Reactions to Bad Bunny halftime show reflect ideological divide

Bad Bunny performs “El Apagón” (“The Blackout”), a song that has become something of a resistance anthem, atop a replica utility pole during halftime at Super Bowl LX at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., Feb. 8, 2026. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)

By THE STAR STAFF

Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican reggaetón sensation, electrified the Super Bowl in San Francisco’s Levi Stadium last Sunday in a performance that tried but failed to create unity in the United States behind multiculturalism.

Making appearances along with Bad Bunny were superstars Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.

In a performance entirely in Spanish that celebrated Puerto Rican culture and offered a lesson in American (Western Hemisphere) geography culminating with Bad Bunny standing in front of all the flags of the Americas and listing off their names.

The Washington Post gushed that Bad Bunny’s performance was a celebration of family values while conservatives on the other side of the yawning cultural and political divide derided the performance because it was entirely in Spanish and “un-American.”

One of the more dubious criticisms came from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who said the Super Bowl ought to be in English because the Bible was written in English.

The show got a thumbs up from the Robert and Ethel Kennedy Foundation.

Commentators had to remind everyone, including some members of Congress who said Bad Bunny should be deported, that Puerto Rico is part of the United States.

A surprising critic of the show was Latin Rock icon Carlos Santana, who said it was “a slap in the face to America [the United States].”

Santana said that music ought to be universal and unite, not divide people. He argued that Bad Bunny’s implied criticism of Trump administration policies only served to inflame passions.

At the end of the show the scoreboard flashed a message that “the only thing stronger than hate is love.”

Republican Congress members alleged that the Bad Bunny lyrics were indecent, with one calling the songs “total smut.”

Some of the songs did indeed contain some expletives.

In the latter part of the halftime show, Bad Bunny climbed up a prop of a smoking utility pole while singing “El Apagón” (“The Blackout”), a shot at Puerto Rico’s power grid operator LUMA Energy.

“The fact that this issue is being brought to the international stage highlights the urgency of the challenges Puerto Rico faces and reinforces the need for sustained investment to address the accumulated deterioration of the  island’s electric infrastructure,” LUMA said in a statement.