Was Bad Bunny Wearing a Bulletproof Vest at the 2026 Grammy Awards?

When Bad Bunny won the Album of the Year award at the 2026 Grammy Awards on Sunday, he made history with Debí Tirar Mas Fotos becoming the first Spanish-speaking album to win the top award.

He spoke against ICE in a touching acceptance speech that was mostly delivered in Spanish, directed to his people, the very same he made the album for, and spoke in English pointedly, only to acknowledge the difficulties of immigration and to dedicate his award to those who “leave their home, land, their country, to follow their dreams.”

So poignant were his words that artists like Lady Gaga and Sabrina Carpenter appeared visibly moved in the crowd. His win was so impactful that Ricky Martin, his fellow Puerto Rican, dedicated an open letter to him in the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día: “I know what it means to succeed without letting go of where you come from,” Martin, who was part of a wave of artists hailing from Latin America and the Caribbean in the ’80s and ’90, wrote. “I know how heavy it is, what it costs, and what is sacrificed when you decide not to change because others ask you to.”

Bad Bunny standing with perfect posture at the 2026 Grammy Awards.

The back of his jacket reveals a corset lacing detail.

And yet all some corners of the internet seem to be able to talk about is whether or not Bad Bunny was wearing a bulletproof vest underneath his tuxedo. A TikTok video captioned “Bulletproof vest at the red carpet THIS ISN’T NORMAL” by the account @itsjustgirlstuff, states that the artist was wearing a bulletproof vest at the Grammys “due to threats and political issues.” The video, which cites no sources, currently has 1.6M likes and 10.5M views. “I’m so scared for him because he represents everything they hate,” a comment with 293.1K likes reads. The clip features a video of Bad Bunny on the red carpet with a song from The Hunger Games superimposed with a voice over of Donal Trump speaking as its soundtrack.

It’s not the only video that has caught wind. An explainer video has racked up 1.9M views, and there is even a video featuring an AI-generated voice over that mimics Bad Bunny’s voice that sees him explaining why he was wearing the vest.

Except that he wasn’t.

There are no reports or statements from his team that indicate that Bad Bunny was, indeed, wearing a vest. (Bad Bunny’s reps did not reply to a request for comment from Vanity Fair.) In fact, a video produced by Vogue featuring Bad Bunny getting ready ahead of the event reveals that his custom Schiaparelli look, created by the Texan designer Daniel Roseberry, simply does not allow for room for a bulletproof vest—if anything, it was meticulously tailored to fit the artist, given that the jacket has a corset.

A sketch of Bad Bunny’s look by designer Daniel Roseberry for Schiaparelli.

A sketch of Bad Bunny’s look by designer Daniel Roseberry for Schiaparelli.

The jacket creates multiple illusions here, some of which may have fooled some netizens into believing that he was wearing a sturdy Kevlar vest underneath. Its molded and structured shape gives away a key detail: If from the front the blazer appears like a normal tuxedo jacket, the corseting nips the wearer in, creating the look of a smaller waist and a wider hip. Its shoulders are also larger than Bad Bunny’s, and noticeably wider than the less structured suits he’s previously worn, which also helps create a more curvaceous body shape. (The look is a translation from a women’s haute couture look he had designed in 2023.) The back of the jacket is also laced to help preserve the shape, which gives it more structure than a traditional suit.

What all of these construction and design details point at is that, if Bad Bunny was not able to move as easily or sit as leisurely as he’s done in past televised awards ceremonies, it’s because his outfit did not allow him to. Anyone who has worn a corset understands the restrictions it puts on movement and posture. Online sleuths also pointed at Bad Bunny’s stance, in which it appeared as if he was puffing his chest, as an indicator of a bulletproof vest. It was likely just the jacket that made him stand that way. It’s unexpected to see men in this kind of corsetry, and frankly, even the sight of a man standing or sitting up straight is unusual.

Bad Bunny’s outfit was a recreation of this Schiaparelli haute couture womenswear look from spring 2023.

The fact that this sartorial conspiracy theory took off online is surprising and not. We simply look at celebrities too closely and too often; we have visuals of their body language and movements from every different angle and have gotten accustomed to reading whatever we may from the most mundane of interactions. And the Grammys came amidst a jarring number of images and videos of the killings in Minneapolis, violent defections of peaceful anti-ICE protests across the country. That much of the internet saw Bad Bunny’s Grammys look as a harbinger for more violence is probably more of a projection of our own preoccupations and fears.

He’s set to have another historic moment on Sunday, when he performs at the 2026 Super Bowl half time show. The performance has already been politicized as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has threatened to have ICE “all over” the Super Bowl, a claim disputed by the NFL, and Turning Point UK will host an alternative half time show. This will be another forceful statement from the artist whether intended as such or not. The world will be watching, but what will we be looking out for?

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