“We’re not savages, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens, we are humans and we are Americans … The hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that’s more powerful than hate is love.”
The words of Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, or Bad Bunny, echoed throughout Crypto.com Arena as he proudly held the trophy for Best Música Urbana Album at the 68th Grammy Awards on February 1.
The Puerto Rican rapper and singer went home with two more Grammys that night, including Best Global Music Performance for “EoO” and Album of the Year for “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS,” which translates to “I Should Have Taken More Photos.”
Bad Bunny delivered this heartfelt speech amidst rampant verbal and physical violence against the Latin American community just one week before he was set to headline the Super Bowl LX halftime show on February 8 in Santa Clara.
When it was announced on September 28 that Bad Bunny would headline the halftime show, the NFL faced relentless criticism from conservative media and government officials.
“They suck, and we’ll win… They won’t be able to sleep at night because they don’t know what they believe. And they’re so weak, we’ll fix it,” said U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem when asked by right-wing podcast host Benny Johnson what message she wanted to send to the league.
“It’s so shameful that they’ve decided to pick somebody who just seems to hate America so much to represent them at the halftime game,” said Department of Homeland Security adviser Corey Lewandowski on the same podcast.
In the months following the announcement, tensions between the federal government and the Latin American community have continued to intensify. Immigration policy debates have sharpened. There has been increased action by enforcement agencies, and political rhetoric placing Latino communities at the center of national controversy has swelled.
Going into Super Bowl Sunday, it was widely understood that Bad Bunny’s performance would be more than a spectacle; it would be a statement.
As the show drew nearer, pushback from conservatives across the country soared to new heights.
Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit co-founded by the late right-wing political commentator Charlie Kirk, announced the hosting of “The All-American Halftime Show.” The show was free to watch on the Turning Point YouTube channel and featured performances from Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett.
Despite the pushback from its audience and the federal government, the NFL stood strong in its selection of Bad Bunny. This firmness stands in stark contrast to how the NFL reacted in 2018 to comments from the first Trump administration attacking players for kneeling during the national anthem in protest against police brutality.
“Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a b**** off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’” said Trump at a political rally in September 2017.
In May 2018, the NFL introduced a policy that effectively banned on-field kneeling. This policy was later reversed in 2020, following the murder of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
At the end of the day, the NFL is a business and makes decisions motivated almost entirely by profit. Having Bad Bunny as the halftime show performer puts them in front of a huge market: the 68 million Latinos in the U.S., the over 40 million Spanish speakers in the U.S., and the international audience.
On February 8, Bad Bunny took the stage, which had been transformed from a football field into a sugarcane field, representative of Puerto Rico’s main cash crop. As he walked, danced and climbed across the set, he was surrounded by references and homages to Puerto Rico and his childhood
The show included guest performances from Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin and featured cameos from celebrities such as actors Pedro Pascal and Jessica Alba, rapper Cardi B, baseball phenom Ronald Acuña Jr., and even Nashville Symphony conductor Giancarlo Guerrero.
Bad Bunny delivered just three English words throughout the 13-minute show: “God Bless America.”
The performance peaked at roughly 137.8 million viewers, making it more viewed than the game itself.
During the show, Bad Bunny did not make any political statements directly aimed at the Trump administration. His message was something much more universal: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
These words, borrowed from his own Grammy acceptance speech a week earlier, were displayed on the jumbotron in bold black lettering.
To many, the performance was a moment of unity in a country where those moments are becoming increasingly rare.
As the concert came to a close, Bad Bunny emphasized his dream of togetherness, holding a football to the camera that read, “Together, We Are America.”
