Tan condenadamente bueno!
On Saturday, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared Super Bowl Sunday to be Bad Bunny Day in California. Today, Bad Bunny himself took center field at the Super Bowl halftime show and made the day for everyone, Spanish-speaking and otherwise.
Aside from all the MAGA foot stamping & NFL audience ambitions, Bunny had to endure on the way to Sunday’s big show, always faced a very high bar meeting or surpassing last year’s tour de force from Kenndrick Lamar. Yet, rising to a challenge, and the moment, has often been one of the major flexes of Bunny a.k.a. Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio’s success.
And tonight’s performance was a complex and compelling success.
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Joined by Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin at different points, a Puerto Rican flag waving Bunny exclaimed the crowd at home and in Levi’s Stadium to “dance without fear.” Under the last vestiges of the California afternoon sun, a phalanx of dancers, fruit vendors, boxers, truck, Pedro Pascal, telephone pole repairmen, that trademark Concho toad, a string section, a wedding, a La Casita, symbols of nations of the hemisphere and migrant workers, the global superstar was blunt in his mantra of the day that “the only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
If the cheers from the more than 60,000 in the home of the San Francisco 49ers were any indication, there was a lot of love in the house. When Bunny handed his Best Album Grammy to a young boy who was reminiscent of the ICE kidnapped, detained and recently freed Liam Conejo Ramos, the whole place picked up what he was really putting down and went wild.
Which is why, in an America torn apart by gaping ideological, racial and wealth divides, the proud Puerto Rico-born Grammy winner nailed it today by transforming the cavernous concrete Santa Clara stadium into a sweat soaked San Juan nightclub for thirteen hip shaking minutes.
Certainly, the vibe and the groove was a welcome relief after the low-scoring fand low-energy first half of the latest Super Bowl battle between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. While, the cultural and political significance of Bad Bunny’s performance cannot be denied, up until the actual halftime show the potency and nuance of his music seemed to get short shrift
Casting the abundance of virtue and vice signaling from too many sides aside, the reggaeton and rhythm took over shifted once Bunny launched into “Tití Me Preguntó” and kicked it all off.
In front of a live crowd of over 60,000 that includes Netflix’s co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Adam Sandler, Range Media chief Peter Micelli, tennis legend Roger Federer, Mark Wahlberg, Gov. Newsom, Jon Bon Jovi (who intro’d the Patriots) Chris Pratt (who intro’d the Seahawks), Justin Bieber Hailey Bieber, Travis Scott, a Hall of Fame full of NFL icons, avowed Bunny fan Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Cardi B, Kendell Jenner, Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Rob Lowe, and J Bevlin, and no Donald Trump, an all white garbed Bunny shimmied through his deep bench of hits like “Yo Perreo Sola” and “NUEVAYoL.”
Even with protests outside and a brief image on an on-stage TV, there was no explicit “ICE out” from Bunny like at last week’s Grammys. It may disappoint some, but he didn’t need to go there and let a rabid MAGA frothy all over the night. Instead, as a lame ass Kid Rock-led “All-American” alternative halftime played out on far-right media, the King of Latin Trap put on a celebration of excellence and spotlighted some of the best of 21st century America — with an unsentimental look at some of the worst.
Surrounded by palm trees, bamboo and foliage on the field where the 9-0 Seahawks leading game had been minutes before, the decision that proved kind of the biggest and most poignant middle finger to the cruel abductions, deportations and killings by federal immigration agents.
For all the huffing, puffing and controversary in MAGA circles over Bunny being picked by the NFL and Jay-Z to be the inaugural Spanish-speaking solo halftime show headliner, the Happy Gilmore 2 actor’s stint on stage tonight was a bit of a rerun. Six years ago, Bad Bunny made a guest appearance at Super Bowl LIV with Jennifer Lopez and Shakira for a verse from “I Like It” and the Spanish song “Chantaje.”
Today, with the rest of the world looping American music back to us in its own colors and themes the way the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin harnessed the Blues back in the 1960s from the UK to the USA, unleashed his rise to marquee act. Watching tonight’s halftime show, which is often hailed for the exposure it brings to its stars, it should come as no surprise that Bunny has been one of the most successful and streamed artists on the planet the past five years.
Honed by his 30+show No Me Quiero Ir de Aqui” I Don’t Want to Leave Here) residency back home in Puerto Rico last year, Bunny leaned a bit on the tried and true, and, like Kendrick Lamar last year, pivoted into the now. In that vein, both popular and subversive in the tradition of Louis Armstrong, Lin Manuel Miranda, Edith Piaf, Fela Kuti and the “Not Like Us” rapper, Bunny has been playing the long game since the beginning – which is what brought him to the big game today.
Earlier this week in a sit-down with halftime show sponsors Apple Music, Bad Bunny told fans and foes alike to expect tonight. “It’s better if they learn to dance,” he said, cutting to the chase. After the Spanish-language spectacle that went down Sunday, if friend and foe weren’t dancing they really missed the point of the biggest picture of all in America 2026.
Natalie Oganesyan contributed to this report