Bad Bunny Turned Super Bowl Halftime Into a Benito Bowl Win
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The club that I’m currently watching Super Bowl LX in—Keys on Sunset, thanks for the hospitality—was anticipating the BenitoBowl so feverishly that the mere sight of the man of the hour getting ready in a commercial teaser sent the whole place up as if it were a Saturday night in Los Angeles instead of a tame (but also summer-level 90 degrees) Sunday afternoon.
There are factions in the country, MAGA and just otherwise racist, currently frontin as if tapping Bad Bunny to spearhead this year’s halftime show is an affront to America, a great travesty that someone who dares be outspoken against our corrupt country stand at the forefront of the great American game.
The joke of course is that Bad Bunny was never going to get on this stage and say “ICE out” or anything glaringly obvious and brazen. Instead, like all of his sets and tours, he used his platform for tasteful commentary—and in the process, ran through one banger after another.
Let’s start with the surprise guests, or lack thereof. I’m always mystified as to why in the weeks leading up to this show, some fans over-theorize on possible cameos—as if said artist is really going to compromise the biggest 12-minute look of their life by ceding valuable time to other people. Which is to say, Bunny kept it appropriately light. Cardi B did not come out for “I Like It,” but played the background as one of several blink-and-you’ll-miss cameos that also included Jessica Alba, Karol G and Pedro Pascal in the bodega scene.
But that set piece, like so many others, showcased the slick ways this production let Bad Bunny put on for so many facets of Puerto Rican culture in such a short amount of time, recreating tableaus that represented PR proper and the subcultures that exist here in the States—from flying out the proprietor of Toñitas in Brooklyn, María Antonia Cay herself, to an early cameo from rising boxer Zander Zayas.
There were statements and nods to the ways in which Puerto Rico and America are forever entrenched—and even slicker critiques, like the sequence staged on those sparking power poles, which people tell me is a nod to the privatization of the fragile power grids in PR and the subsequent constant outages, or flying the original, banned Puerto Rican flag, even as he said “God bless America.”
There’s no bigger way to force Americans to confront how much they’ve engaged with popular Puerto Rican culture over the years than teasing a few seconds of “Gasolina” and then full-on giving thee Ricky Martin his own time to shine. A more inscrutable decision was salsa’ing with Lady Gaga. The two don’t have an actual collaboration together on wax, but maybe by seamlessly including someone so random, Bad Bunny is showing critics how fluidly two seemingly disparate musical styles—in this case, one of the biggest faces of the straight-down-the-middle pop world that detractors claim they want to see represented in the Jay-Z Halftime Show era—can flow together? She sounded great, for whatever it’s worth.
As for the music, there were no set-list swerves, only some deft sequencing that showcased subcultures from reggaeton to salsa, which he danced to with Gaga. The scope of the performance alone puts him up there in the Halftime pantheon—with all the different set pieces, camera angles, and perspective changes, this is truly one where watching at home might’ve been a far better experience than live. (No surprise from the guy who once delivered one of the best live shows specifically tailored for people at home during the pandemic.)
And then of course, the one moment we’ll all be talking about: Benito giving (one of) his Grammy awards to a young kid who’s just watched him win Album of the Year in his living room. The message is clear, to fans and haters alike: you just created a million Bad Bunnies. God bless America.
