On February 6th, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, more commonly known as Bad Bunny, took the stage for his Super Bowl LX halftime performance. His halftime show, aside from being the first one performed entirely in Spanish, was the fourth most viewed performance in the games history, with an average of 128.2 million viewers throughout its duration. But what many of these viewers may have missed was the symbolism that was scattered throughout.
The most apparent feature of the set was visible from the start; lots of plants. While the plants made the show more immersive and vibrant, there was more to them than just their pleasing appearance. The plant was actually sugarcane, which has been a major part of Puerto Rico’s economic history, while also representing colonialism with how the crop was used to extract wealth from the island. Surrounding the plants (who were performers themselves), were people dressed as jibaros, traditional Puerto Rican farmers.
One moment that stood out to many was a wedding ceremony that took place during the show, which was in fact real. After being invited to the weddings of many of his fans, Benito decided to bring one lucky couple to the Super Bowl for their wedding to actually take place during the show! Also during the wedding, Bad Bunny woke up a kid who had fallen asleep. This was a fun reference to the fact that Puerto Rican weddings tend to last all night, allowing for sleeping kids to be a common occurrence.
Towards the end of his set, Bad Bunny was surrounded by sparking utility poles, which aside from looking cool, had a deeper meaning. Ever since Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017, power outages called ‘apagones’ have remained frequent, and are a challenge that Puerto Rico faces. The symbol was made more powerful by the song he sang during the portion, “Él Apogon”, which itself is a song critical of the government for corruption and inability to resolve the power problems.
At the end of the show, various flags from around the North and South American continents were flown, all while Bad Bunny held a football which read, “Together We Are America.” The entire sequence represented the idea that America is far greater than just the United States, but the entire Western Hemisphere. This idea is also paired with the one that we are better together, as the jumbotron read, “The only thing more powerful than hate is love”.
Overall, Benito’s halftime show was more than just nice tunes, it had lots of symbolism and references that paid homage to his Puerto Rican background.
