Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show transformed the NFL’s grandest stage into a defiant celebration of Latin identity and cultural pride. Despite a predictable wave of political backlash from critics and the current administration, the performance served as a vital moment of visibility for a community often forced into the shadows. Bad Bunny made a point to avoid visiting the U.S during his current tour, in order to Protect fans from targeting by ICE. Therefore, this singular performance became a rare, intentional bridge between the artist and his U.S audience. The show expanded the meaning of what it means to be “American,” and united each person of the Americas under that identity.
What a “true American” is has shrunk over time and has been weaponized by white supremacists to outcast and dehumanize the “others”, causing a breakdown of empathy between different groups, leading the current administration to get away with inhuman treatment of the “othered” individuals. This is an observable phenomena in the treatment of immigrants who are labeled.. “migrant criminals,” “gang members, and who, we are told, are ” Taking your jobs.” Trump and the others in his camp repeatedly use the language such as “illegal aliens” and “illegal monsters.” It is against this backdrop of division and dehumanization, that a Super Bowl halftime show that unites people under the same cultural banner is so politically and socially significant.
The far right’s response to the Bad Bunny half-time performance was somewhat predictable given their response to Kendrick Lamar’s performance at last year’s Super Bowl. The backlash led to Turning Point USA organizing an alternative halftime show titled “The All American Halftime Show” headlined by Kid Rock. The goal of the halftime as stated on the website was “American culture, freedom, and faith”
The outrage was rooted to the notion that the performance wasn’t “American enough”, and some focused on the lack of English spoken. The president called the show “an affront to the greatness of America” and a “slap in the face to our country.” Then there is of course that viral exchange between Krysten Ball telling Tomi Lahren that Puerto Rico was, in fact, part of America, a point Bad Bunny made very clear during his performance. The president also shared on Truth Social in response to the Super Bowl that, “no one can tell what he was saying.” This statement follows an executive order that made English the national language of America “to promote unity [and] cultivate a shared American culture for all citizens.” In response, Bad Bunny stated at his pre-show press conference: “English is not my first language. But it’s okay, it’s not America’s first language either.”
There is an ongoing struggle to be the all-powerful authority on what is and isn’t American culture. Who is American? Puerto Rico is denied its statehood and therefore representation and official acknowledgement of unity with the rest of the United States. As of late, race, language and citizenship have been the walls that limit who can be “true-American”, These cultural identities have been manipulated to divide and place people in a hierarchy. The Bad Bunny Superbowl LX halftime show dismantled this with one fell swoop, if only the people who needed to hear it would listen.
The 13-minute performance was presented solely in Spanish and packed with rich cultural references, symbolism, cameos, and great music. The show opened in a sugar cane field, an homage to Puerto Rico’s main cash crop, with workers dressed in all white and wearing Pavas, a Puerto Rican hat made out of straw, worn by farmers and jíbaros (a Puerto Rican small farmer, rural worker, or laborer). The first words of the show, spoken in Spanish were “How wonderful it is to be Latino. Tonight we drink.” While speaking, Bad Bunny passes by a CoCo Frio stand like those seen along the Caribbean roadside. He passes several other stalls, including a piragua (Puerto Rican shaved ice) stand. Along the way, Bad Bunny ducks under a boxing Xander Zayas and Emiliano Vargas, who wear the flags of their respective countries on their shorts, a reference to the heated boxing rivalry between Puerto Rico and Mexico.
Then the camera cuts to a pink, traditionally Puerto-Rican, Casita, part of the iconography of his last eras where Latin American celebrities Karol G (Colombia), Cardi B (Dominican Republic), Jesica Alba (Mexico), Ronald Acuña Jr. (Venezuela), Pedro Pascal (Chile) and Young Miko (Puerto Rico) dance. Bad Bunny was joined by Lady Gaga, who wore a dress adorned with a Flor de Maga, the national flower of Puerto Rico, As they sing, a couple is married, their legal union substantiates another of Bad Bunny’s goals: to make love and joy not merely a performance, but a reality.
After the wedding, Bad Bunny drops into a New York City scene, significant for the city has the highest density of Puerto Ricans outside of Puerto Rico. While performing Nuevayol (which translates to New York), Bad Bunny takes a shot given to him by Toñita, the owner of the Caribbean Social Club. The dancers are dressed in street clothes, and dancing Perreo, a style of dance that came from the projects in Puerto Rico. The dance has taken on anti-establishment connotations after the suppression attempts by the Puerto Rican government in the early 2000s.
In the background, we hear a snippet from Bad Bunny’s Grammy acceptance speech: “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens, we are humans, and we are Americans.”
As Bad Bunny performs “El Apagón,” which references the frequent blackouts in Puerto Rico, jibaros scale the sparking powerpoles. The longest blackout in Puerto Rico and in American history was in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, which left the island without power for almost a year. During this time, there was an Inadequate response from the US government, which left Puerto Ricans with the burden of bringing electricity to their communities.
Bad Bunny then hoists a light blue Puerto Rican flag over his shoulder; the light blue flag is the original design before the U.S changed the color to dark blue in 1952 to mirror the American flag. The original design has become a symbol for Puerto Rican independence. While the show showcases the beauty of Puerto Rican culture, there is an undercurrent of acknowledgement of the darker history of how the island has been impacted by colonialism. The lack of US aid and gentrification of the land; the way that the culture has been taken and silenced. Even the act of displaying a Puerto Rican flag used to be illegal under the gag law. The purpose of this law was to suppress the independence movement for Puerto Rico.
While the performance mostly focuses on Puerto Rican culture, he gives moments for other Latin American celebrities and talents to represent their own countries. Most of all at the end of the performance. At the conclusion of Superbowl LX, Bad Bunny spoke his first and only english words of the entire performance: “God Bless America” and then named every Latin American country, including the US and Canada, as dancers carried flags across the field, and the billboard read, “the only thing more powerful than hate is love”.
The performance echoes the sentiment of the African-American poet Langston Hughes’ “I, Too”, where he writes “I too, am America.” Both of these artistic works expand who fits under the cultural identity of “American”. The message was clear: We are all America, and we should exist in love and unity, together. The culture of America is expansive and not just defined by the United States, or the white citizens that live there.