Dangerous Bunny’s Tremendous Bowl Halftime Present Made a Assertion About America: Evaluate

When Dangerous Bunny took the sector on the 2026 Tremendous Bowl for a historic, joyful halftime present, he wore a jersey along with his Latino heritage stitched into its very material.

It is an apt metaphor for his efficiency, which eschewed specific anti-ICE statements (he lined that on the Grammys, anyway) in favor of celebration with a facet of symbolism.

Nods to the Puerto Rican singer’s motherland have been peppered all through the set, which was designed to evoke the US territory’s signature aesthetics, from sugar cane fields to a storefront labeled “La Marqueta” (a slang time period for market) and numerous distributors promoting tacos and piraguas (shaved ice). Whereas performing “El Apagón,” a track concerning the frequent blackouts and infrastructure points affecting Puerto Ricans, Dangerous Bunny introduced this symbolism to the forefront, waving the Puerto Rican flag.

He additionally proclaimed in English, “God bless America,” and brandished a soccer printed with the phrase “Collectively, We Are America.” He added in Spanish, “We’re nonetheless right here.” (Puerto Rico is a US territory, and Puerto Ricans are Americans.)

It was a stark and figuring out distinction to the Latinophobia and anti-immigrant messaging hawked by the Trump administration. A lot in order that President Donald Trump complained on-line about Dangerous Bunny’s efficiency and his option to sing primarily in Spanish.

“The Tremendous Bowl Halftime Present is completely horrible, one of many worst, EVER! It is not sensible,” Trump wrote on Fact Social after Dangerous Bunny left the stage. “No person understands a phrase this man is saying.”

For individuals who perceive visible storytelling, nonetheless, Dangerous Bunny’s efficiency made good sense. He did not have to say “ICE out” or declare an specific political opinion. Consistent with the latest custom of Tremendous Bowl halftime exhibits, Dangerous Bunny used iconography to take a stand as an alternative.

Dangerous Bunny’s Tremendous Bowl efficiency is a part of a brand new halftime present custom

Dangerous Bunny’s efficiency shares DNA with Beyoncé and Kendrick Lamar’s Tremendous Bowl appearances, each of which used daring imagery to make robust statements.

Beyoncé’s shock look at Coldplay’s 2016 Tremendous Bowl halftime present grew to become well-known — and, to some, notorious — for the iconography current in her efficiency of her then-new single, “Formation.” Within the midst of Trump’s first presidential marketing campaign, Beyoncé and her backup dancers wore outfits that channeled the Black Panther Get together, a company shaped amid the ’60s Civil Rights Motion that fought for Black liberation.

The track itself is not explicitly political. However as a celebration of id and legacy that options lyrics about Beyoncé’s dad and mom, her daughter, and her options (“I like my negro nostril with Jackson 5 nostrils”), Beyoncé performing it — with visible references to the track’s themes in her and her dancers’ costumes, as well — was innately political.

It isn’t that Beyoncé is allergic to creating specific political statements: She famously carried out in entrance of the phrase “Feminist” on the 2014 VMAs, and sang “Votin’ out 45, do not get out of line” on her 2022 album “Renaissance,” referring to Trump because the forty fifth president. However when the NFL hosts musicians for the night time, they’ve recently most well-liked make their statements symbolic relatively than overt.

Final 12 months, Kendrick Lamar adopted swimsuit throughout his personal Tremendous Bowl halftime present, outfitting himself and his dancers in purple, white, and blue. Though Lamar stored the music targeted on his personal enemies and triumphs, he used audacious visible language to pose broader, poignantly related questions: Who’s allowed to assert patriotism? What does it imply to be an American, particularly in occasions of oppression and battle?

Dangerous Bunny’s efficiency raised related questions, however provided less complicated, extra optimistic options. For the finale, he was surrounded by backup dancers, band members, and different performers holding flags from world wide; when he proclaimed “God bless America,” he listed out all of the international locations in each North and South America.

Dangerous Bunny just isn’t a politician, nor can he single-handedly remedy the world of hatred and division. Nonetheless, for a short second, on a small sq. of American turf, he selected to make use of the stage to point out thousands and thousands of individuals what that might seem like.