad Bunny, introduced himself to the audience. 

“Bad Bunny is a multi-talented artist who plays so many kinds of Hispanic music,” Guerrero said in a press release. “It doesn’t just feel familiar; the music feels like home. It was quite an amazing experience to be a part of.” 

Giancarlo Guerrero before the halftime performance, wearing the bedazzled Flor de Maga.
Guerrero poses for a photo with his wife, Shirley Borloz, and Bad Bunny.

Guerrero, a six-time Grammy winner with a globe-spanning career, did not grow up with classical music; his parents instead listened to mariachi and Julio Iglesias at home. He was born in Nicaragua and immigrated to Costa Rica as a child, joining the local youth symphony and eventually moving to the United States to continue studying music. 

The halftime show was a love letter to Latin American culture and music filled with Easter eggs, including during Guerrero’s on-camera appearance. 

He wore a bedazzled Flor de Maga, the national flower of Puerto Rico and a cousin to the hibiscus, on his lapel as he conducted the musicians’ performance of Charles Aznavour’s “Hier Encore,” a song sampled on Bad Bunny’s “MONACO.” 

Bad Bunny performs during halftime of the Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026, in Santa Clara, Calif. Among various cameos in the show, was a former Eugene Symphony music director. Credit: Julio Cortez / The Associated Press

Guerrero’s appearance at the halftime show came less than a month after he conducted a concert in Eugene, as part of the symphony’s 60th anniversary celebration season. He told Lookout that Eugene has a special place in his heart: the Eugene Symphony was the first symphony in the United States to appoint him as music director, then a 32-year-old promising young conductor. 

While auditioning for the Eugene job back in the 2000s, traveling with his wife and daughter to try out for the gig, the Guerreros learned they were expecting another child. 

In the statement shared after the Super Bowl, Guerrero pointed to that family unit as the reason he said yes to performing with Bad Bunny.

“Both my daughters and wife are huge fans of Bad Bunny,” Guerrero added in the press release.  “If I wouldn’t have jumped at this opportunity, they would never have forgiven me!”