Bad Bunny plants Puerto Rico in the middle of the Super Bowl but avoids explicit clash with Trump

Barcelona"Get ICE out!" These words from Bad Bunny, spoken a week earlier upon receiving the Grammy for Best Urban Music Album of the Year, were still echoing as the Puerto Rican artist faced the challenge of leveraging an even larger platform: the more than 120 million American viewers who watch the Super Bowl. The American football league made a bold move by signing him for halftime, in an attempt to bring the sport closer to the Latino audience. The singer didn't disappoint musically, and politically he proved astute, although unlike the players who had previously battled on the field, he didn't engage in a direct confrontation with Trump.

The staging was highly symbolic. In the middle of the field, a plantation and a small miniature Puerto Rican neighborhood emerged in just a few minutes, even including a barbershop, a tribute to these informal, popular gathering places. "I never stopped believing in myself," said Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, dressed in several layers of off-white, as he recounted some of his achievements as I twerk alone, NEW YOL, UNFORGETTABLE DANCE , The move either Eoo and no fewer than 200 musicians and dancers were working hard to fill the space with a tight rhythm and twerking Bad Bunny's celebration of Latin identity. There was also a surprise appearance by Ricky Martin, who performed a version of this critique of gentrification. WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM IN HAWAII and Lady Gaga, who sang a Latin version of her hit with Bruno Mars Die with a smile

The absence of an overt anti-Trump proclamation doesn't mean the show lacked a message; it was even cheeky enough to echo his "Get ICE Out" slogan without stepping on any corporate turf. In a fleeting moment, he handed the Grammy to a child—a symbol of the American Dream—who was watching television, where Bad Bunny was shown at the awards ceremony criticizing anti-immigration agents. No words were needed, the screen was silent, but everyone understood the intention of those brief frames.

The end of the performance was also emotional and political. The climax consisted of Bad Bunny reciting the names of all the countries that make up the American continent, while dancers carried their respective flags. And on the giant screen, a slogan appeared: "The only thing more powerful than hate is love." With this ode to American brotherhood, Benito picked up an American football that was with him – and which resembled a cocoa fruit, amidst that reed bed – and smashed it against the grass, scoring his own goal. touchdown In particular, before leaving around a corner of Levi's stadium, while a wild version of I SHOULD TAKE MORE PHOTOS.

Unlike last year, when Trump attended the game, this time he declined. The official reason is that, since the game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks was being held in San Francisco, it was too far from the White House, on the other coast of the country. But no one is unaware of the American president's obvious antipathy toward the Puerto Rican singer, even though last October he feigned ignorance, saying he didn't know who this Bad Bunny guy was that the NFL had hired, but that he thought it was a "terrible" idea.

Other musicians critical of Trump who also performed at the Super Bowl, in this case at the beginning, were Green Day, with their tamed punk. The band offered condensed versions of their songs. Holiday, Boulevard of Broken Dreams and American IdiotThere was anticipation to see if, on this last track, Billy Joe Armstrong would keep the verse.I'm not part of the MAGA Agenda"who has been singing the original lyrics for some time now, or also"No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USABut that wasn't the case. The word "fucking" was only allowed once in the song, and it was censored by NBC to comply with broadcast laws affecting free-to-air channels.

800 million in one night

The Super Bowl is a huge sporting and musical extravaganza during the halftime show, but it's also the biggest television event of the season in the United States. It's estimated that buying 30 seconds of airtime for a commercial can cost around $8 million (not including production and star bookings), and that the network broadcasting the event—this year, NBC—can rake in close to $800 million in a single night. These ads often dominate the conversation the next day. One of the most famous aired in 2022: it consisted of a QR code that, like a DVD screensaver, floated across a black screen, displaying no information, for 60 seconds. Those who scanned it were taken to a website offering cryptocurrency.