{"id":4830,"date":"2026-02-09T17:13:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T18:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/?p=4830"},"modified":"2026-02-12T14:59:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T14:59:00","slug":"bad-bunnys-super-bowl-halftime-show-was-a-reclamation-reimagination-of-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/bad-bunnys-super-bowl-halftime-show-was-a-reclamation-reimagination-of-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Bunny\u2019s Super Bowl Halftime Show Was A Reclamation & Reimagination Of America"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Bad Bunny<\/a> leaped off the Levi\u2019s Stadium field in Santa Clara, California, ending his 13-minute Super Bowl halftime show<\/a> chanting the lyrics of \u201cDtMF<\/a>,\u201d the stadium erupted in fireworks. More than 2,800 miles away in Orlando, Florida, I saw the sky outside my window light up, too, flashing in brief bursts of color. In a city with one of the largest Puerto Rican populations in the contiguous U.S., some shop-owners shut their doors early so they could catch the show together with their families, others kept the lights on well into the night to host sold-out Benito Bowl watch parties, and others took to neighborhood roads, dancing with friends under street lights or illuminating entire neighborhoods with light shows. From the rolling hills of northwest California to the low wetlands of the Southeast U.S., we, distant neighbors, celebrated like patriots commemorating our beginning \u2014\u00a0because, for the millions of us who trace our histories across the American continent, we were.<\/p>\n

For the estimated 135.4 to 142 million viewers<\/a> who tuned in globally \u2014 figures that would make Bad Bunny\u2019s halftime show the most-watched in history \u2014 it was an invitation to reclaim what it means to be an American, an identity and inheritance that for too long has been hegemonized by the U.S., even though it belongs to an entire continent.<\/p>\n

After an energetic performance of a medley of hits like \u201cTit\u00ed Me Pregunto<\/a>,\u201d \u201cYo Perreo Sola<\/a>,\u201d \u201cSafaera<\/a>,\u201d \u201cParty<\/a>,\u201d \u201cVoy a Llevarte Pa PR<\/a>,\u201d \u201cEoO<\/a>,\u201d and \u201cMonaco<\/a>,\u201d to name a few, Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Mart\u00ednez Ocasio, ended his performance invoking \u201cGod Bless America.\u201d It was the first English words he uttered during a halftime show that was historic, in part, because it was the first in the NFL\u2019s 60-year run to ever be performed predominantly in Spanish. With the flags of Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, and the U.S., among others, waving behind him, the Puerto Rican rapper then went on to name countries across the Caribbean and South, Central, and North Americas. When he ended with \u201cmy motherland, mi patria, Puerto Rico,\u201d he cemented his performance, like a victorious touchdown, with a football stamped with the words, \u201cTogether, We Are America.\u201d It was a message for all of us, those who have always traced their roots to the region, those who arrived centuries ago, violently and forcefully, on ships, and those who, generation after generation, have migrated to this corner of the world carrying a dream.<\/p>\n

SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA \u2013 FEBRUARY 8: Bad Bunny performs in the Apple Music Halftime Show during the NFL Super Bowl 60 football game between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots, at Levi\u2019s Stadium on February 8, 2026 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The words, the flags, and the faces of racially and ethnically diverse people encircling the Grammy award-winning artist sent a message to President Donald Trump and the ultra-conservative, who boycotted Bad Bunny\u2019s halftime show<\/a> because of the rapper\u2019s cultural identity and pro-immigrant politics: America is a continent, and his rendering of \u201cGod bless America\u201d is a prayer for the people of every nation that stretches across it, not just the white U.S. citizens who have long positioned themselves as the primary beneficiaries of the label and land.<\/p>\n

Transitioning to his native tongue to complete the blessing, like any other Latine church kid who speaks in English but prays in Spanish, Mart\u00ednez Ocasio intoned an even more important invocation for migrants and their descendants: \u201cseguimos aqu\u00ed\u201d \u2014 \u201cwe are still here\u201d \u2014 a popular Puerto Rican refrain that marks our survival, presence, and refusal amid generations of political and natural disasters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some who boycotted the performance tuned into an alternative halftime entertainment event, the \u201cAll-American Halftime Show,\u201d organized by the conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA. It aired live online at the same time as the NFL\u2019s official halftime show, explicitly positioned as a protest of Bad Bunny\u2019s performance. Roughly five million viewers (a fraction of the audience that watched Benito Bowl) tuned in to watch little-known country and rock artists like Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett. To them, Mart\u00ednez Ocasio\u2019s identity as a Puerto Rican artist, his use of his native Spanish, and his belief that \u201cthe only thing more powerful than hate is love\u201d were framed as a threat to white American notions of \u201cfaith, family, and freedom.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ironically, it is the people of Puerto Rico, a U.S. colonial territory, who have been calling for freedom since the U.S. seized the archipelago in 1898. Their cries reverberated throughout Bad Bunny\u2019s performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bad Bunny commenced his historic performance with a stage set evoking Puerto Rican history, beginning with the brutal legacy of Spanish imperialism on the island. A man wearing a pava hat \u2014 the traditional hat of Puerto Rican agricultural workers, lovingly called j\u00edbaros \u2014 strums the opening notes of \u201cTit\u00ed Me Pregunt\u00f3\u201d and declares, \u201cQu\u00e9 rico es ser Latino.\u201d Behind him stand sugarcane fields, where enslaved Africans and Indigenous Ta\u00ednos as well as poor criollos once labored, enriching the pockets of the island\u2019s first colonizers and giving rise to a shared Puerto Rican identity rooted in communal power and resistance to colonial systems.<\/p>\n

