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One of the most memorable and impactful moments from the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show on Sunday (Feb. 8) was toward the end when Bad Bunny took a moment to shout out every country from the Americas, one by one, as the countries’ respective flags dashed through the field.
Immediately after, he held up a football emblazoned with the words “Together We Are America,” reinforcing his message of unity and empowerment, before closing his 13-minute performance with an acoustic version of “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” powered by Los Pleneros de la Cresta.
During the grand finale, Bad Bunny was surrounded by an ecstatic group of people that included his loved ones, but also all the dancers, musicians and extras that formed part of the halftime show—among them, William Rene Surian Ortiz, 27, who passionately waved the Nicaraguan flag next to the Puerto Rican headliner.
“I know my people had to be somewhere in that crowd,” he tells Billboard. “Our directions were to stay in a line, and I was like, ‘I want to go to the front’ y me fui! (and I fled!). I was at the very end, there were literally two flags behind me. At a global level, it’s always every other country being talked about but ours [Nicaragua]. That’s when I thought, this was my time. When I carried that flag, I felt my country, all the people I’ve lost.”
Surian, who’s half Guatemalan and half Nicaraguan, had two roles during the historic halftime show: mingling in the coconut stands during “Tití Me Preguntó” and waving a flag at the end.
“I saw him raise his hand from afar and immediately rushed to the front,” he recalls. “At the end, Bad Bunny turned around and told everyone to follow him inside. When we went through the tunnel, I gave him a handshake and told him ‘thank you for having us on TV.’”
Born and raised in South Central Los Angeles, Surian, who works four jobs as a billboard installer, retail store stocker, a model and a stylist, got this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity thanks to talent agencies Kids of Immigrants and Esprit Casting, who reached out to him on social media.
He says the process was top secret and it took two months from the casting to signing a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) to the beginning of rehearsals in January. He did not know what he was forming part of until one week before the three-weeks-long rehearsals kicked off.
“What I learned from him is that he tells his story with subliminal messages,” Surian says of the “Baile Inolvidable” singer, adding that the artist was present at every rehearsal. “I listen to Bad Bunny, but I don’t listen to him enough, and being face to face with him, he doesn’t say much but you learn from every move he makes. They had us in mics for three weeks straight, and you hear one voice, and it’ll switch to his voice: it felt like we were all one. We didn’t speak to him, but he spoke to us in the in-ear monitors.”
Before Feb. 8, Surian had 1,500 followers on social media, but after loudly and proudly waving the Nicaraguan flag and rushing front-and-center for those 15 seconds of fame, he became a viral sensation overnight, currently boasting more than 50K followers. He’s also the talk of the town in the Central American country with local news outlets and even Miss Universe 2023, Sheynnis Palacios, celebrating the heartwarming moment.
“It was not a show, it was a protest,” he admits. “You can take away my family members, but you can’t take away that hope, that fire. I’m representing everyone—not just Nicaraguans—that feel that they are not heard. This is for all the kids with dreams. It was for everyone around the world to realize that it’s about the human race uniting. It’s about peace.”
