(Image via Rolling Stone)
Staff Writer: Skyler Pereyra
Email: spereyra@umassd.edu
Bad Bunny’s performance became the third-most-watched Super Bowl halftime show in history, while his selection sparked heavy controversy due to his lack of English. The show was a great message to the world surrounding the tensions happening in the United States regarding immigrants.
All of the cultural references and messages of love have very nuanced meanings, which is what this recap of his performance will attempt to outline.
The setting of Bad Bunny’s performance occurred in a sugar-cane field, a nod to the sugar plantations across the Caribbean, where workers endured cruel conditions.
He opened with one of his most popular songs, Tití Me Preguntó (translation: Auntie Asked Me), which is about a conversation with his aunt regarding his love life, where he discusses all of the women he has had but still craves a real connection.
Benito’s first stop through the fields is at a Coco Frio stand, a common sight on the streets and beaches of Puerto Rico, where real coconuts with water are sold. The taste is described as “coconutty, a little bit like fruit, and a little bit like fresh water.”
As he continues walking through the field, more snapshots of Puerto Rican life are seen: older men playing dominoes, a Piraguas Stand, and a taco stand.
He then picks up a wedding ring and hands it to a man who proposes to a woman. After the performance, viewers found out that the wedding that took place wasn’t just for show. The couple, Eleisa Aparico and Thomas Wolter, invited Bad Bunny to their wedding, but in response, they were invited to join him in the halftime show!
The song then switches to Yo Perreo Sola (translation: “I Twerk Alone”), a song from the perspective of a woman about sexual harrasment. The camera turns to La Casita, based on a real house in the town of Humacao, Puerto Rico, that Bad Bunny used in his short film for his album Debí Tirar Más Fotos.
As the camera pans the house, Spanish celebrities like Pedro Pascal, Karol G, and Cardi B are seen dancing.
Bad Bunny then calls out to the “women all over the world” and tells them to “Perreando sin miedo” (twerk without being scared). The dance break happening in front of him, while he’s top of La Casita consists of only women, giving them the space to dance without being harassed by men.
Bad Bunny then does a quick live remix of Yo Perreo Sola and his song Safaera (a Puerto Rican expression for promiscuity, debauchery or substance abuse). As the beat drops and the vibes increase, he says, “Bienvenidos a la Fiesta más grande en el mundo entero” (Welcome to the biggest party in the whole world).
From there, he sings a verse from VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR (I am going to take you to Puerto Rico) and falls through the roof of the house, literally crashing the party.
As he walks out of the house, a mash-up of famous Puerto Rican songs play and he states, “Estás escuchando música de Puerto Rico. De los barrios y los caserios,” (“You’re listening to music from Puerto Rico. From the neighborhoods and the housing projects”), making those who disapproved of his performance face the fact that he isn’t the only Spanish artist they acknowledged.
The scenery changes, all still taking place within the sugar-cane field, and Bad Bunny is dancing on top of a truck, surrounded by dancers, singing his song EoO (the ending syllables of the Spanish word “perreo” ), which he sampled from former music duo Héctor y Tito’s “Perreo Baby.”
On a Jumbotron, an anthropomorphic frog known as the sapo concho (Puerto Rican crested toad), appears. It is the only native toad species in Puerto Rico but is unfortunately endangered. The frog puts his fists up, cheering on Bad Bunny as he continues his performance.
Violin players appear on screen, creating the transition to his song MONACO. He exclaims in Spanish (of course):
Good afternoon, California. My name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, and today I’m here at Super Bowl 60 because I never, never stopped believing in myself. And you should, you should believe in yourself too. You’re more valuable than you think, believe me.
He sings a single line from MONACO, which translates to “Tell me, this is what you wanted,” with the camera panning to the wedding of Aparico and Wolter. The wedding crowd dissipates and reveals Lady Gaga, who sings a salsa rendition of Die With a Smile. The line from MONACO is important because it is Bad Bunny confronting his haters and handing them “what they wanted” (a white person singing at the Super Bowl).
Bad Bunny takes Gaga into his arms and states, “While one is alive, one must love as much as possible” with his song BALIE INoLVIDABLE (Unforgettable Dance) playing for the wedding party to resume and enjoy the love and festivities he has been alluding to the whole performance.
During the dancing, a child is seen using chairs as a makeshift bed to sleep, a common experience many Spanish kids have growing up and staying way too late at family gatherings. The camera moves towards the newlywed couple with Bad Bunny telling the audience to “Dance without fear, Love without fear.”
He ends up on top of a brick wall and falls backwards, saying, “Nueva Yol” (a Puerto Rican way of saying New York and one of his songs), and is caught by a group of people. The setting changes again to a New York block with a store called “La Marqueta,” an authentic neighborhood that welcomed waves of Puerto Rican, Dominican, Cuban, and Mexican immigrants, reshaping East Harlem into the lively and culturally rich Spanish Harlem—also known as El Barrio.
Next to La Marqueta is another historical building for the immigrant community in New York, The Caribbean Social Club, also known as Tonítas, the last Latin social club in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The woman who hands Benito the drink is the owner of the club, 85-year-old Maria Antonia Clay.
Another scene change shows a child and his two parents watching Bad Bunny win a Grammy on a small television, with Bunny intruding, holding the Grammy, and handing it to the child.
The moment is both Ocasio giving his younger self the award and symbolically giving his achievement to other younger kids, instilling hope that they can accomplish anything they set their mind to.
Ricky Martin, a Latin artist legend, appears sitting on the white plastic chairs from Bad Bunny’s album cover Debí Tirar Más Fotos and sings LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii (Like What Happened to Hawaii), a song comparing the colonization of Puerto Rico to what Hawaii has been experiencing for decades. The lyrics he sings read in English:
They want to take my river and my beach, too. They want my neighborhood and grandma to leave. No, don’t let go of the flag nor forget the lelolai [traditional Puerto Rican Christmas song], Cause I don’t want them to do to you what happened to Hawaii.
Behind Martin, the power lines are seen short-circuiting, referring to the frequent power outages that happen in places like Puerto Rico and Domincan Republic due to outdated power systems. Bad Bunny’s song El Apagón refers to this government oversight while also loving his country for all of its beauty despite the issues it faces.
Overlooking the field from the pole, Benito sings CAFé CON RON, “Coffee in the morning, rum in the afternoon.” Below him people run across the field holding flags from every country in America, not just the United States.
Bunny exclaims, while holding a football, “God bless America” while listing all the countries with the flags following behind him creating an image of unity.
His final song for the night was the name sake for his album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, where he lets the audience and his performers scream the lyrics in place of his own voice.
Every part of this performance was intentional and political. Bad Bunny wasn’t afraid to address the issues happening in the country, evident in the Jumbotron reading “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
He purposefully said every word in Spanish to make those who hate on differences uncomfortable but during his interview, after the performance, he stated it didn’t matter if people understood what he said “… people only have to worry about dancing… There is no better dance than one that comes from the heart.”
User @greeneazii on X explained it perfectly: “Kendrick showed us the problem, Bad Bunny showed us the solution.”