{"id":454094,"date":"2026-02-04T21:19:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T21:19:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/454094\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T21:19:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T21:19:07","slug":"expect-bad-bunny-to-get-political-at-super-bowl-lx","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/454094\/","title":{"rendered":"Expect Bad Bunny to get political at Super Bowl LX"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Bad Bunny accepts the Album of the Year award for Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos onstage during the 68th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on Feb. 1 in Los Angeles.Emma McIntyre\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Though he did not perform at this year\u2019s Grammy Awards or win the most awards, Bad Bunny was easily the star tuxedoed attraction. <\/p>\n

Host Trevor Noah interviewed the Puerto Rican megastar not once but twice. And when he accepted his two trophies, the singer did not hesitate to address U.S. immigration policies.<\/p>\n

Bad Bunny’s ‘ICE out’ comment received a standing ovation at the Grammy Awards.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not savage, we\u2019re not animals, we\u2019re not aliens,\u201d he said while collecting the award for best m\u00fasica urbana album. \u201cWe are humans and we are Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also took home album of the year for Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos, the first all-Spanish album to win in the category.<\/p>\n

How to watch the 2026 Super Bowl in Canada, which teams are playing and who\u2019s performing at halftime<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to dedicate this award to all the people that had to leave their homeland, their country, to follow their dreams,\u201d he said in English, in a speech otherwise in Spanish.<\/p>\n

But as important a platform the Grammys are, Sunday\u2019s Super Bowl LX halftime showcase at Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., is next level. The rap-reggaeton colossus will take pop culture\u2019s biggest stage \u2013 more than 120 million viewers are expected to tune in \u2013 and, as his Grammy moments showed, he is more than ready for his close-up. <\/p>\n

Bad Bunny, 31, is outrageously popular. Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos (I Should Have Taken More Photos) was his fourth chart-topping album. From 2020 to 2022, he was the most streamed artist in the world. His 31-concert residency last summer at Jos\u00e9 Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan pumped more than US$200-million into Puerto Rico\u2019s economy. <\/p>\n

But he is also Benito Antonio Mart\u00ednez Ocasio, a former grocery-store bag boy born in Puerto Rico, the self-governing island organized as an unincorporated territory of the United States. In the years since, he has become a socially conscious Latin-music icon. Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos is a danceable hit \u2013 and an expression of resistance against, among other things, U.S. colonialism. <\/p>\n

The Super Bowl halftime show<\/a> is the five-time Grammy winner\u2019s lone U.S. appearance on his current tour. At a time of heightened political and cultural tension, it is almost unthinkable that he\u2019ll squander such an opportunity on song, dance and salsa music alone. Even his fashion decisions, including a pink dress in the past, are statements. <\/p>\n

\u201cBad Bunny\u2019s presence on the stage is itself political,\u201d Vanessa D\u00edaz, associate professor of Chicana\/o and Latina\/o Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, said in an interview. \u201cHe is a proud Puerto Rican who will be performing in Spanish at a time when Latinos, the Spanish language and migrants more broadly are being criminalized and targeted by ICE.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grammys 2026: The best, worst and weirdest moments of the night<\/a><\/p>\n

D\u00edaz is the co-author, with Petra R. Rivera-Rideau, of P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance, a just-released book that looks at Puerto Rico\u2019s history and culture through the lens of its most well-known advocate. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe has made it very clear what he stands for,\u201d D\u00edaz said. \u201cSo, I can\u2019t imagine these values would all vanish at the Super Bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n

The announcement of Bad Bunny as the halftime headliner was not embraced by the U.S. administration and conservative commentators. Homeland Security adviser Corey Lewandowski told right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson that the choice was \u201cso shameful,\u201d and that the megastar was \u201csomebody who seems to hate America.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump is also not a fan. \u201cI think it\u2019s a terrible choice,\u201d he said. \u201cAll it does is sow hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n

Super Bowl halftime shows have been typically apolitical. In the tiniest of political gestures in 2017, Lady Gaga followed Irving Berlin\u2019s God Bless America with Woody Guthrie\u2019s folk song counterpoint, This Land is Your Land. <\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s entertainment was deeply satirical, however, starting with actor Samuel L. Jackson garbed as Uncle Sam as he introduced hip-hop giant Kendrick Lamar. The groundbreaking performance featured a living American flag \u2013 formed by dancers in red, white and blue \u2013 splitting in half, an allusion to a racially divided country. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Kendrick Lamar performs during halftime of the NFL Super Bowl 59 game in New Orleans on Feb. 9, 2025.Matt Slocum\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

\u201cThe revolution \u2018bout to be televised,\u201d the Not Like Us rapper said. \u201cYou picked the right time but the wrong guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year the NFL and NBC have seemingly doubled down on edgy content. Brandi Carlile, a gay artist and outspoken advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, will sing America the Beautiful. San Francisco Bay Area punk-pop legends Green Day, who have a history of publicly criticizing Trump, are also part of the opening ceremony. <\/p>\n

These are odd choices for the historically conservative NFL. <\/p>\n

Still, the NFL is bullish on Bunny. The league is determined to grow its international audience, and the Puerto Rican\u2019s global reach is massive. <\/p>\n

\u201cSports leagues don\u2019t want to offend people,\u201d said Mark Hebscher, veteran sports broadcaster and author of Madness: The Rise and Ruin of Sports Media. \u201cBut that kind of traditional thinking may be old-fashioned. Now, any form of protest at an event like the Super Bowl is not only acceptable, it\u2019s expected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Bad Bunny performs on stage during his Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos world tour in Mexico City on Dec. 10, 2025.ALFREDO ESTRELLA\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Given how the Super Bowl transcends sports \u2013 even commercials aired during the game become the topic of water-cooler discussions \u2013 any clear criticism of Trump during Sunday\u2019s broadcast will resonate profoundly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very possible that when Bad Bunny exits the stage after his performance, it becomes the most historic halftime show in history,\u201d D\u00edaz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the political moment we\u2019re in, and the kind of artist he is, makes it very possible. Regardless, we will be witnessing an event that we will be analyzing forever. I have no doubt about that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Bad Bunny accepts the Album of the Year award for Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":454095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341,5756],"class_list":{"0":"post-454094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-yesapplenews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}