The visual intent was obvious enough: a bridge between a superstar’s scrappy past and his golden present. There, on the world’s biggest stage, stood a wide-eyed boy accepting a gramophone from the man himself. It was the sort of polished, symbolic beat Super Bowl producers live for. But as Bad Bunny moved out of the melancholic haze of NUEVAYoL, the internet wasn’t looking at the symbolism. In the pressure cooker of social media—where pop culture is rarely just entertainment anymore—the moment was swiftly repurposed into something much darker.
Before the set was even finished, a theory had already taken hold across X and TikTok. It wasn’t just a rumour; it was a heartbreakingly specific claim. Viewers were convinced the child wasn’t an actor, but Liam Conejo Ramos, the five-year-old recently detained by immigration officials in Minnesota. It was a powerful narrative—the idea of the Puerto Rican star pulling off a massive, subversive stunt right under the NFL’s nose. And frankly, it says a lot about the current American psyche that people wanted it to be true. But despite the viral traction, the reality was far less cinematic.
Many of you may have missed this, but the little boy who Bad Bunny handed his Grammy to at the Super Bowl was Liam Ramos!
Amazing! pic.twitter.com/1cDfi2faQ0
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) February 9, 2026
Whatever the collective wish-fulfillment of the internet might have preferred, the mundane reality is that the stage belonged to a professional. The boy has been identified as Lincoln Fox Ramadan, a five-year-old child actor based in Costa Mesa, California. Far from being the subject of a high-profile deportation case, Lincoln is an industry regular with a portfolio that includes modelling gigs for retail giants like Walmart and Target.
Writing on his Instagram page, which operates under the handle @the_lincfox, the young actor described the performance as ‘an emotional, unforgettable day.” He confirmed that he was cast as “young Benito”—a nod to Bad Bunny’s real name, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. The scene was choreographed to represent a dialogue between the artist’s timeline, or as Lincoln’s post eloquently put it: “a symbolic moment where the future hands the past a Grammy.”
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The distinction is crucial. The prop handed to the child was a replica of the award Bad Bunny secured just a week prior for his album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS. That victory itself was historic, marking the first time a Spanish-language record has taken home the Album of the Year prize, a context that makes the ‘young Benito’ segment a celebration of cultural ascent rather than a specific political protest.
The viral misidentification was not malicious; rather, it reveals a public deeply sensitised to the plight of Liam Conejo Ramos. The real Liam, also five years old, became a flashpoint for outrage regarding the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown after images circulated of him being detained in a Minneapolis suburb on 20 January. The photographs of a small child in a blue bunny hat and a Spider-Man backpack, surrounded by immigration officers, struck a nerve across the country.
bad bunny is so real for including the kid whos always sleeping on two chairs at a party 😭😭😭pic.twitter.com/hUQwAiVo8W
— ( ً ) (@minikooklet) February 9, 2026
Liam and his father, Adrian Conejo Arias—originally from Ecuador—were transported to an ICE detention facility in Dilley, Texas. Although a judge’s order saw them returned to Minneapolis on 1 February, their situation remains precarious. Columbia Heights Public Schools, the district Liam attends, issued a statement on Monday clarifying that their student was not the one basking in the halftime applause. “Liam and his family are sequestered during this time,” noted spokesperson Kristen Stuenkel, dispelling the rumours with a sobering reminder of the family’s current reality.
It is perhaps a testament to the child actor Lincoln’s empathy that he acknowledged the boy he had mistaken for. In his social media post, Lincoln—who is of half-Egyptian and half-Argentine heritage—extended his thoughts to the Ramos family. “Sending love to Liam Ramos,” he wrote, adding a sentiment that seemed to bridge the gap between the glitz of the Super Bowl and the starkness of detention: “We all deserve peace and love in America, a country built by and home to so many hard-working immigrants.”
The little boy in Bad Bunny’s #SuperBowl halftime show performance is child actor Lincoln Fox.
“I’ll remember this day forever! @badbunnypr – it was my truest honor 🐰🏆🏈” pic.twitter.com/fwnDCIXQCc
— Complex Pop Culture (@ComplexPop) February 9, 2026
While the Super Bowl provided a spectacle of triumph for one Latino icon—Bad Bunny —the shadow of the current political climate meant that, for many viewers, the performance could not be separated from the headlines. The confusion over the boy’s identity was false, but the anxiety that fuelled it remains very real.
