Sunday night, during a pretty fun Packers/Cowboys game that ultimately blue-balled those who stayed for the end, the NFL, Apple Music, and Roc Nation announced the next Super Bowl halftime performer: Latin hip-hop superstar and Happy Gilmore caddy Bad Bunny. And yet, despite it making quite a bit of sense on paper, the decision quickly sparked weird political discourse, because of course it did. Here’s the thing that conversation misunderstands — the National Football League and its partners’ choice wasn’t motivated by politics; it was motivated by the almighty dollar.
For the few whose social media timelines haven’t yet completely deteriorated, MAGA has had a less-than-enthused response to the announcement. (Or, as one Fox News article put it, “the choice didn’t exactly sit well with NFL fans,” though, to our eyes, the blowback seems to be coming from a very specific subset of the league’s audience.) In the wake of the news, blue checkmarks and Truth Social users have railed against “Barack Obama’s best friend” Jay-Z for giving Bad Bunny the gig, claimed he’s irrelevant (more on that later), and shared memes that express their disapproval.
Get Super Bowl Tickets Here
Why such a dramatic reaction? Well, after remaining more or less apolitical on issues that don’t directly impact his native Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny formally endorsed Kamala Harris during her 2024 presidential campaign following Tony Hinchcliffe’s infamous “floating island of garbage” joke. Since then, the rapper has taken issue with the conduct of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), specifically avoiding the continental United States on his “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos World Tour” out of fear that ICE would conduct raids outside of his shows.
Related Video
“Those motherfuckers are in these cars, RAV-4s,” he said earlier this year, reacting to footage of law enforcement officials seemingly detaining people while using unmarked vehicles on Avenida Pontezuela in Carolina, Puerto Rico. “They came here… Sons of bitches, instead of leaving the people alone and working there.”
He remains far less of an expressly political figure than, say, Bruce Springsteen or last year’s halftime headliner Kendrick Lamar. Still, the opinions were enough to mark him with the sign of woke for MAGA, who have broadly categorized the NFL’s move as diversity-driven and as a slight against the Donald Trump administration. In reality, however, the pick seems much less influenced by Trump and his policies and much more influenced by the NFL’s aggressive international expansion.
Because, while some anglophones might not realize it, Bad Bunny is monstrously famous. The Puerto Rican rapper was the most-streamed artist on Spotify from 2020-2022 (he’s remained within the top five in the years since), had the first Spanish-language album to top the Billboard 200 with El Último Tour Del Mundo, and expanded his most recent tour (the one that skipped America) from 24 dates to 57. All the while, he’s managed to climb to such a commercial peak while remaining a critical favorite (even nabbing some high spots on previous year-end lists from Consequence). He has a legitimate claim to the title of “one of the biggest artists in the world,” and it’s those last three words, “in the world,” that the NFL is banking on.
