Bad Bunny announced his Super Bowl halftime performance in a fully Puerto Rican way: wearing a pava hat, chanclas, and a Hector Lavoe-inspired suit, while sitting atop a football goalpost at sunset on a beach in Puerto Rico. This announcement came just a week after Bad Bunny ended his historic 31-day residency at El Coliseo de Puerto Rico with a record-breaking livestream of the final show via Amazon Music. It was the most-watched single-artist performance in the history of the platform.
Now Bad Bunny is preparing to achieve yet another major cultural milestone as the first Super Bowl halftime artist to perform solely in Spanish. But this historically significant moment comes with political implications that have led to deeply divided viewpoints.
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Latin music is the fastest-growing genre in the U.S., with revenues of $1.4 billion. And Bad Bunny is Latin music’s biggest star. But at the same time, Latinos and the Spanish language are being targeted as migrants are violently kidnapped on street corners and disappeared by the Trump administration. Bad Bunny himself said he skipped touring across the U.S. because of the potential for ICE presence at his concerts, as ICE raids in major mainland American cities have been much more prevalent than in Puerto Rico. Still, this has led some to question why he is choosing to do a performance in the U.S. now. His status as a Spanish-speaking Latino, his statement about ICE, and his longstanding opposition to President Trump have also made him a natural target for conservative backlash. Conservative political commentator Benny Johnson called him a “Massive Trump hater Anti-ICE activist” with “No songs in English.” Other commentators online suggest that he should be detained or deported ahead of the show.
While negative responses to the halftime announcement echo centuries-long sentiments of Latinos as perpetual foreigners, it also reflects the fact that most Americans still do not know that Puerto Rico, where Bad Bunny was born, raised, and still lives, is a territory of the U.S. and Puerto Ricans have U.S. citizenship. So, every single one of his 31 residency shows took place in the U.S. By forcing residents of the 50 states to come to him, his residency de-centered what the U.S. mainland means by making Puerto Rico itself the mainland for his shows.
Similarly, Bad Bunny as the Super Bowl halftime performer is an opportunity to decenter a white, English-speaking mainstream and grapple with the fact that Latin music —in Spanish —is mainstream. That Bad Bunny has become mainstream is irrefutable, given he was the most streamed artist on Spotify for three years from 2020 to 2022, has the most streamed album in the history of Spotify (Un Verano Sin Ti), and saw multiple tracks from his latest album DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS reach number one this year on the Billboard Hot 100, Apple Music, and Spotify. DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS was lauded by many as both his most Puerto Rican album and his most political album, neither of which negatively impacted its popularity.
In this way, Bad Bunny’s popularity has not cheapened his message. It has strengthened it. So, as he prepares to take the Super Bowl stage, some wonder if he will be able to maintain his political messaging, which includes calls for Puerto Rican independence, trans rights, and an end to U.S. imperialism. It is right to question what will be possible in the context of this tightly controlled space that has historically silenced protest. However, just last year, Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show included pointed political statements through the use of his prison yard-inspired stage design, the formation of a living American flag that split in half, and a cameo by Samuel L. Jackson as Uncle Sam. In 2020, when Bad Bunny performed at the Super Bowl halftime show with JLo and Shakira, the headliners fought to keep a political statement in the performance by showing young children in cages, which represented the inhumane immigration policy of the first Trump presidency.
Giving Bad Bunny the space to spotlight his culture and politics is a bold move for Apple Music, Roc Nation, and the NFL, in light of the anti-Latino sentiment ravaging the country. But it is a choice that makes sense. The Super Bowl halftime show is about money and viewership. Bad Bunny has already brought in the cash and will most certainly bring in the viewers, even if they aren’t all white and English speaking. There’s a reason companies like Adidas, Pepsi, and Ritz Crackers have chosen to partner with Bad Bunny. These brands are mainstream, just like Bad Bunny.
As right-wingers melt down over the choice and many of Bad Bunny’s fans rejoice, what is clear is that everyone has an opinion on what is sure to be one of the most culturally significant performances in the history of the Super Bowl. I am reminded of something Bad Bunny declared during his Coachella set: “Nunca antes hubo alguien como yo.” “There has never been someone like me before.” Maybe there has never been anyone like Bad Bunny before. But given the cultural breakthroughs he continues to make, there will certainly be more like him in the future.
Vanessa Díaz is an Associate Professor of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University and co-author of the forthcoming book P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance.
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