Shannon Kelly ’26

by Shannon Kelly ’26 on February 12, 2026

On Sunday, Feb. 8, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, colloquially known as Bad Bunny, performed during halftime of the 60th Super Bowl at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, CA. He made history as the first Latin artist to headline the consistently most watched event on television each year in the United States. His performance included guests such as Ricky Martin, Cardi B, Karol G, Jessica Alba, Pedro Pascal, Lady Gaga, and others. For Americans, the Super Bowl halftime show emblematizes the vast social and cultural identities that exist within our country. It is currently estimated that 135 million people watched the halftime performance on Sunday, which was described as a “cultural game changer” in which Bad Bunny “delivered an interactive celebration of Latino culture at one of the most contentious times for the community in the United States.”

The show has garnered praise, controversy, and tension, including on our own campus. Many individuals on this campus utilized YikYak, an anonymous application that allows you to communicate with others in your respective communities, to resort to racist speech and ideology when discussing the halftime performance. For example, many people posted about not understanding the music due to Bad Bunny solely singing in Spanish, wrongly assuming Bad Bunny is an immigrant despite being from Puerto Rico (a U.S. territory), and many made comments sexualizing the dancers. Comments that were made by Providence College students in a group chat include a sarcastic, “I loved all the English” and, “I don’t speak Spanish. I’m not American enough.” Other comments that were made on YikYak include, “Get ICE up and moving around,” “Love me the all inclusive DEI Halftime Show,” and, “English please damn.” This demonstrates the tendency to interpret a performance solely through one’s own cultural identity and a lack of desire to understand both cultural and linguistic experiences that differ from your own. The possibility of YikYak being banned on PC’s wifi is currently being talked about in the Faculty Senate. 

Bad Bunny’s performance highlighted many parts of the Puerto Rican experience in terms of politics, sociality, history, and culture. He even said that he sought to “bring what people can always expect from me and a lot of my culture.” Specific examples include demonstrating Puerto Rico’s agricultural roots in the sugarcane fields, casitas where people live, individuals playing dominoes, and a general focus on Puerto Rican resilience, especially in recognition of their colonialist past, which includes involvement from the U.S. After Bad Bunny won his Grammy for Album of the Year, Ricky Martin addressedBad Bunny, saying he had “won without changing the color of your voice. You won without erasing your roots. You won by staying true to Puerto Rico.” Additionally, Bad Bunny’s performance occurred just months after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that declared English as the national language, despite an estimated 42–45 million people speaking Spanish at home in America and a wide array of languages being spoken throughout the U.S. 

The President made statements about Bad Bunny’s performance on Truth Social, calling it a “slap in the face to our country,” “an affront to the Greatness of America,” and emphasizing that it “doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence.” Turning Point USA hosted their own “All American Halftime Show,” which was presented as an alternative to watching Bad Bunny. Their halftime show was explained to be “an opportunity for all Americans to enjoy a halftime show with no agenda other than to celebrate faith, family, and freedom.” It is estimated that around six million people watched it, although the official total is under speculation. 

An anonymous PC student advised “everyone to rewatch the performance and really sit down with yourself” in order to “empathize that we are not against each other but against the system that is bringing us down.” Bad Bunny powerfully ended his performance by saying, “God Bless America” and listing countries from South America, Central America, North America, and the Caribbean. Behind him stood a billboard that read, “The only thing more powerful than hate is love,” which is a necessary reminder both on this campus and in our world as a whole.