Hamada: Super Bowl shenanigans

The recent Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks didn’t create as much reaction and discussion as the halftime show and there’s more post-game conversation about the musical performance than the game itself.

Unless you’ve been living in a self contained environmental bubble for all your life the NFL Super Bowl has become the most watched entertainment event in the nation rivaling the FIFA World Cup Soccer championships for the global top spot.

If you’re not an NFL fan yet you watch the Super Bowl, you will find the commercials during the game the most compelling. This year it’s not the funniest or most emotional advertisement people remember. It’s the 13-minute halftime show.

The halftime show of the Super Bowl serves two primary purposes. One, it features a purely entertaining performance from a semi-universally popular and talented soloist or group. Hopefully it evokes a unifying sense of happiness and joy among the audience as the show intends to be a pure celebration of the moment. I know, for every Prince or Bruno Mars you might get a Up With People (3 times) or, ugh, Maroon 5 (Super Bowl 53). 

But there was one common denominator founded in each show until recently.

No controversy.

And this Super Bowl halftime show was filled with it.

So, who is this performer who has split opinions in two or even three?

What the what is this Bad Bunny?

Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio was born on March 10, 1994, in Bayamón, and was raised in the barrio of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. His father, Benito Martínez, was a truck driver, and his mother, Lysaurie Ocasio, is a retired schoolteacher. He has two younger brothers, Bernie and Bysael. Music was a presence in his childhood as his parents often listened to genres such as salsa and meringue, and pop ballads.

He attended church weekly with his devoutly Catholic mother and sang in the church choir until age 13. After leaving the choir, he developed an interest in the artists he heard on the radio, particularly Daddy Yankee and Hectore Lavoe.

So how did we go from Benito Ocasio to Bad Bunny?

Glad you asked.

His stage name originated from a time when he was forced to wear a bunny costume and was angry about it.

Of course.

After graduating high school in 2012, Martínez enrolled in the audiovisual communications program at the University of Puerto Rico, aiming to become a radio host. He worked part-time as a bagger and cashier at a supermarket while creating music. He left university without completing his degree to pursue his musical aspirations.  

Let’s fast forward.

His accolades include six Grammy Awards, seventeen Latin Grammy Awards, eight Billboard Music Awards, and thirteen Lo Nuestro Awards. He was crowned Artist of the Year by Billboard in 2022 and 2025. “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” became the first Spanish-language album to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2026 and he headlined the Super Bowl LX halftime show.

And here we are.

Mr. Bunny has made remarkable accomplishments in his life and has reached the highest levels of accomplishment in an industry that can be so incredibly difficult both professionally and personally. I want it stridently stated that he has earned my respect and others as an artist and for serving his global audience so well.

Moving forward we must acknowledge that any commentary either positive or negative must be viewed through the lens of two entities; The National Football League and Jay-Z also known as Mr. Beyonce.

Since 2019, Jay-Z and his entertainment company, Roc Nation, have served as the NFL’s live music entertainment strategist, managing the Super Bowl halftime show and supporting the “Inspire Change” social justice initiative. This partnership, aimed at modernizing the halftime show with diverse artists, has seen performances from artists like Rihanna and Usher, despite initial criticism regarding the NFL’s treatment of Colin Kaepernick. 

This cultural agenda desired by the NFL to be viewed as inclusionary and Jay-Z’s position to promote acts that benefits his Roc Nation brand combine to dispel with the aforementioned original intent of the Super Bowl halftime show. It has gone from a pure musical celebration to a political activism platform either intending or ignorantly facilitating the great divide in America today. 

If you define this chasm in our nation as a burning fire then consider performances like Bad Bunny and others as more fuel.

Allow me to bullet point my thoughts and pose some questions regarding Mr. Bunny’s performance:

• Stop accusing Mr. Bunny of not being an American. Citizenship to the Puerto Rican people has been in place as a territory since 1917.
• Señor Bad has a verifiable record of disdain towards the United States. His statements regarding the Trump administration are rife with disrespect containing profanities and vulgarity.
• With his politics and activism fully on display how does this qualify for a place on the centerstage of the most American entertainment event reaching millions?
• An example. What were the politics of Michael Jackson, Prince, Bruno or even Katy Perry? Exactly.
• Regarding his Bunnyness, why the intent of excluding non-Spanish speaking viewers and performing the show virtually all in Spanish? Is this a celebration of culture? Why not even subtitles? Inclusion was not a priority. It’s entertainment reparations for all the English speaking performers in the past.
• While we’re here … what the hell were you saying? Translators are claiming rather tawdry, provocative and obscene lyrics that wouldn’t pass FCC regulations. That’s why no English or sub-titles, right? 
• The symbolism displayed was interesting. The opening scenes took place in sugarcane fields. Cane was mass produced for marketable sugar and to sustain the rum industry, but locals loathe the invasion of the Western businessmen who “robbed” Puerto Rico of riches thereby relegating Puerto Ricans to lives of poverty and struggle. 
• Other scenes include electrical power towers and lines indicating the fragile infrastructure PR still deals with to this day. Despite local governance of a governor and politicians this island territory has failed their own people to improve while pointing accusatory fingers to the U.S. Federal government for whom to blame.
• Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem while wearing a San Francisco 49er uniform in September 2016 was replicated by His Royal Bunniest. In October of last year, he sparked an outrage for sitting during the playing of God Bless America while attending a New York Yankees game. Boo.
• Bad Bunny is not without controversy at home. In 2024, there were calls from within Puerto Rico for the FBI to investigate the ties between his record label and Maduro’s regime in Venezuela.
• The Puerto Rican flag was on display but there was a message behind it. The light blue Puerto Rican flag signifies advocacy for independence, the original design from the 1895 revolutionary movement, and resistance against colonial rule. Unlike the dark blue, which represents the current U.S. territory status, the light blue specifically invokes the spirit of the 1868 “Grito de Lares” revolt. This fits right in with Bad Bunny’s anti-colonialism expression. Interestingly, Puerto Rico has held seven referendums on statehood vs. independence since 1967 and the independence stance has consistently received the fewest votes, as little as 0.6% to just under 12% at most.
• This portrayal of Bugs Bunny (had to) giving his recent Grammy award to a young boy portraying a 5-year-old taken into custody by ICE agents was NOT said boy but rather an actor intending to look like him purposefully evoking anti-ICE emotions. Recall BB’s statements at the Grammy’s when he proclaimed, “ICE OUT” and more.

Finally, there are many that justify Mr. Bunny’s appearance as due to his popularity and attraction to international audiences. According to Apple’s Music’s Top Songs of 2025 Global, yes, His Bunnyness had four songs in the top 100. That is impressive. But another artist with a diametrically different sound that so many have clamored for appeared on the list too. His name is Morgan Wallen with 12 songs on the list. He is a country and western music star with apparently three times the success of Bad Bunny.

And, yes, triumphantly purely American. 

NFL, it’s time to read the room.