Bad Bunny’s ‘Benito Bowl’ was a celebration of Puerto Rican pride
Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin were surprise guests in a dazzling Spanish-language show that reminded everyone watching that they were listening to "music from Puerto Rico, from the neighborhoods."
Bad Bunny has rescued the Super Bowl.
The first half of the final game of the NFL season was a low-scoring, nearly lifeless affair, but once Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio appeared for his much ballyhooed and endlessly analyzed halftime show, Levis Stadium came brilliantly to life.
The Latin trap rapper and charismatic entertainer promised that the Benito Bowl would be a proud celebration of his native Puerto Rico, and boy was it ever!
Dressed in white with a football tucked under his arm, Bad Bunny — who became the first ever Spanish language Grammy album of the year winner last Sunday — kept up his February winning streak.
His dazzlingly choreographed performance transformed the field into sugar cane fields (actual people dressed as sugar cane plants) with a casita at the center that Bad Bunny danced on top of, before dramatically falling through the roof. An allegedly real wedding was officiated, Bad Bunny crowd surfed, carried the Puerto Rican flag, stopped at coco frio and taco stands, said hello to a pair of sparring boxers, paid tribute to reggaeton stars Daddy Yankee and Don Omar, and packed in portions of 12 songs in just under 13 minutes.
The big name guest performers — the source of much speculation and wagering beforehand — turned out to be Lady Gaga, who sang her hit “Die With A Smile” wearing a traditional Puerto Rican dress complete with a brooch that looked like the national flower, Flor de Maga. Then followed a salsa version of “Monaco” and a surprise appearance by Ricky Martin, the “Livin’ La Vida Loca” Puerto Rican crossover star who success preceded Bad Bunny’s by a generation.
With Bad Bunny, Martin sang “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii,” a powerful protest anthem warning people of Puerto Rico so they don’t suffer the same fate as Hawaii.
Fleeting cameo appearances were made by many others — Cardi B., Karol G., Pedro Pascal, Jessica Alba, Alix Earle, and Young Miko among them. Not to mention a cast of what seemed like hundreds of dancers and bit players.
But the focus was on the artist and global cultural powerhouse who brought together the community in Levis Stadium, and the ones watching on TV and phone screens all around the world.
The NFL — and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, which booked the show — was savvy to bring in the most widely streamed musician in the world to attract a youthful, international audience. That, while resisting pressure from the Trump administration and conservative critics who argued that Bad Bunny — an American citizen — was somehow an “un-American choice” to headline the most red, white, and blue sporting event of the year.
As promised, Bad Bunny rapped only in Spanish, so viewers like me who don’t speak the language, were somewhat clueless. But it wasn’t so hard to get the gist of communal solidarity, though. To make it plain for the gringos, a giant video screen spelled out in English words Bad Bunny used in his Grammy acceptance speech last week: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love,” underscoring the common humanity of immigrants fighting for freedom and respect.
While remaining in constant motion, Bad Bunny addressed the crowd in words that translate as: “You’re listening to music from Puerto Rico, from the neighborhoods, from the slums.”
“The reason I’m here,” the former grocery store bagger said, “is because I never stopped believing in myself.”
To the bomba beat of “El Apagon” — which started out with Martin on “Lo Que Le Paso A Hawaii” — Bad Bunny stood atop a utility pole that rose above the faux sugar cane field and palm trees. He rapped about the power failures that have plagued the island and which he has insistently called attention to since Hurricane Maria in 2017.
And in that same song — in Spanish — he put into words an ecstatic celebration of his people and Spanish language culture that joyfully countered the criticism that his being named Super Bowl Half Time headliner initiated.
“Now,” he exulted, with scores of dancers aligned behind him, “everybody wants to be Latino.”
He did, however, say three words in English: “God bless America” before listing all the countries that make up the continent: starting with Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay and ending with, of course, Puerto Rico.
The stadium-sized pop-punk band Green Day, led by Billie Joe Armstrong who hails from Berkeley, Calif., qualifies as a local band for the Super Bowl being played across San Francisco Bay in Santa Clara, Calif. The band played a fast paced four-song medley before the game.
It has a long history of speaking out against President Donald Trump. Trump, in return, said he is “anti-them” when asked about the Super Bowl entertainment by the New York Post in January.
At the Super Bowl, however, Armstrong did not sing out in protest. With drummer Tre Cool and bassist Mike Dint, Armstrong banged out condensed versions of hits “Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life),” “Holiday,” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” before getting to the finale of “American Idiot,” the title song to their 2004 album.
Usually when the band gets to the song’s lyric “I’m not part of a redneck agenda,” Armstrong sings “I’m not part of a MAGA agenda,” and at times, he has tweaked it to target Elon Musk.
On Sunday, however, that verse was entirely left out of the song. Instead of a protest, it became a celebration of the big game, with several former Super Bowl MVP players, including Tom Brady, San Francisco 49er local heroes Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and Steve Young, and the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts, joining the band at the front of the stage.
Following Green Day — and after actor Chris Pratt introduced the Seahawks and Jon Bon Jovi did the same for the Patriots, Brandi Carlile sang “America the Beautiful.”
The Washington state native accompanied herself on acoustic guitar and was joined by Sista Strings, the sibling duo of violinists Chauntee and Monique Ross. It was an understated and effective version by the country and rock singer, who opens her Human tour in Philadelphia at the Xfinity Mobile Arena on Tuesday.
Earlier in the week at Super Bowl press event, Carlile spoke about being chosen to sing the song. “This is a song about a country, a beautiful country, that ebbs and flows in terms of hope,” she said. “And it’s a work in progress. And the song believes we can get there, and I believe we can get there.”
Central Jersey songwriter and pop star Charlie Puth followed Carlile with a blue eyed soul version of “The Star Spangled Banner,” joined by a choir for vocal support. Puth’s approach was low-key and perfectly respectable, and not likely to be the subject of much Monday morning water cooler conversation on a night when Bad Bunny took center stage.
Singer songwriter Coco Jones got the pregame music started with a version of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the song that’s come to be known as the “Black national anthem.” Written first as a poem by James Weldon Johnson in 1900, it was then set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson. Jones delivered a powerful, emotionally direct version, joined by a string octet.