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

Barcelona"Out with ICE!" These words from Bad Bunny still echoed, spoken a week ago upon receiving the Grammy With the award for best urban music album of the year, the Puerto Rican artist faced the challenge of leveraging an even bigger 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 the halftime show, in an attempt to bring the Latino audience closer to the sport. The singer didn't disappoint musically, and politically he proved astute, although unlike the players battling 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 rushed 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 covered this critique of gentrification that is WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM IN HAWAIIand 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; in fact, it was clever enough to echo his "Get ICE Out" slogan without stepping on any corporate turf. In a fleeting moment, he presented 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 behind 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 (which the Seahawks won 13-29) was 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 played dumb, 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.

In fact, the US president's friends put on an alternative show. "Say no to woke and tune in to the Exclusively American Intermission, requested its promoters, the MAGA organization, hours before the start of the game (Make America great againTurning Point, founded by the slain activist Charlie Kirk, headlined the show. Kid Rock, who had his moment of glory in the 90s and early 2000s, started primarily with rap metal but evolved over the years towards a more classic country sound. He was accompanied by several country singers. The show was plagued with problems during a broadcast that drew six million viewers on YouTube, a far cry from the Super Bowl halftime show audience.

Trump watched Bad Bunny. "He's terrible," said the US president. "He's an insult to the greatness of America and does not represent our standards of success, creativity, and excellence," Trump wrote on his social media account, Truth Social, after Bad Bunny's performance. "No one understands a word this man is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for the young children who watch it all over the United States and the rest of the world," he added.

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, in this last song, Billy Joe Armstrong would keep the verse "I'm not part of the MAGA Agenda", which has been sung for some time now instead of the original lyrics, or also "No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA", but that wasn't the case. Only the swear word was allowed."fucking"At one point in the segment, which was censored by NBC for complying 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.