Staff Editorial | The Chronicle
Last February, millions of people across the nation tuned in to witness Kendrick Lamar’s intentionally disruptive and immensely symbolic Super Bowl LIX Halftime Show. His performance, titled “The Great American Game,” utilized powerful imagery, such as dancers forming a fractured American flag and a reimagined Uncle Sam, portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson.
On September 28, 2025, the National Football League (NFL) announced that global recording artist Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, popularly known as Bad Bunny, would be headlining the Super Bowl LX Halftime Show, which took place on February 8, 2026.
It is no secret that over the past year, the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has become an increasingly prevalent force, creating more stir in the media than it has under any previous administration. Many speculated that, given Bad Bunny’s Puerto Rican heritage and love for the Latin-American community, he would use his time on the biggest stage in football to call out the recent mistreatment of immigrants in America and the abuses of ICE. However, he did the exact opposite.
Riddled with symbolism, the 2026 Halftime show presented Bad Bunny’s calling to the American people and their government: to choose love, even when the easiest option is to hate one another.
In our current society, polarization is at an all-time high. The general public is consumed with the increasing sense of having to choose. Left or right, red or blue, liberal or conservative. The overwhelming divide within the country in recent times has led to pure hate spewing out of both ends. Bad Bunny’s messages served as a reminder that a country fueled by hate is one that will run itself to the ground. Love, unity, togetherness and remembrance of the fact that we all make America the free nation it was intended to be is what will keep us going even amidst toxic societal environments.
Bad Bunny did not put on a show for America; he put on a show as America. As the first Halftime show in Super Bowl history to be spoken primarily in Spanish, Benito proved that there is no language barrier large enough to stop the pure happiness that radiates from his music. Despite his ability to speak English fluently, Bad Bunny sang in the language that is claimed by almost 20% of the United States population ‒ 50 million people that help to make America what it is today. Too often and too easily, it is forgotten that Puerto Rico is an American territory, along with the fact that the United States has the highest population of Spanish-speaking citizens in the entire world. Additionally, his backup dancers and field staff were fundamentally composed of people of color, highlighting the diversity that America is supposed to represent and stand for, the variety of people that our country has previously been so proud to have.
Thousands of people flooded the internet post halftime to criticize his choice to sing in his native tongue, his right to speak to a different audience than others have before. To those so vocally malicious online; imagine being so hateful that you could not hear the joy and promise in his performance simply because it was not in English. Barring translation, the positivity emitted during the halftime show was evident no matter where you were watching from.
Symbolically speaking, Bad Bunny’s performance as a whole showcased a number of underpublicized political and economic matters, in addition to bringing the entire culture of Puerto Rico to life on the Levi’s Stadium field in Santa Clara, California. From the lineman dancers in reference to the longest blackout in American history ‒ a period of almost 328 days in which the United States government left Puerto Rico without power ‒ to the lighter shade of blue on the Puerto Rican flag ‒ a sign from the territory’s independence movement in the 1940’s ‒ the show was a deliberate display of culture, liberty and above all, love.
Every aspect of the show was intentional and every intimate detail held a level of profundity that, when examined under a microscope, exudes hope and unapologetic truth. The dancing farmers, culturally known as “jibaros” in Puerto Rico, are traditional farmers who were highlighted to celebrate the island’s identity and resilience. The Latin string instruments, like cuatros and panderos, honored the iconic musical heritage in Latino culture and the legally authentic wedding mid-performance demonstrated true love. Finally, as Benito handed the little boy his recently awarded Grammy for Album of the Year, he spoke to the youth of America, offering a sense of hope and encouraging them to never give up on their dreams.
Perhaps his biggest statement, however, was reserved for the end of the performance. The finale featured people running across the field with the flags of sovereign countries as Bad Bunny listed every Latin country by name, and speaking his only English words of the evening: “God bless America,” three words that spoke volumes coming out of his mouth.
Bad Bunny reminded us that America does not belong to English-speaking, white Americans. America is a continent, home to over one billion people, where over 400 different languages are spoken.
Despite having to wear a bulletproof vest and sit alone at the Grammy Awards due to safety concerns, despite rumors of ICE agents storming the stage during the Halftime show to arrest a legal citizen, despite the backlash the NFL received for choosing an “Non-American” artist, despite Turning Point USA’s attempt to put on their own halftime show featuring Kid Rock in protest, despite every ill-intentioned person who expressed animosity and hostility because of his language and his heritage, Bad Bunny continued forward with nothing but love for America and its people. The next day, it was announced that his performance, despite the backlash, had broken the record for the most-watched Halftime show in NFL history.
While Lamar’s Halftime show in 2025 did nothing short of directly pinpointing every problem America was facing politically and socioeconomically, Bad Bunny provided the solution, quite literally spelling it out on a huge banner for the population to see.
“The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
