In simply over 13 minutes price of music, stars and symbolism, Puerto Rican celebrity Bad Bunny rewrote what it means to be American in a time of strife.
For months, conservatives from the president on down have painted him as anti-American. Last evening, Bad Bunny requested: What if I’m the actual American?
Bad Bunny — who launched himself together with his actual full identify Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — introduced the iconography of Puerto Rican tradition to his Super Bowl halftime show performance, a joyous and high-energy affair that celebrated the island the place he was born and its place within the American story.
The artist didn’t shrink back from overt political symbolism, ending the genuine and assured performance on a be aware of unity.
After enjoying a few of his greatest hits, Bad Bunny stared down the digital camera and spoke in English for the one time throughout the performance to say, “God Bless America.”
He adopted with an inventory of greater than 20 nations in North, Central and South America whereas dancers trailed him displaying the flags of lots of these nations, with the US and Puerto Rican flags most seen immediately behind him.
While the US usually makes use of the phrase “America” to determine itself as a single, distinct nation, lots of its neighbors use it to refer to a larger unified continent, some extent that Bad Bunny hammered dwelling when he spiked a soccer that learn “Together we are America,” earlier than launching into his nostalgic anthem “DtMF.”
The message was clear: Bad Bunny declared himself an American patriot within the broadest sense of the time period and he doesn’t suppose it’s a view that ought to actually be left up to a coin toss.
After all of the pushback to Bad Bunny’s choice to headline the halftime show, the musician took the stage as a celebratory and energetic voice.
While performing “NUEVAYoL” — a track thought-about to be a tribute to immigrants and Puerto Rico’s diaspora in New York — Bad Bunny was seen giving a Grammy statuette to a younger boy who seconds earlier than was watching the second the musician received the award on TV, alongside two adults.
The younger boy was performed by a baby actor named Lincoln Fox Ramadan, who was solid based mostly on his resemblance to a younger Bad Bunny. The section was meant to symbolize the artist handing a Grammy to his youthful self, a consultant from Ramadan’s expertise company W Group informed NCS on Sunday.
Wendy Woods, expertise agent, proprietor and CEO of The W Group Artists and Entertainment group in Florida, stated she was “blown away” by Ramadan’s performance and was “honored” to assist him get on the stage with Bad Bunny.
For a short second, the Internet ran with rumors that the boy was Liam Conejo Ramos, the 5-year-old who was taken into ICE custody in Minneapolis and positioned together with his father in a household detention facility in Texas, earlier than being launched earlier this month whereas his case plays out.
Though finally unfaithful, the second may be seen as a message of assist to immigrants throughout the US, harkening again as it did to the evening Bad Bunny aligned himself with these calling for an end to the Trump administration’s unprecedented immigration crackdown.
Throughout the show, Bad Bunny celebrated pastimes beloved in Puerto Rico, from dominoes to boxing, and in addition the households and generations that make up life on the island.
At one level in his performance, a person was seen proposing to a girl; later, they have been seen collectively carrying all white, getting married. It was the story of this couple’s nuptials informed all through the performance.
Once the group parted after the marriage ceremony, Lady Gaga made a shock look to sing a Latin-inspired rendition of her Grammy-winning collaboration with Bruno Mars, “Die With a Smile,” serving as the marriage singer for the couple, who have been then seen slicing right into a multi-tiered wedding ceremony cake and sharing an extended kiss.
This was yet one more second when the show tidily hammered dwelling its level about freedom and the pursuit of happiness, whereas making clear that celebrating marriage and kids is just not a uniquely conservative pursuit.
The show known as again constantly to Puerto Rican tradition and in addition featured many well-known ‘backup dancers,’ together with Jessica Alba, Karol G, Cardi B and Pedro Pascal, and a shock performance from Ricky Martin, who sang “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii,” a warning about the price of gentrification.
Bad Bunny made good on his promise that viewers didn’t want to learn Spanish so as to get pleasure from his halftime show.
It was a dance get together with a message, one which was blasted on a display at Levi’s Stadium as he closed out his set: “The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love.”
NCS’s Michael Rios, Verónica Calderón, Esteban Campanela, Laura Sharman and Sofia Hanalei Sanchez contributed to this report.