Bad Bunny headlining the Super Bowl thrills and rankles

Spanish language superstar Bad Bunny’s announcement on Sunday that he will headline this year’s Super Bowl halftime show has prompted celebration among fans and consternation from critics. The grumblings are related to the performer’s past comments about immigration and ICE. “This is for my people, my culture and our history,” Bad Bunny, born Benito Ocasio in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, said in a statement shared by the National Football League. “Ve y dile a tu abuela, que seremos el HALFTIME SHOW DEL SUPER BOWL.”

‘Just one date in the United States’

Benito’s Super Bowl announcement comes just days after the close of his 31-date “No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí” residency at San Juan, Puerto Rico’s José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum, with the halftime show itself set to be bookended by a global tour in support of his new “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” album.

The previous shows conspicuously elided stops at any states because “f*cking ICE could be outside” the venue, waiting to arrest concertgoers, Bad Bunny said in an interview with I-D magazine this month. “It’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.” He has also criticized immigration officials on his Instagram account for conducting raids in Puerto Rico “instead of leaving the people alone.”

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Immigration concerns notwithstanding, “I think I’ll do just one date in the United States,” Bad Bunny said Sunday on X just before the NFL confirmed his halftime show. He accompanied the announcement on Instagram with a short post that included a “nod to his Puerto Rican heritage,” USA Today said, by wearing a pava, a “traditional hat made from leaves of the Puerto Rican hat palm.”

Fans “flooded the internet with excitement” over his scheduled performance, said Rolling Stone, with many “celebrating the power of having a Latino on one of the world’s biggest stages” in a “political era that has targeted Latinos.”

NFL is ‘self-destructing’

The NFL’s choice to tap Bad Bunny as its halftime headliner “didn’t exactly sit well” with some football fans, Fox News said, citing many who “didn’t appear to be eager” for the upcoming performance. It comes one year after what “many viewers interpreted as a politically charged performance” from rapper Kendrick Lamar, Forbes said.

By hiring a “massive Trump hater” with “no songs in English,” the NFL is “self-destructing year after year,” said conservative YouTuber Benny Johnson on X. Bad Bunny was chosen to perform by “Barack Obama’s best friend Jay-Z,” who “runs the Super Bowl selection process through his company Roc Nation which has an exclusive contract with the NFL,” said far-right activist and Trump administration associate Jack Posobiec on X. On its website, the NFL lists Roc Nation as a co-executive producer and “strategic entertainment advisor” for the performance.

Bad Bunny will “find some way to push a woke message,” said right-wing social media activist Robby Starbuck on X. “Does this guy really scream American football to anyone? Be for real with me. No one thinks he does.”

Knowing that including Bad Bunny is “likely to upset certain people,” the NFL is “playing the long game,” USA Today said. The sport is increasingly eyeing a global role, and Bad Bunny is a business-minded “investment on that international future.”