Levi’s Stadium fills with lights, immediately, the building erupts with simultaneous roars and boos from thousands of football fans. As the world eagerly watches their TVs, Bad Bunny makes his Super Bowl debut, stepping on stage to finish his hard-fought journey. Although the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) stands outside the stadium in Santa Clara, California, Bad Bunny sends a message to the world: “For those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come in and score a touchdown … this is for my people, my culture and our history.”

Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, known by his stage name Bad Bunny, is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer and record producer. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, he promoted Spanish-language rap music worldwide, making him one of the greatest Latin rappers of all time. No other Latin singer has achieved 100 entries in Billboard Hot 100, three Grammy wins and 17 Latin Grammys. His influence in music transcends language barriers, as reflected when the NFL picked him for the Super Bowl Halftime Show. In his most recent, critically acclaimed album “Debir Tirar Mas Fotos,” he acts as an unofficial ambassador of Puerto Rico. He celebrates his Puerto Rican lifestyle, integrating the island’s slang and unique pronunciation in every song.

Unlike his previous reggaeton-dominated albums, his newest one incorporates traditional Puerto Rican rhythms like Salsa, Plena and Bolero, integrating hit songs from each genre. Its release date, Jan. 5, not only marked the day before Dia de los Reyes (Three Kings Day) but also the creation of the Puerto Rican flag, a symbol of the people’s identity and resistance. One of the songs, “Lo que paso a Hawaii,” shows the island’s resistance to statehood and the risk of losing its people and culture, saying “Que no quiero que hagan contigo lo que le pasó a Hawáii” (I don’t want them to do to you [Puerto Rico] the same thing they did with Hawaii). In Hawaii, Native traditions, language and lands have all been replaced by tourism, businesses and outside investors, destroying the Hawaiian way of life. This serves as a cautionary tale for Puerto Ricans. In 2012, a federal law known as The Act to Promote the Relocation of Individual Investors to Puerto Rico was enacted to help boost the economy. To Bad Bunny and the locals of Puerto Rico, the law tries to make another Hawaii out of the small Caribbean island. From the displacement of residents to tax fraud, investors come into the island just to leave it worse than it was.

From a tiny island in the Caribbean, Bad Bunny rose from obscurity to lead the Super Bowl Halftime show. With his music hitting global charts, he was an overqualified candidate for the Super Bowl, but the decision wasn’t accepted by everyone. Besides being a Spanish-speaking singer in a mostly English-speaking audience, the history of animosity between the Trump administration and Bad Bunny led to mass hate online. However, this conflict is not new. It goes back almost a decade, starting during Trump’s first presidency. Two back-to-back hurricanes decimated the island of Puerto Rico, and Bad Bunny was quick to criticize the government for their delayed response and lack of aid, much attributed directly to the failures of Trump himself. Over time, new policies began to directly impact Bad Bunny and his fans. As Trump enacted nationwide immigration raids in 2025, Bad Bunny canceled all his tours in the U.S. due to the risk of his fans being deported.

Going into 2026, the problem still remains. ICE’s presence is not incidental; it reflects the bigger fear that has intensified under renewed immigration policies and enforcement. ICE has relied on unmarked cars, aggressive surpriseraids and detention facilities that cut off families and blur the lines between law enforcement and intimidation. For Latino communities, the tactics have transformed public places into zones of anxiety. ICE has shown in countless incidents that it isn’t safe enough to be a U.S citizen as agents neglect official documentation. In Maryland, U.S. citizen Dulce Consuelo Dias Morales was cut off from family and detained for almost a month, despite attorneys submitting her US birth certificate. In Minnesota, the safety of a home was breached as ICE detained U.S. citizen ChongLy “Scott” at gunpoint without a warrant in front of his 4-year-old grandson.

This is what makes the Super Bowl Halftime show so impactful. ICE seeks to make immigrants invisible through surprise raids and long detentions, operating under claims of immunity unsupported by the Constitution. But Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance allows for the voices of all to be heard, impossible to ignore.

The score is 9-0, and the Seattle Seahawks are dominating the field, but the focus changes to another performance. With a football-shaped coconut in his hand, Bad Bunny emerges from a sugar cane field surrounded by Puerto Rican workers with Pava hats. He starts with the hit song “Tití Me Preguntó” from his Caribbean album “Un Verano Sin Ti,” taking the audience through what a day in Puerto Rico would be like. As the elderly play dominoes and the street vendors sell, each section leads the audience into a different scene. Through the plantations, he displays the hard work and unity of his people while also showing that Puerto Rico is more than just a summer getaway. The scene quickly transitioned out of the green fields as Bad Bunny stood on top of a traditional pink concrete house found throughout Puerto Rico. The performance was nothing short of a gateway to the party life of the Caribbean people and reminds the audience with songs like “Party,” “Voy a Llevarte pa’ PR” and “EoO” that they are called not to listen but to dance together.

The party life soon ended as the sharp sound of violins cut through the noise, signaling the shift into the unique track “Monaco” from the album “Nadie Sabe lo Que va Pasar Mañana.” Bright white lights flashed, and with a real marriage on stage, Lady Gaga sang a salsa-style version of her song “Die with a Smile,” closing an all-Spanish concert and showing a smooth mix between cultures and languages. After the wedding scene, the surprise Puerto Rican guest, Ricky Martin, appeared on stage to sing the warning of the loss of the island’s culture, but he isn’t the only one showing the resistance of his people. Moving into “El Apagon,” Bad Bunny waved his flag as the power grids lost electricity and the stage exploded with sparks, symbolizing Puerto Rico’s socioeconomic status and the government’s lack of effort to provide a stable grid. As the song of the year nomination “DtMF” played, Bad Bunny ran through the field with a parade of Latin American flags to the “Star-Spangled Banner,” as an ending message was displayed on the stadium’s screen: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

In a world where many artists are scared to say something controversial, Bad Bunny has shown that a singer doesn’t have to sacrifice their culture and beliefs to be successful. His performance doesn’t need protest signs — his identity and lyrics are enough to get everyone’s attention.