On Sunday, Sep. 28, it was announced that Puerto Rican rapper and singer Bad Bunny will be playing one of the biggest American events of the year: the Super Bowl Halftime Show. After this announcement and the days following, opinions about this decision flooded social media, whether it was with excitement or upset. However, there is no denying that in this political climate, having a Latin American artist play at the largest American event of the year is a statement and Bad Bunny is just one example of how music can serve as activism.
Recently, Bad Bunny canceled his United States tour as a protest against how active Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been in the country under President Trump’s administration. When he was announced for the Super Bowl, he posted on X saying, “I’ve been thinking about it these days, and after discussing it with my team, I think I’ll do just one date in the United States.” A TikTok post from NowThis Impact compiled X posts, many of which criticize the decision to have a performance that will likely be fully in Spanish.
“Imagine being this upset because someone’s going to perform songs you don’t like– in a language you don’t even understand. Bad Bunny has said he wouldn’t tour in the U.S. out of fear that ICE could target his fans at shows. Now, the NFL is giving him a chance to perform on one of the world’s biggest stages. February can’t come soon enough,” the caption from NowThis stated.
One of the X posts brought up mentioned how many people were dissatisfied with Kendrick Lamar’s Super Bowl halftime performance from last year. Many people claimed the performance was boring, but that performance was a statement about the state of the country and the systemic racism within it. However, many failed to fully understand what Lamar was trying to convey with his performance, and wrote it off as uninteresting, when in reality, it was just less flashy and more down-to-earth.
So, this year, it’s going to be more obvious: having a Latin American music artist perform one of the most American events that there are, one that is also attended by many white people, is absolutely an act of political activism. Considering the current treatment of Hispanic people in America, with ICE raids, inhumane detainment centers, mass deportation and censorship of media, now more than ever is a time for music to serve as a statement. Bad Bunny playing the most American event almost entirely in Spanish should be a way to prove how vital Latin American and Hispanic culture is to the US.
Many Super Bowl viewers and attendees may not understand the language that Bad Bunny sings in or the message that his performance is meant to convey. But that does not make the message ineffective: the fact that over a hundred million people are going to hear a performance in Spanish during this political climate is enough of a statement to get the point across. Music is art and it is activism, whether that music is in a language we understand or not– and different cultures will always be part of America, no matter how hard they are pushed out.
