After months of premature right-wing panic about a performance full of anti-American messaging, the Bad Bunny Super Bowl halftime show went off without a hitch, making its critics seem desperate for a divisive news cycle that wasn’t really in the cards. Anticipatory backlash against the show made it as far as the president, who said it was “absolutely ridiculous” that an artist “nobody heard of” had gotten the gig. A set list packed with international chart hits begged to differ. Dancing in stately white across the Levi’s Stadium field, which was dressed up to look like a Puerto Rican sugar plantation, Bad Bunny tore through career highlights like “Yo perreo sola” from 2020’s YHLQMDLG; “Tití Me Preguntó” and “El Apagón” off 2022’s Un Verano Sin Ti; and “EoO” and “DtMF” from last year’s now two-time Grammy-winning DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.
Surrounding the singer, rapper, actor, and wrestler making history as the first Latin trap and reggaeton star to headline a Super Bowl halftime show was a kaleidoscopic display of scenes of life in Puerto Rico and in Stateside locales with ties to the island, like New York City. Sets bore a resemblance to his 2025 San Juan concert residency No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí. Bodegas, weddings, barbershops, field work, prize fights, and perreos offered a window into joy and pain in the unincorporated U.S. territory Bad Bunny was raised in, while guests Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin came through for crowd-pleasing duets. The “Die With a Smile” singer’s salsa chops were commendable; the presence of the “Livin’ La Vida Loca” vet touched on decades of strides in mainstream music prior to Bad Bunny’s arrival. In the end, performing “DtMF” amid a crowd of flags from Spanish-speaking countries all over the world, the artist delivered the rebuke that was expected with a lighter touch, via a bit of his Album of the Year speech at the Grammys plastered on a screen behind him: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.” It’ll take work to tease a negative takeaway from a patient, expert staging, but … there was plenty of twerking to crow about in the morning.
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