Daisy Fuentes Defends Bad Bunny Bringing 'Authenticity' to Super Bowl, Reflects on Her Immigrant Roots (Exclusive) Janine RubensteinDecember 5, 2025 at 11:13 PM 0 David Livingston/Getty; Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Daisy Fuentes; Bad Bunny Daisy Fuentes is throwing her support behind Bad Bunny's upcoming Super Bowl performance The former MTV VJ reflects on her Cuban roots and immigrant experience in America She details her wild MTV audition in the '90s and how she became a household name Daisy Fuentes has added her voice to the chorus of Americans excited for Bad Bunny's upcoming Super Bowl Hal...
- - Daisy Fuentes Defends Bad Bunny Bringing 'Authenticity' to Super Bowl, Reflects on Her Immigrant Roots (Exclusive)
Janine RubensteinDecember 5, 2025 at 11:13 PM
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David Livingston/Getty; Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty
Daisy Fuentes; Bad Bunny -
Daisy Fuentes is throwing her support behind Bad Bunny's upcoming Super Bowl performance
The former MTV VJ reflects on her Cuban roots and immigrant experience in America
She details her wild MTV audition in the '90s and how she became a household name
Daisy Fuentes has added her voice to the chorus of Americans excited for Bad Bunny's upcoming Super Bowl Half Time performance.
"I was so happy for him," the former MTV host and Daisy Fuentes lifestyle brand owner, 59, says of when she first heard the news earlier this year. "He is the example of what can happen when you are truly authentically yourself."
The Puerto Rican superstar, who's set to perform in Spanish, "has not adjusted who he is, how he sings, what he says, what he wants to do," she says. "He's just being exactly who he is and how brilliant is that? Your authenticity is going to resonate with so many people. Whether you like his music or not, what he has done is admirable."
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Bad Bunny performs during his "Most Wanted" tour at Barclays Center on April 11, 2024 in New York City.
For Fuentes — a trailblazer in her own right, as one of the first Latina hosts on MTV and a pioneer in the celebrity lifestyle brand space back in the early 2000s — staying true to herself dates back to childhood.
"I was born in Cuba. I was raised in Spain from about age three to almost nine. My mom is from Spain, my dad is from Cuba. It's a mix of cultures that are somewhat similar," she shares. "The fact that my parents kept all the traditions alive, it was important to them to teach me what was in my blood."
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Daisy Fuentes attends DesignCare 2022 Gala
When her parents immigrated to America and settled in New Jersey she recalls, "becoming very American while holding on to these roots and to my culture, now three cultures that are truly a part of who I am. I never saw it as something that would hold me back. I always saw it as something extra that I had to offer. I think that's what helped catapult me forward."
As a young kid, "I just remember being quiet because I didn't speak a word of English. I was thrown into a Newark public school. The other kids who did speak Spanish didn't quite understand my Castilian accent," she explains. "I kind of learned to imitate what they were saying, and that's one of the reasons why when I auditioned for MTV in Spanish, I was able to have such a neutral Spanish accent."
Her unlikely journey to MTV, where she quickly made a name for herself as a VJ in the '90s before landing her own hit show House of Style alongside Cindy Crawford, still makes her pinch herself.
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Supermodel Cindy Crawford stands with MTV VJ Daisy Fuentes at the benefit for St. Jude's Children Hospital March 4, 1999 in Los Angeles
"How was that my life," she says. "I knew no one in the entertainment industry. I don't know what it was in me that thought I had a chance in hell of becoming this worldwide girl on the hottest channel of the time, becoming a part of pop culture history."
When it came to the audition: "A friend of a friend had received a tape of some of the weather that I had done on the Spanish channel that I was doing in Jersey, and I remember writing a note saying, 'I know this is in Spanish, but I do speak English. I love the channel. I live for music, and I would love the chance to audition.' And I didn't hear anything for seven months."
But then she randomly got a call to come in. "I think I was like 45 minutes to an hour late. I was wearing a white leather outfit, a white leather mini skirt with a fringe leather jacket, and it was just rain and sleet and snow. I was filthy by the time I got there. My train was late. I had to wait for a cab. I don't even know how I made it. The producer told me later, "I just thought, who does this girl think she is showing up here an hour late looking a hot mess?"
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MTV host Daisy Fuentes with actor Christian Slater during the filming of Beach MTV
That said, she shined in front of the camera and the rest is MTV history. Asked about the iconic network shuttering its TV channels after 44 years she says, "While it's a bit sad, it's been a bit sad for a while. I think MTV had its time and it's time to change. We have to evolve."
Fuentes knew this to be true way back when she decided to launch her clothing and lifestyle brand 20 years ago. "I knew that I wanted to do something that involved fashion but didn't think it was possible to have my own brand. Back then we didn't even know what that meant. A-listers were being offered partnerships and were all turning them down like, 'Oh no, it's going to dilute who I am.'"
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Daisy Fuentes Brand Merchandise
Fuentes thought differently. "What's interesting is that my brand kind of became the blueprint for celebrity licensing and branding. I could not have imagined that over 20 years later it would still be going and growing."
Originally, "They were testing it in the Hispanic market," she says. "And I remember at the launch party the CEO of Kohl's said to me, 'We were waiting to give you the good news, we're launching it in all stores because it's selling so well.' To me that's the real success, to have a Hispanic name that resonates with all women."
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Daisy Fuentes presents Bad Bunny with the Best Urban Song Award at the 2025 Latin Grammy Awards
Fuentes, who presented Bad Bunny with the Best Urban Song award at this year's Latin Grammy's in Las Vegas, hopes the hit singer's Super Bowl performance will have a similar impact on America.
"I want my people, my heritage to be represented. That's all we want," she says. "And this country is, has been, and always will be a melting pot. I think it is a tragedy if we fail to see all the good that is in that."
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: December 05, 2025 at 05:36PM on Source: MARIO MAG
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