After his “ICE out” declaration dominated Grammy headlines, anticipation constructed over whether or not Unhealthy Bunny would flip the largest efficiency of his profession — the 2026 Tremendous Bowl halftime present — right into a political name to motion.
“One factor about Unhealthy Bunny is that he’s a grasp on the artwork of shock,” Petra Rivera-Rideau, an affiliate professor of American research at Wellesley Faculty who makes a speciality of Latin music and U.S.-Latinx pop cultures, instructed CBS Information.
However some imagine Unhealthy Bunny, whose actual identify is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, does not want theatrics to ship a message.
“I feel lots of people expect him to have a political message in there,” Mike Alfaro, the creator of Millennial Lotería who has gone viral for translating Unhealthy Bunny lyrics into English forward of the massive sport, added. “I feel simply him being there’s the political message.”
Mark J. Terrill / AP
Reactions poured in when it was introduced that the Tremendous Bowl’s halftime headliner can be the favored Puerto Rican artist who performs primarily in Spanish, with some hailing the historic selection and others criticizing it.
President Trump blasted the choice to provide Unhealthy Bunny and Inexperienced Day — who’re set to open the Tremendous Bowl LX pregame festivities — a world stage, calling the lineup a “horrible selection.”
“I am anti-them,” Mr. Trump instructed The New York Submit, including that he will not be attending Sunday’s sport.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell referred to as Unhealthy Bunny “one of many biggest artists on the planet” and stated he did not count on the halftime present to spark main controversy.
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“Hear, Unhealthy Bunny is … one of many nice artists on the planet, and that is one of many causes we selected him,” Goodell stated after the Grammys. “However the different purpose is he understood the platform he was on, and that this platform is used to unite individuals, and to have the ability to carry individuals along with their creativity, with their skills, and to have the ability to use this second to try this. And I feel artists up to now have executed that. I feel Unhealthy Bunny understands that, and I feel he’ll have an excellent efficiency.”
Unhealthy Bunny’s political voice
Unhealthy Bunny hasn’t shied away from decrying America’s politics.
When he took his new album on tour, he selected a residency in Puerto Rico and skipped the U.S. mainland totally for concern that his followers can be focused by federal brokers.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Pictures 
In 2018, throughout Unhealthy Bunny’s first look on American mainstream tv, he kicked off his rendition of “Estamos Bien” on Jimmy Fallon’s “The Tonight Present” by reminding the mainland that Puerto Ricans have been nonetheless coping from one of many deadliest disasters in U.S. historical past.
“After one 12 months of the hurricane, there’s nonetheless individuals with out electrical energy of their houses, greater than 3,000 individuals died,” stated Unhealthy Bunny, including, “and Trump continues to be in denial.”
Past pioneering on the Tremendous Bowl stage in a unique language, Unhealthy Bunny has already made political historical past by his music and cultural advocacy.
Mobilizing Puerto Rico
“We discuss stuff like Hurricane Maria, the protests in 2019, his involvement within the Puerto Rican elections in 2024. However actually the purpose of [my] guide is to speak about how his music features as an act of resistance on this greater political and social context of colonialism in Puerto Rico,” defined Rivera-Rideau, whose guide focuses on Boricua historical past over the previous three a long time.
Rivera-Rideau stated “Benito,” as Latinos lovingly name him, continues to channel messages of pleasure and requires political accountability for Puerto Rico in his newest album.
“It’s in some ways his most overtly political album,” Rivera-Rideau stated.
In “LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii,” for instance, Unhealthy Bunny calls out gentrification within the island, an ongoing development fueled by monetary incentives which have catapulted property taxes.
“There’s so many issues that make life right here tough and but, on the identical time, there’s a lot pleasure and pleasure,” Rivera-Rideau stated.
In his newest album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” Unhealthy Bunny attracts from Bomba, an Afro-Puerto Rican music style that’s rooted within the island’s connection to enslaved Africans. Bomba dancers usually be part of drummers to merge their rhythms right into a musical dialogue.
RICARDO ARDUENGO/AFP by way of Getty Pictures 
Through the 2019 protests calling for Gov. Ricardo Rosselló’s resignation, Bomba, and different Caribbean music genres, have been as distinguished as chants and indicators. Puerto Ricans used artwork and music — bomba dances, slam poetry, queer balls and extra — to assemble individuals collectively and name for change. Unhealthy Bunny joined the motion, taking day off his live performance tour that summer time to march in San Juan and collaborate on what turned the protest anthem, “Afilando los Cuchillos,” or “Sharpening The Knives.”
In 2020, Unhealthy Bunny used his look on “The Tonight Present” to boost consciousness concerning the homicide of a homeless transgender lady in Puerto Rico. He wore a T-shirt that learn, “They killed Alexa, not a person in a skirt,” to make clear the tragedy and advocate for justice.
The broader influence of Unhealthy Bunny’s halftime present
Unhealthy Bunny’s Tremendous Bowl halftime efficiency — the primary to be headlined by a predominantly Spanish‑language artist — is a landmark second for the Latino group.
“I feel there’s so many layers to how significant this halftime present is,” Rivera-Rideau stated.
“To have a Spanish language artist headlining this stage, which is though not a nationwide vacation, form of features like one within the context the place Spanish audio system, together with Puerto Ricans, are getting racially profiled, are being harassed, to have somebody like that on the stage is vital.”
Spanish is the commonest non-English language within the U.S., with about 13% of the inhabitants talking it at dwelling.
“There are extra individuals that talk Spanish right here in the US than in my dwelling nation of Guatemala,” Alfaro stated. “I feel it is vital to grasp that music is a common language, even should you do not fairly perceive what they’re saying.”
For some followers, Unhealthy Bunny is the primary draw of this 12 months’s Tremendous Bowl.
“It is about time to acknowledge our tradition, our ardour, our individuals,” Miriam Velez, co-owner of the Puerto Rican-themed social membership Pe Erre Domino in Chicago, instructed CBS Information Chicago.
“To not solely have an effect in the US, however a world influence is superb,” Puerto Rican DJ Emmanuel Ríos Colón added.
“I feel it does not matter that it is Unhealthy Bunny, however that any Latino that goes and represents us within the Tremendous Bowl, we’re good,” Yazmin Auli, proprietor of the Philadelphia bakery El Coquí, instructed CBS Information Philadelphia. “It does not matter who it’s, however since it’s Unhealthy Bunny, that is even higher.”
The thrill over Unhealthy Bunny’s halftime present can be sparking curiosity in additional than simply Latin music — it is inspiring individuals to study Spanish.
Duolingo, the language studying software, reported that nearly 49 million individuals worldwide are studying Spanish on the app. When the NFL introduced the Tremendous Bowl line-up, they shared a “Unhealthy Bunny 101” crash course to get extra Spanish learners on board. Duolingo instructed CBS Information that 60% of these learners are nonetheless energetic as we speak and pointed to the information as proof that individuals are motivated to be within the know.
