Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl: A win for unity
“Bad Bunny’s critics said his Super Bowl halftime show would be divisive,” said Spencer Kornhaber in The Atlantic. “They were totally wrong.” The world’s most popular recording artist took the world’s biggest stage and chose to throw a party instead of picking a fight, letting his Spanish lyrics and roving celebration of his Puerto Rican culture say all that needed to be said to the forces in America who are menacing Spanish-speaking people of color. In short, “he applied one of the greatest lessons you learn as a part of an oppressed group: Joy is resistance. Pride in your heritage is protest,” said Nadira Goffe in Slate. As he ran through songs from his catalog, including from the record that was recently awarded the Grammy for Album of the Year, the 31-year-old Puerto Rican native danced amid island vignettes, surrounded himself with Latino celebrities including Karol G and Ricky Martin, hosted an actual wedding, and punctuated it all by spiking a football that read “Together we are America.”
Perhaps surprisingly, “MAGA is fighting with itself over Bad Bunny’s show,” said Hafiz Rashid in The New Republic. President Trump immediately issued a Truth Social post calling the performance “one of the worst EVER!” and “an affront to the Greatness of America” because “nobody understands a word this guy is saying.” But there was heavy pushback. On X, conservative influencer Emily Austin applauded Bad Bunny because, instead of dividing the audience, he “chose unity & love.”
Brothers Jake and Logan Paul, who both moved to Puerto Rico in 2021, personified the Right’s division, with Jake labeling Bad Bunny a “fake” U.S. citizen while Logan chided his brother’s ignorance and praised the
NFL’s display of Puerto Rican talent. In response to one conservative commentator’s racist post, former Trump campaign official Vianca Rodriguez responded, “Way to go alienating your Puerto Rican conservative base.” And Republicans should be concerned, because Trump’s standing with Latino voters has been slipping since 2024, and many will remember that the president can’t accept that Puerto Ricans are born Americans and that the world’s biggest star sings in Spanish.
Bad Bunny “stepped onto the field as a human Rorschach test,” said Jim Geraghty in National Review. Whether his performance left viewers thrilled or unimpressed mostly depended upon where each of them stood beforehand on his music or his previous statements criticizing Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts. But you can bet that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell loved the performance because it advanced his mission of conquering audiences worldwide, including in Spanish-speaking countries that have little historical connection to American pro football. By some estimates, the performance was seen live by 135 million people, including the crowd attending Trump’s Super Bowl watch party in Florida, said Nick Moyle in NJ.com. An alternative halftime show, which was mounted by the conservative group Turning Point USA and headlined by Kid Rock, was viewed live by 6 million.