Seconds later, Bad Bunny\u2019s baritone resonates across the fields. Dressed in a cream collared shirt and tie, a sport-inspired jersey bearing his family name, Ocasio, and the number 64 (representing the birth year of his mother, Lysaurie Ocasio), and his signature BadBo 1.0 Adidas sneakers, he is flanked by actors: some, wearing pava hats, embody those Puerto Rican farmworkers of the past, while others dress in modern farmwear, portraying the contemporary Latine laborers who continue to toil across the harsh agricultural landscapes of the U.S. All of them hold machetes, a tool once wielded by formerly enslaved people to revolt against colonizers across the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

TOPSHOT \u2013 Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny performs during Super Bowl LX Patriots vs Seahawks Apple Music Halftime Show at Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara, California on February 8, 2026. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As he dances through the sugarcane fields, Bad Bunny brings us with him to modern-day Puerto Rico. Vendors sell coco frio, welitos play dominos, Black and brown women adorn themselves at a nail salon, and workers continue to rebuild after the devastation of Hurricane Mar\u00eda. Benito then cools off from the blazing Caribbean sun with a piragua and tacos from the beloved L.A. taco shop, Villas Tacos, a nod to the street vendors across California and the U.S. who have been targeted and harassed amid Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) crackdowns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some of the scenes he portrays are painful, but there\u2019s joy in his resistance and power in our cultural art forms and entertainment. Watching Bad Bunny evade punches from Puerto Rican boxer Xander Zayas and Mexican boxer Emiliano Vargas evokes the pride our families feel in our living rooms, watching our people represent us in sport. Seeing Latine artists like Cardi B, Karol G, Pedro Pascal, Young Miko, and Jessica Alba dancing en la casita \u2014 a life-size replica of a traditional pink Puerto Rican house that Bad Bunny has used as a stage during his historic 31-day \u201cNo Me Quiero Ir de Aqu\u00ed residency\u201d<\/a> in Puerto Rico and on his Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos World Tour to symbolize a pari de marquesina, those Caribbean garage parties nostalgic to so many of us \u2014 summons us to move through the structural violence we continue to endure with dance, too, just as our ancestors did.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA \u2013 FEBRUARY 08: Musician Bad Bunny performs during the Apple Music halftime show at the NFL Super Bowl LX football game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots at Levi Stadium on February 8, 2026 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Todd Rosenberg\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But instead of bomba and plena, traditional Afro-Puerto Rican musical genres born from protest and community, women in khaki miniskorts shake their asses as Bad Bunny raps the lyrics to his reggaeton hit \u201cYo Perreo Sola,\u201d a song about bodily autonomy, independence, and the right to dance without harassment. \u201cLas mujeres en el mundo entero, perreando sin miedo,\u201d he says, assuring women everywhere they have the space to move freely and safely in the show he\u2019s created. Bad Bunny then transitions smoothly into \u201cSafaera,\u201d where we, global fans, sing the words to a sexually explicit, and empowered, song he can\u2019t rap on the largest stage in the world: \u201cSi tu novio no te mama,\u201d he sings, as countless viewers yell back, \u201cel culo, pa eso que no mame. Baja pa casa que yo te lambo toa. Mami, yo te lambo toa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Welcoming millions of watchers to \u201cla fiesta m\u00e1s grande en el mundo entero,\u201d Bad Bunny knows his halftime performance will break streaming records. He has shattered records throughout his career, becoming Spotify\u2019s most-streamed artist worldwide<\/a> in 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2025 and surpassing Amazon Music\u2019s live-streamed concerts<\/a> during his \u201cNo Me Quiero Ir de Aqu\u00ed: Una M\u00e1s\u201d finale. That\u2019s because, as the world now knows, no one parties quite like folks from the Caribbean. There is protest, resilience, and freedom in the dips, sways, and wines that Trump labeled \u201cdisgusting.\u201d<\/a> And through his performance of \u201cVOY A LLeVARTE PA PR,\u201d the Grammy award-winning \u201cEoO,\u201d and a medley tribute to reggaeton pioneers like Tego Calder\u00f3n, Don Omar, and Daddy Yankee, Bad Bunny invites the world to perrear como una puertorrique\u00f1a, to learn history and dance through Puerto Rican rhythms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ahead of his halftime show, Bad Bunny emphasized that language wouldn\u2019t be a barrier to enjoying his performance. Speaking with Apple Music Radio hosts Zane Lowe and Ebro Darden at the Super Bowl LX Halftime Show Press Conference<\/a>, Mart\u00ednez Ocasio urged those who\u2019d be watching to dance from the heart, to relish a \u201cheartbeat dance\u201d \u2014 and heart was at the center of the entire show.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was the moment Bad Bunny stared into a camera, pointed at the viewers watching from television sets, laptop screens, and portable projectors, and encouraged them to always believe in themselves because they are worth more than they know. There was the couple, kissing after \u201cI do\u201d in a white wedding gown and tuxedo, who legally married during the halftime show<\/a>. There was Lady Gaga, one of Bad Bunny\u2019s favorite artists, and Los Sobrinos, a Puerto Rican band who played on his most recent album, DeB\u00cd TiRAR M\u00e1S FOToS<\/a><\/em>, performing a salsa rendition of \u201cDie With a Smile\u201d as the newlyweds shared their wedding cake. And when Bad Bunny returned to the mic, there were moments of cross-generational care. First, while singing his hit \u201cBAILE INoLVIDABLE<\/a>,\u201d he gently woke a child sleeping on two seats, an experience every Latine who grew up going to family parties that stretch well into the night knows. Then, during \u201cNueva Yol<\/a>,\u201d he gifted a child his Album of the Year Grammy trophy, kneeling to the ground, and whispering to him, \u201cCree siempre en ti.\u201d The boy symbolizes Bad Bunny\u2019s own inner child, Latine youth across the diaspora, and, perhaps, even Liam Conejo Ramos<\/a>, the five-year-old Ecuadorian boy who was detained by ICE in Minnesota while coming home from school.<\/p>\n

SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA \u2013 FEBRUARY 08: A couple marries during the Bad Bunny performance onstage during the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show at Levi\u2019s Stadium on February 08, 2026 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Kevin Mazur\/Getty Images for Roc Nation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Mart\u00ednez Ocasio\u2019s heart danced most passionately for his homeland \u2014\u00a0and for Puerto Ricans, whose population in the contiguous U.S. outnumbers that in the archipelago, home is often experienced differently, though no less authentically, throughout the diaspora. In \u201cNueva Yol,\u201d Benito takes us to a Puerto Rican neighborhood in the Big Apple, with Puerto Rican flags hanging from store windows, women braiding each other\u2019s hair outside of a barber shop, Brooklyn\u2019s own To\u00f1ita, the beloved owner of the community anchor Caribbean Social Club, handing him a shot of rum, and Boricuas of every shade dancing in the street to a genre their Nuyorican ancestors co-created.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ricky Martin then takes us back to Puerto Rico, now to the rural mountains, where he reinterprets Ocasio Mart\u00ednez\u2019s \u201cLo Que Pas\u00f3 en Hawaii<\/a>,\u201d a protest song against U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico and a call to its people to fight to preserve land, heritage, and culture at a time when tourism-driven colonial pressures aim to reshape the island. When Bad Bunny returns to the mic, it\u2019s to perform \u201cEl Apag\u00f3n<\/a>,\u201d a sharply political song that uses the debilitating power outages in Puerto Rico to critique government corruption and displacement. Carrying a Puerto Rican flag and, at one point, scaling a sparking utility pole, Bad Bunny, through the song, urges Puerto Ricans to fight for the future and sovereignty of their land and people.<\/p>\n

SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA \u2013 FEBRUARY 08: Bad Bunny performs onstage during the Apple Music Super Bowl\u00a0LX Halftime Show at Levi\u2019s Stadium on February 08, 2026 in Santa Clara, California. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But as the music shifts from electro-reggaeton to plena, traditional Puerto Rican folk music, Bad Bunny extends his call. Walking off a set design of Puerto Rico that, in itself, should garner awards, and symbolically into the homes of those watching across the Americas, he names each country that makes up the Caribbean, South America, Central America, and North America \u2014 urging us all to reimagine American-ness, no longer restricted to the U.S.\u2019s linguistic hegemony or make-believe colonial borders. Bound by shared histories, cultures, and resilience, he invites us to claim belonging and community that transcends nation-states and challenges centuries of imposed divisions.<\/p>\n

This, of course, is the greatest threat to the ultra-right. It\u2019s why Turning Point produced the All-American Halftime Show. It fears not just Bad Bunny but what his artistry is capable of: reimagination.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Through history, education, joy, dance, pleasure, and love, Bad Bunny\u2019s music allows us to envision another reality \u2014 one where we, as marginalized people, understand our power and our worth, and where we fight lovingly for our undocumented neighbor in the house next door and for those enduring state repression in neighboring countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is the cross-continental America we can create, the one where solidarity, justice, and dignity prevail for all of us, the one worth putting our hearts into and illuminating our skies for. After all, as Mart\u00ednez Ocasio noted in a jumbotron during his final performance: \u201cthe only thing more powerful than hate is love.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Bad Bunny leaped off the Levi\u2019s Stadium field in Santa Clara, California, ending his 13-minute Super Bowl halftime show chanting the lyrics of \u201cDtMF,\u201d the stadium erupted in fireworks. More than 2,800 miles away in Orlando, Florida, I saw the sky outside my window light up, too, flashing in brief bursts of color. In…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4830"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4839,"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4830\/revisions\/4839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/baldheadedgirls.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}