Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny will continue to make history when he takes to the stage at the Super Bowl Halftime show.
Since rising to fame a decade ago, he’s been credited with helping Spanish-language rap music achieve mainstream global success.
Born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, the 32-year-old has released six albums, the latest of which was titled Debí Tirar Más Fotos. Released last year, it became the first Spanish-language album to win the Grammy Award for album of the year – which he was awarded just a few days ago.
At the ceremony, he wiped away tears, sharing: ‘I want to dedicate this award to all the people that had to leave their homeland, their country, to follow their dreams.’
But earlier in the evening – when winning best musica urbana album – he didn’t mince his words and called out the ongoing immigration raids happening across the United States.
‘Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say, ICE out,’ he said before receiving a standing ovation.
‘We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans. I know it’s tough to not hate these days. And I was thinking, sometimes we get contaminated. The hate gets more powerful with more hate.
‘The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love. So please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love. We don’t hate them; we love our people. We love our family, and that’s the way to do it – with love. Don’t forget that, please.’
His comments came after President Donald Trump said his selection (along with rock band Green Day) was a ‘terrible choice’ by the NFL to play the Super Bowl halftime show.
‘I’m anti-them. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible,’ Trump previously declared, also previously saying he’d ‘never heard’ of the rapper.
Bad Bunny is not the first Latin performer to headline the Super Bowl Halftime show – others, including Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, Gloria Estefan, Christina Aguilera and Enrique Iglesias already have.
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But when he steps onto the Super Bowl stage on Sunday night local time – which will see the New England Patriots take on the Seattle Seahawks in Santa Clara, California – he will be the first solo male Latin artist to perform in the high-profile slot and is also expected to become the first to perform a halftime set entirely in Spanish.
‘The Super Bowl halftime show is going to be one that we’re going to talk about forever because it’s already so historical that regardless of what happens in the wake of it, it’s incredibly meaningful. We’ve never had a Latin artist at this level, ever,’ Vanessa Diaz, author of P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance told USA Today this week.
Meanwhile Latin music scholar Jennifer Mota said his performance could also dismantle the stigma leading criticism of his non-English performance.
How much is Bad Bunny getting paid to perform at the Super Bowl?
Although the Super Bowl Halftime show attracts on average over 100 million people each year, and gives the act a massive audience, they don’t actually get paid for the performance.
Under the NFL’s standard policy, performers do not receive a traditional salary.
Instead, it, along with partners like Apple Music and Roc Nation, cover the huge production costs, which can range anywhere from $10 million to $20 million.
This was confirmed by an NFL spokesperson, who told Forbes in 2016: ‘We do not pay the artists. We cover expenses and production costs.’
Despite not getting paid, acts see it as a massive marketing tool, with the 13-minute set helping promote other future lucrative opportunities like album streams, tours or brand partnerships.
‘White supremacy and imperialism have traditionally elevated English and white musicians as universal and ‘global’ products. Bad Bunny is programming resistance and awareness, and at the same time, claiming space in the Spanish language, a language that has often been made to be seen as a niche,’ she told the same publication.
But it was apparent concerns over an immigrant performing songs not in English that saw conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA announcing a counterprogram halftime show, titled ‘The All-American Halftime Show’ in response to Bad Bunny being selected for the coveted slot. It will instead see Kid Rock perform.
What have the NFL said?
Despite some ardent opposition to Bad Bunny playing the Half Time show – which regularly attracts over 100 million viewers worldwide – the NFL has stood strong against criticism.
‘Bad Bunny is one of the greatest artists in the world and that’s one of the reasons we chose him, but the other reason is he understood the platform he was on,’ NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said this week.
‘This platform is used to unite people and to be able to bring people together with their creativity, with their talent, and to be able to use this moment to do that. I think artists in the past have done that.
‘I think Bad Bunny understands that and I think he’ll have a great performance.’
Soon after he was announced as the Super Bowl act, Bad Bunny hosted Saturday Night Live, where he poked fun at his detractors.
He then delivered a segment in Spanish, concluding in English: ‘If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn!’
How have fans reacted?
In the lead-up, many people have been sharing their thoughts on the headliner.
‘Before every Super Bowl, if I’m unfamiliar with the artist, I listen to them to prepare for their halftime. I’ve since gotten SO into Bad Bunny’s music, I’m now starting to learn Spanish. He’s THAT good. and I’m excited for the Super Bowl’ user Eryn posted on X.
‘At a time in our country where Trump has ICE putting so many innocent Latinos in concentration camps and ripping apart families…having Bad Bunny someone who has opposed Trump openly doing the Super Bowl halftime show is such a powerful amazing statement,’ Bella wrote.
‘Anyone that’s outraged over this choice has too much time on their hands,’ StatisticianIcy9847 commented on Reddit.
‘He doesn’t like the political climate in America but he’s fine with it for the massive exposure. The right is going to lose their minds over this and honestly they should,’ former NPC shared.
However, EngineeringOk7370 declared: ‘Ridiculous. I respect the artist, but not having the performance in English is absurd. Wrong choice and it’s purposely done to make a political statement and cause more problems.
Will ICE be at the Super Bowl?
Although countless people are counting down to see the pivotal performance, many others are worried.
Last year, Trump’s former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski warned ICE agents would be present, declaring: ‘There is nowhere you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally. Not the Super Bowl and nowhere else. We will find you and apprehend you and put you in a detention facility and deport you. Know that is a very real situation under this administration, which is contrary to how it used to be.’
He went on to say it was ‘shameful’ that the NFL had selected someone who ‘seems to hate America so much to represent them at the Halftime Show’.
Despite these assertions, organisers of the event have since indicated there are ‘no planned ICE immigration enforcement operations’.
Meanwhile, Goodell assured that the priority was to create a ‘safe environment’ for attendees – although he avoided addressing ICE by name. However, a petition signed by over 183,000 people is demanding the league denounce any potential presence of the law enforcement agency.
What else has Bad Bunny said about Trump and ICE in the past?
In recent years, Bad Bunny – whose birth country is a US territory – has repeatedly spoken out against Trump. During Trump’s first presidency, in 2017 two devastating hurricanes swept through Puerto Rico and left 3,000 dead, with the rapper later wearing a shirt at a benefit concert that appeared to be a pointed dig, reading: ‘Are You a Tweeter or President?.’
Bad Bunny’s performance comes at a time when immigration raids sweeping the United States have sparked mass protests – as well as the killings of two US citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, in recent weeks.
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Last year, the Supreme Court also granted federal agents the power to stop people in Los Angeles simply for speaking Spanish or appearing Latino – a decision that immigration advocates warned at the time had ‘effectively legalised racial profiling’.
A few months ago, Bad Bunny spoke about his decision to skip the US for his current world tour over fears that his fans would be subjected to immigration raids and concerns about the ‘[mass deportation’ of Latinos’.
‘There were many reasons why I didn’t show up in the US, and none of them were out of hate – I’ve performed there many times. All of [the shows] have been successful. All of them have been magnificent,’ he told i-D magazine.
‘But there was the issue of – like, f***ing ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”
Over the past year Bad Bunny has repeatedly used his platform to speak out against ICE, sharing a post on Instagram last June in which he labelled agents as ‘sons of b*******’ who can’t leave ‘people alone and working’.
In a 2022 interview with Vogue Hong Kong, Bad Bunny discussed how his ‘culture influences everything’. ‘I’m proud of where I come from and I always try not to lose the Latino essences of who I am.’
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