The half time show at the American Football Super Bowl is a legendary extravaganza that is the subject of great anticipation usually featuring the entertainer of the moment. There is no dispute that is the 31year old Pueto Rican, “Bad Bunny”, also known as Antonio Bonito Martinez Occasio. He smashed records at the recent Grammy awards becoming the first winner of the year for “Best Album”, amongst the seven Grammys he garnered, entirely in Spanish. In 2025, as in 2022 and 2023, he was the most streamed rapper, singer, arranger, in the world. The next day following his blow out performance he chalked up the highest number of streams ever on Spotify, 180 million and Apple 271 million.
So what was the problem? The problem was that Bad Bunny represented everything that TRUMP was trying to eliminate to Make America Great Again, (MAGA).
BACKLASH TO ANNOUNCEMENT OF 2026 HALF TIME ARTIST
Bad Bunny gained humongous political significance when receiving his most prestigious Grammy award. In his acceptance speech, he emotionally began, “Before I say thanks to God, I am gonna say out with ICE” (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). He represents everything that Trump believes that an American should not be namely. Trump has said so in so many words, and more. (Presumably what he has going for him is that he is Christian and male).
Trump warned weeks before that “Bad Bunny was a terrible choice and divisive for our country. I am anti them all it does is sow hatred”. Needless to say he was joined by his choir, led by Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, who had just conducted a vicious campaign with ICE to round up and deport “illegal immigrants”,who just happen to be brown, Spanish speaking, South American Latinos. Secretary Noem told a right wing podcaster that “They suck and we will win. They won’t be able to sleep at night, because they don’t know what they believe. And they are so weak, and we will fix it’. And then there were more…….
THE NFL AND THEIR RATIONALE FOR TAKING ON TRUMP
The NFL is the centerpiece of American sport and even culture with the network TV stations bidding up to close to 3 billion a year for a share of games in the short 16 week normal season and a Super Bowl every 4 years, This makes it the most lucrative sport in America. To give readers some idea what the reason for this is, it is the viewership which reached 125 million for the recent Super Bowl. For a weekly game the number watching is nearly 20 million on average. The NFL is traditionally considered “conservative” but with most of the players black political pressure, such as the "Black Lives Matter" movement has driven them to modify their behavior. After all the owners are those who pay billions of dollars for the teams and they get their percentage of the honey pot.
The NFL Commissioner, Brian Goodsell, is one inordinately powerful guy in terms of the game and it’s commercial success. He faced the opposition of no less than the President who had now backed an alternate show put on by the late Charlie Kirk’s “Turning Point”, unimaginatively titled, “All American Half Time Show”.(The show garnered 6 million of the faithful. Many criticisms followed and Kid Rock blamed “Turning Point”. He also admitted that the show was not live).
Goodsell responded first with the obvious Bad Bunny and his group were number one in the world of entertainment. When he first floated the idea to the owners they were hesitant, but the billion dollar business had hit the roof. (Bad Bunny’s viewership was subsequently up there with the highest but not by much). The tv audience is the basis of what the networks will pay. The latter charge about 10 million dollars per 30 second advertisement There were 66 in the 2026 Super Bowl! So the objective is to expand the horizon which for the last 10 have stuck at about between 110 and 120 million viewers. So where can the NFL go?
Bad Boy has repeatedly publicly attacked ICE. This is the reason than other than for The Super Bowl he has refused to perform in America. Goodsell had to have commissioned a study on the demographics playing, attending and watching particularly the Super Bowl. So where had to have been the biggest potential for growth? The answer is the brown Latinos, who are thwarting Trump’s vision of Making America Great Again, (MAGA). There are 45 million Latinos in America and 440 million on the South American continent. Europe and the rest of the world too could be ensnared. To give one an idea of the scope of growth Real Madrid, one of Europe's top Soccer teams, had a TV audience of 450 million in perhaps the equivalent of the Super Bowl.
It is not that the Latinos aren’t obsessed about football or have thought of America football as repressive. Rather their game is with the round ball, Association football or soccer as it generally known throughout the world. How to begin to court them was to celebrate their icon and symbol against the Trump government on America’s greatest stage. It is obvious too that the NFL knew ahead the content of the his spectacle that was about to unfold. Just in case there was any doubt as to where the NFL Commissioner stood, after the show he hugged Antonio Bonito Martinez Occasio before the cameras.
So what was “Bad Bad Bunny’s” half time statement ?
BAD BUNNY’S SYMBOLISM
It had to have helped Goodssll that Mr. Occasio was an NFL fan. The number 64 on his Zara designed outfit had a special meaning. It was the date that his uncle Sam was born. The latter had introduced the artist to American football. Sam, had passed a few years ago, was a keen follower of the San Francisco 49ers and his celebrity nephew followed. The Super Bowl was being held on the very same field of their team in San Francisco.
The NFL Super Half Time show is always a happening. Never was this one more historic. It was the first one entirely in Spanish.There were no white men only a white woman, Lady Gaga who also sung in Spanish,This production was dripping with symbolism. It opened in the sugar fields of Puerto Rica or anywhere in the area for that matter with the underpaid workers or even slaves threshing away. It was an attack on colonialism and a tribute to those who had survived. Light blue was the color featured in the Puerto Rican flag. America has made it dark blue to match it’s flag. Lady Gaga too wore a light blue dress.
Puerto Rico became American territory in 1898 together with Hawaii. Occasio spelled out as the tight production rolled on that Puerto Rico wanted Independence rather than statehood. The majority of the 13 minutes was devoted to his charming home island and its traditions. There was also an acknowledgement to the diaspora living mainly in NY. Focus too was on the continual blackouts Puerto had faced with the hurricanes, particularly Hurricane Maria in 2017 where Trump threw paper towels at them.Thus implicit in all this was the poor services America provides for its colony. (Puerto Ricans are Americans but they can’t vote!). Men were climbing up electricity poles risking their lives to create fixes as was enacted on the football field.
The Latino icon made it clear that his vision of America stretched from Chile to Canada. “We are all Americans” as was musically presented ending with him proffering an American football with the names of all countries. To add to the jam packed program, there was a real wedding!.
This all taking place while ICE was rounding up alleged “illegals”- brown Latinos, the opposition of which is the centerpiece of Occasio’s passionate political message.
All that remained was the game and the reaction.
TRUMP’S RESPONSE TO THE SUPER BOWL HALF TIME SHOW
Trump issued on his alt - tech social medium platform, “Truth Social”, a vitriolic response to “Bad Bunny’s” sensational tour de force. Here it is in full including whatever else was on his mind. I
“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER! It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence. Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World. This “Show” is just a “slap in the face” to our Country, which is setting new standards and records every single day — including the Best Stock Market and 401(k)s in History! There is nothing inspirational about this mess of a Halftime Show and watch, it will get great reviews from the Fake News Media, because they haven’t got a clue of what is going on in the REAL WORLD” — And, by the way, the NFL should immediately replace its ridiculous new Kickoff Rule. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! President DONALD J. TRUMP”
A few MAGA representatives are calling for an investigation into the alleged obscenity of the show. Truth be told there were a few MAGA who disagreed with Trump. Generally the reception was what might expect from this tour de force.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
With Trump approval figures in the mid thirties, with the fall out from the Epstein files metastasizing, Trump doesn’t need any further loss of his Latino vote. Isn’t this just a one off? Jay H. Ell doesn’t believe so because it will increase the revenues of the NFL which was much of what all this was about. Apparently the tech bros have a different paradigm. Just pay Trump off and then the world is their oyster.
No comments:
Post a Comment