The afternoon was fading in Santa Clara, California, and at Levi’s Stadium a “God Bless America” was heard that had a tagline loaded with symbolism.
As had rarely happened, the traditional American patriotic phrase was transformed into a prayer for peace, protection, blessings and unity not of a country, but of an entire continent, just as the curtain fell on the most Latin halftime show in the history of the Super Bowl.
In the American Football Final (NFL), one of the five sporting events with the greatest global reach, the match between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks almost took a back seat for millions of viewers who, after marking this February 8 on the calendar, definitely did not end up disappointed.
The reason? Simple: Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny. “If I am here today at Super Bowl 60 it is because I never, never stopped believing in myself. And you should believe in yourself too. You are worth more than you think. Believe me,” said “El Conejo Malo” on a stage full of Puerto Rican symbols and customs, from the cane fields to the games of dominoes, the barbershops or the dancers dressed as jíbaros.
His message, sung in Spanish from beginning to end in the quintessential “gringo” show, transcended American borders with a dedication to all the countries of the continent, which he mentioned one by one in a parade of flags that ended right at the goal line of the stadium, which displayed on one of its screens the powerful phrase with which Benito blew up the Grammy ceremony last week: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
There, then, Bad Bunny showed the “Together we are America” engraved on the ball he was carrying in his hand, which he threw against the ground like someone scoring a goal. touchdown winner right under the nose of the most powerful rival that has ever existed.
Cuba in the house
“Be Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico… Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Haiti, the Antilles, United States, Canada and my motherland, my homeland, Puerto Rico. We are still here.”
Bad Bunny didn’t leave anyone on the road. All American countries were reflected in the most watched Super Bowl show in history.
Cuba was one of the nations that received a nod, not only for the parade of the lone star flag in Levi’s Stadium, but for the direct invitation to a son of Havana.
We are talking about Juan Carlos Piñeiro, professional basketball player and owner of a canoe cart in San Juan, who served a shaved ice (slushy for Cubans) to Bad Bunny at the beginning of the show, when the Puerto Rican star sang “Tití asked me.”
Piñeiro left Cuba in June 2012 to participate with the national team in the Centrobasket that was held in Hato Rey, north of the Puerto Rican capital. There he stayed and began a professional career that has taken him through the Brujos de Guayama, the Caciques de Humacao, the Cangrejeros de Santurce (a team that Bad Bunny owns), the Cariduros de Fajardo and the Capitanes de Arecibo, his current club.
“More than an athlete, Juan Pablo is family, he is culture and he is pure heart. Today we celebrate his versatility: from a player for our Captains and a canoeist, to shining before millions of people,” the club published on its Instagram account.
Piñeiro was not the only athlete invited to participate in Bad Bunny’s show at the Super Bowl. On his journey along that very Puerto Rican path recreated on stage, the Puerto Rican Xander Zayas, unified super welterweight champion, and the Mexican-American Emiliano Vargas appeared boxing, while in “La Casita” (part of the scenery of his current world tour) was the Venezuelan baseball player Ronald Acuña Jr.
Patriots-Seahawks, in the shadow of the “Bad Rabbit”
When Bad Bunny appeared at Levi’s Stadium dressed immaculately in white, with the number 64 on his chest and his maternal surname (Ocasio) on his back, the Seahawks controlled the Super Bowl against the Patriots with an iron fist.
Seattle’s defensive line, with a player of Cuban-Mexican roots (Julian Love) in its ranks, had reduced to ashes the push of the talented quarterback Drake Maye, who at halftime kept his New England points tally at zero.
The Patriots lacked seasoning and flavor, just what was left over in Bad Bunny’s show, which turned the stage into emotion, love and Latin pride in every second with a tour of 13 of their most popular songs, one of them (LO QUE LE PASADA A HAWAii) in the voice of Ricky Martín, another Puerto Rican star. And if we talk about legends, there was no shortage of flashes of tribute to classics by Tego Calderón, Don Omar, Héctor “El Father” and Daddy Yankee.
Even Lady Gaga dancing salsa – we never saw it coming – with her success Die With a Smile He had more rhythm than the New England players, stuck in a failed strategy, without energy, without spark and, above all, very redundant, although perhaps not as much as the attacks on Bad Bunny.
The leader of this offensive against the singer could not be other than Donald Trump, clearly upset, judging by his publications on his Truth Social network: “The Super Bowl halftime show is absolutely regrettable, one of the worst of all time. It is absurd, an affront to the greatness of America, and does not at all reflect our values of success, creativity and excellence.”
What is not clear to us is whether Trump had written this speech before the Super Bowl or whether he betrayed himself and ended up “enjoying” Bad Bunny’s show just so he could criticize it. If so, then he must have missed the performance of his admirers Kid Rock, Lee Brice, Brantley Gilbert and Gabby Barrett in the alternative show of the conservative organization The Turning Point USA.
By the way, this show had little more than six million viewers. Meanwhile, Bad Bunny had a Super Bowl audience of 135.4 million viewers, surpassing Kendrick Lamar’s previous record (133.5 million in 2025). Such a fan of numbers, Trump must have had trouble falling asleep.
The same applies to Laura Loomer, a far-right activist known for her racist and homophobic posts on the internet, who went all out against the NFL, demanding an apology from the American people “for filling the Super Bowl with foreign flags.” For her, this was “a shame.”
“How delicious it is to be Latino!”
“As Latinos, we should feel proud that Benito sang in Spanish to the most important party for Americans. Viva Bad Bunny!” exclaimed Mexican reporter John Sutcliffe during ESPN’s live broadcast from Santa Clara. Almost through tears and with a broken voice, the journalist sent a message that is a small sample of how much the presentation of the “Bad Rabbit” resonated.
The praise poured in. “I am with you in the same way that you were with me. So proud to be Puerto Rican!” wrote Jennifer López, who had just invited Bad Bunny to the 2020 Super Bowl show. Also a legend of Puerto Rican music like Gilberto Santa Rosa made his vision clear: “Congratulations Benito! Your presentation is unbeatable!!! Thank you for making all of us Latinos look good and showing the detractors that what unites us must always be stronger than what separates us… and that without a doubt PR is something else… Walk it!!!”.
Bad Bunny met expectations and starred in a show full of symbolism, love and positivity. The entire staging was a hymn to Latin roots, the adversities of our people and the need to unite in these turbulent times. From the nail salon, the coconut stand, the blackout, the unprecedented – but real – wedding of two strangers or the presentation of the Grammy to a child (perhaps a memory of who it was) who watched the ceremony on an old television with his family, everything fit into a party of just over 13 minutes.
The perreo was contagious, the music boomed and set the rhythm, but Benito definitely did not intend to take advantage of the stage just to promote his work. Its objective went much further, it was to make everyone enjoy it together, those who understand and chant and its lyrics and those who do not know a word in Spanish.
If after the announcement of his performance at the Super Bowl several months ago he said that in the United States they had little time to learn Spanish and be able to sing his songs, last week he had already dropped that that was the least important thing in an interview with Apple Music: “It’s going to be easy. People only have to worry about dancing. I know I told them that they had four months to learn Spanish. They don’t even have to learn Spanish. It’s better if they learn to dance.”
And he was absolutely right.
