What Was the Meaning of Bad Bunny’s Halftime Show?

A couple of days ago, a famous Puerto Rican artist, Bad Bunny, took the largest stage in the world, the Super Bowl Halftime show, singing some of his songs. But those who couldn’t understand Spanish were angry, thinking they missed something.

The reality is, you didn’t need Spanish to understand the halftime show, as most of the symbolism was shown visually, but just in case you want further information, we’ve broken it down for you all here. So stop your Super Bowl prop bets and read on to learn more about the symbols and meanings in Bad Bunny’s 2026 halftime show.

Why Did Bad Bunny Only Sing in Spanish?

Spanish is Bad Bunny’s native language, and it is rude that we would expect him to sing in anything other than the language in which he almost always publishes all his songs. You cannot demand that someone change the language of their songs for you.

Additionally, for the people screaming, “This is America, speak English,” you should know that in the United States, Spanish is the language spoken at home of over 20% of the population. And no, we aren’t talking about illegal immigrants—this is Americans who are born speaking Spanish at home. That’s one in five people. Even more, Spanish is the first language of 14% of legal United States residents. Let that sink in.

America Isn’t Just the US

One of the major messages of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl show was to remind people that the word “America” does not mean “United States” even though people often refer to it as such. Mexico, Canada, all of South America, and all of Central America are still America. That means you can’t say things as I mentioned above, because in America, all of America, Spanish is the major language, spoken in more countries than English. On that note, Portuguese and French are also languages of America.

Puerto Rico is a US Colony and Has Suffered

There were also many people angry because they assumed Bad Bunny wasn’t “American.” This couldn’t be further from the truth. Bad Bunny was born in Puerto Rico, which has been a United States colony since 1898—making it part of the Union for longer than Alaska and Hawaii. In fact, Puerto Ricans started receiving United States citizenship as early as 1917. Meaning Bad Bunny, and his ancestors may have had United States citizenship before those born in Alaska or Hawaii, crazy, isn’t it?

Puerto Rico became a United States colony solely because of sugar cane, which is why the stage was decorated like an old plantation. The exploitation has never stopped, with the US constantly draining Puerto Rican resources, without supporting critical infrastructure (we will come back to this in the next section). The exploitation of Puerto Rico has gone far beyond natural resources, with the United States forcibly sterilizing Puerto Rican women as part of a mass movement to limit the birth rates of non-white people in the 1970s. We know this sounds insane, but it’s real, and it didn’t happen just in Puerto Rico, but in southern California too.

This message came to a point in the portion of the show sung by Ricky Martin, who sang part of Bad Bunny’s song, which started that the United States was taking everything from Puerto Rico, and that he hoped they didn’t become like Hawaii (another US colony which eventually lost everything and was forced to join the union).

Puerto Rican Power Outages and Struggles

Did you see the part where aerialists danced on power line posts? Well, this represents the power outages Puerto Rico is constantly subject to due to overstress on aging systems, and the US allowing the privatization of the power system—to the detriment of locals. During this part of the show, Bad Bunny sang a song specifically about these outages, and how they affected his childhood and continue to affect Puerto Rican residents today.

Bad Bunny also carried the old Puerto Rican flag during the show—the flag that the Puerto Rican residents were forced to give up several years ago. They were banned from waving the original flag with the light blue, forced instead to adopt a new flag with a dark blue background behind the star. By carrying this flag, Bad Bunny made a statement that Puerto Rico is still there, still proud of who they are, even as the US government tries to destroy their culture.

We Are All Equal

The biggest overarching message was that all of America, including south, north, and central parts, are the same. Bad Bunny achieved this by showing tasks that are somewhat considered mundane—he showed older men playing dominoes, a taco stand, him taking a shot from an older woman, and a real wedding (yes, that couple really got married on TV during the Super Bowl). But to break it down, here were the major aspects shown:

·      The woman giving the shot was a Puerto Rican woman (Toñita) living in New York and running a business based on Caribbean culture, even as the city tries to push her out.

·      The taco stand (Villas Tacos)was a famous LA taco stand that started on nothing but a corner, run by a Mexican-American immigrant.

·      The two men boxing were famous boxers Xander Zayas from Puerto Rico, and Emiliano Vargas from Mexico.

·      The violinists from the wedding scene were part of Mariachi Divas, an all-female mariachi band from Los Angeles.

·      A wedding, displaying family and friend values (including the kid sleeping on the chair!)

·      A coconut stand—a major aspect of Puerto Rican culture (especially to those working on plantations who relied on these stands for food)

·      Women performing brick laying (it’s common for women to do manual labor in Puerto Rico).

·      Black Puerto Ricans—because they exist, even if some people forget.

As you can see, many of these may seem like simple tasks, but they are things we all do—and Bad Bunny was showing we are all the same, despite cultural or language differences.

Bad Bunny made a major statement during his Super Bowl performance, and we hope you understand it better now.