In the leadup to his headlining performance at the Super Bowl LX halftime show, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio—better known as “Bad Bunny”—made it clear that America was in for a “huge party.” Addressing concerns that the non-Spanish-speaking viewers might not understand the words of his songs, he instead encouraged his audience to learn how to dance.
“There’s no better dance than the one that comes from the heart, the heartbeat dance, that’s the only thing they need to worry about and enjoy.”
And that pure joy was on full display as the performer emerged from sugarcane fields, honoring his Puerto Rican heritage, and took an estimated 128.2 million viewers through a journey of music and unity. Throughout his performance, Bad Bunny kept a pure intent by performing his personal talent shaped around his culture and what makes him most passionate.
The artist peppered his performance with numerous easter eggs, each symbolic in their own way, and different interpretations touched the hearts of many people watching. The performers who helped him in his execution of this performance were one piece of what made it so impressive. Lady Gaga starred as one of his guest singers, wearing a dress pinned with a red thespesia grandiflora—Puerto Rico’s national flower—and performing a salsa version of her and Bruno Mars’s song “Die With a Smile,” giving a nod to Latino customs.
The stage was set as a sugar cane field, where people dressed as field workers wore straw hats, representing the history behind sugar cane and its significance to Puerto Rico. Sugarcane was a huge value to its territory throughout the 1500s and 1600s, which helped shape its economy. A lighthearted secret that was later discovered was the 380 people disguised as sugar cane, being called “walking bushes” by those who realized.
During the song “BAILE INoLVIDABLE”, Bad Bunny sets the scene of a Latino party. He pretends to wake up a boy who had fallen asleep on a row of chairs, which many on social media recognized as a memory they endured during their childhood while attending Latino parties of their own. This was a comedic and nostalgic tribute for all of those who could relate.
Even Bad Bunny’s own outfit told a deep story about his relationship with his uncle. He shared with Rolling Stone that his uncle, Cutito, passed away just two years ago. Cutito was born in 1964 and was the reason he knows the little information about the NFL as he does. His uncle was a fan of the San Francisco 49ers, and the artist had always planned on getting to take him to a Super Bowl. He was hurt by the fact he’d never be able to, which is why he decided to dedicate the number 64 and his last name Ocasio (which is also his mother’s) on his attire to Cutito.
“Together, We Are America”
Despite the critical acclaim his performance has garnered, there is still the matter of the elephant in the room. Bad Bunny is one of the most popular contemporary artists of all time, with over a billion streams of his music on Spotify alone. But he is also an artist who performs music written in Spanish and is an outspoken critic of the Trump administration, particularly its immigration policies. For some, this was enough to call the performance controversial and claim that the artist’s goal was not unity but division.
People will always differ in preferences when it comes to music, but when a halftime performance causes negative tension between a united country—not because of the music itself but instead because of its artist as a person—it reveals how easily art can become tangled in political ideology.
As an alternative to Bad Bunny’s halftime performance, Turning Point USA put on its own program titled “The All-American Halftime Show.” It claimed to offer an alternative set of performances celebrating “faith, family, and freedom.” But what about Bad Bunny’s performance was un-American?
Perhaps it was the language barrier. In their own criticism of the halftime show, the New York Post claims that Bad Bunny, “made no effort in his Spanish-only performance to include the 78% of American households that speak only English.” If such a large part of the audience only speaks English, then what happens when the majority of a show is delivered in a different language? Then again, what does it feel like to be the 14% of the country that speaks Spanish?
Perhaps it was the artist’s use of explicit lyrics. Bad Bunny does have songs including sexual imagery. Of course, no lyrics performed during the show violated broadcast regulations.
Watching the Super Bowl halftime show, it was hard to see anything that could be offensive to an audience seeking out unity. Bad Bunny made known the fact that the people of America, from the South and North, stand together, no matter the heritage, skin color, or language. At the end of his performance, he raises a football to the camera, which states, “Together, we are America.” As the song “DtMF” played, he listed all of the countries of the Americas, ending, of course, with Puerto Rico.
All flags for all territories and countries were swayed through the air, together in unity. Different colors, origins, and cultures represented each one. In this act, Bad Bunny showed that the people of America are connected. At the end of the day, we are all Americans, and this gives us a reason to love each other. And for those who might have missed this detail, the artist made his message abundantly clear as he projected the words on the stadium’s massive video board that will come to define this performance: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
Whether people share the opinions of Bad Bunny or not, music is not meant to cause conflict but instead is meant to provide art created and represented by its artist. He was chosen for this year’s halftime performance, and he made it his own.
At the end of performing his song “NUEVAYoL,” he hands over one of his Grammy trophies to a little boy, who represents his young self. This was encouragement to everyone watching that they can dream as big as they desire—they can reach any accomplishment and ambition, no matter its size or uncertainty.
