Super Bowl half-time show, review: Bad Bunny’s star-studded set enrages Trump
Singer plays down politics in energising performance celebrating Latino heritage – but still incurs the wrath of the president
The rapper’s set was the first time in the history of the NFL that the flagship entertainment was performed largely in Spanish
Bad Bunny played down the politics in his Super Bowl half-time show but still incurred the wrath of Donald Trump who described the performance as “absolutely terrible” and “one of the worst, EVER!”
Just a week earlier, the singer – real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio – had used his historic Album of the Year win at the Grammys to speak out against Donald Trump’s ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents.
But he largely set the politics to one side with a brilliantly breezy 20-minute Super Bowl slot that showcased the effortless charisma that made him the world’s most-streamed artist last year.
Only at the end did he veer towards the political. As he listed the names of all the countries that make up the Americas, the video screens at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara flashed the message: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
In a post on Truth Social, the US president said the performance made “no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence”.
“Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children”, he added, before describing the performance as a “slap in the face” to America.
The emphasis of the show was on the 31-year-old’s breathtaking rise from a supermarket bag packer in Puerto Rico to the summit of pop – a celebration that featured a duet with Lady Gaga, what seemed to be a fake wedding (perhaps it was real), and cameos from Ricky Martin, Pedro Pascal, and Jessica Alba.
One celebrity who didn’t feature was Kid Rock, a Trump supporter who was headlining his own alternative Super Bowl show in conjunction with the conservative organisation Turning Point USA. As Kid Rock huffed and puffed miles away, Bad Bunny – the first artist to win Album of the Year for a Spanish-language record, and the first Super Bowl performer to sing entirely in Spanish – conjured a party atmosphere that lost little in translation.
It will have even impressed the family member of mine who was under the misapprehension that the Super Bowl was being headlined by Eighties novelty chart-toppers Jive Bunny and was impressed by their staying power (they have high hopes of the Birdie Song featuring at some point during the World Cup).
The set was a tweaked version of Bad Bunny’s current live show – a world tour that visits London this June but has skipped the United States because of the singer’s fears that it would be targeted by ICE agents.
It began with workers toiling in a sugar cane plantation, as Bad Bunny, wearing the biggest, whitest suit this side of Talking Heads’ David Byrne in the Stop Making Sense concert movie, rambled playfully into view, stopping to pretend to chat with various people who seemed to represent archetypes from Puerto Rican life – the equivalent of the milkman, lollypop lady, postman, and so forth.
In the flesh, the singer is an unlikely mix of effortless charisma and a slightly nerdy charm, the contrast topped off by his beautifully syrupy baritone that, allowing for language differences, makes him sound like a sort of mumblecore George Michael.
He was soon standing on the roof of a reproduction of a traditional Puerto Rican La Casita house that will be familiar to anyone who has seen his stadium show. Later, he referenced recurring power cuts on the island by singing from atop a replica electricity pole, which certainly beats sending the council an angry email. As is mandatory at the Super Bowl, he was surrounded by backing dancers, but instead of the usual slickness, they seemed delighted to be there.
As did Bad Bunny, who through the his pocket-sized gig, occasionally waggled an American football at the camera, declared “God bless America” in English – only to make it clear that he meant the continent rather than the country – and then jogged off down the tunnel, beaming like a footballer who had scored a hat-trick.
The NFL will have been relieved that the set passed without controversy (it had a 10-second broadcast delay, just in case). The performance ended up being more about pop rather than politics, and also, it was just great fun.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/concerts/super-bowl-halftime-show-review-bad-bunny/
The rapper’s set was the first time in the history of the NFL that the flagship entertainment was performed largely in Spanish
Bad Bunny played down the politics in his Super Bowl half-time show but still incurred the wrath of Donald Trump who described the performance as “absolutely terrible” and “one of the worst, EVER!”
Just a week earlier, the singer – real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio – had used his historic Album of the Year win at the Grammys to speak out against Donald Trump’s ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents.
But he largely set the politics to one side with a brilliantly breezy 20-minute Super Bowl slot that showcased the effortless charisma that made him the world’s most-streamed artist last year.
Only at the end did he veer towards the political. As he listed the names of all the countries that make up the Americas, the video screens at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara flashed the message: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
In a post on Truth Social, the US president said the performance made “no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence”.
“Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children”, he added, before describing the performance as a “slap in the face” to America.
The emphasis of the show was on the 31-year-old’s breathtaking rise from a supermarket bag packer in Puerto Rico to the summit of pop – a celebration that featured a duet with Lady Gaga, what seemed to be a fake wedding (perhaps it was real), and cameos from Ricky Martin, Pedro Pascal, and Jessica Alba.
One celebrity who didn’t feature was Kid Rock, a Trump supporter who was headlining his own alternative Super Bowl show in conjunction with the conservative organisation Turning Point USA. As Kid Rock huffed and puffed miles away, Bad Bunny – the first artist to win Album of the Year for a Spanish-language record, and the first Super Bowl performer to sing entirely in Spanish – conjured a party atmosphere that lost little in translation.
It will have even impressed the family member of mine who was under the misapprehension that the Super Bowl was being headlined by Eighties novelty chart-toppers Jive Bunny and was impressed by their staying power (they have high hopes of the Birdie Song featuring at some point during the World Cup).
The set was a tweaked version of Bad Bunny’s current live show – a world tour that visits London this June but has skipped the United States because of the singer’s fears that it would be targeted by ICE agents.
It began with workers toiling in a sugar cane plantation, as Bad Bunny, wearing the biggest, whitest suit this side of Talking Heads’ David Byrne in the Stop Making Sense concert movie, rambled playfully into view, stopping to pretend to chat with various people who seemed to represent archetypes from Puerto Rican life – the equivalent of the milkman, lollypop lady, postman, and so forth.
In the flesh, the singer is an unlikely mix of effortless charisma and a slightly nerdy charm, the contrast topped off by his beautifully syrupy baritone that, allowing for language differences, makes him sound like a sort of mumblecore George Michael.
He was soon standing on the roof of a reproduction of a traditional Puerto Rican La Casita house that will be familiar to anyone who has seen his stadium show. Later, he referenced recurring power cuts on the island by singing from atop a replica electricity pole, which certainly beats sending the council an angry email. As is mandatory at the Super Bowl, he was surrounded by backing dancers, but instead of the usual slickness, they seemed delighted to be there.
As did Bad Bunny, who through the his pocket-sized gig, occasionally waggled an American football at the camera, declared “God bless America” in English – only to make it clear that he meant the continent rather than the country – and then jogged off down the tunnel, beaming like a footballer who had scored a hat-trick.
The NFL will have been relieved that the set passed without controversy (it had a 10-second broadcast delay, just in case). The performance ended up being more about pop rather than politics, and also, it was just great fun.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/concerts/super-bowl-halftime-show-review-bad-bunny/
