Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl Halftime Show Offered a Broader Vision of America
By Aisha Marilyn Abdulbary-Knotts | Staff Writer
Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show Sunday offered more than just high-energy music and spectacle. It presented a broad, inclusive vision of America that challenged viewers to rethink a word too often used in narrow terms.
From the start, the set brought everyday life and working people into the frame. Backdrops featured scenes of community, daily labor and familiar moments that stood in contrast to the polished celebrity spectacle typical of past halftime shows. In doing so, Bad Bunny highlighted that the foundation of any nation lies not only in its icons but also in the everyday people whose work and rhythms define daily life.
The show’s message took a clear turn toward unity when Bad Bunny spoke directly to the crowd and television audience. He said “God bless America” and then acknowledged numerous countries across North, Central and South America, emphasizing that “America” refers to more than just one political entity. He wove the names of many nations into that declaration in a way that invited viewers to imagine the hemisphere as a shared cultural space, not a single, exclusive concept.
A striking part of the performance was the flag walk, in which representatives carried the banners of many nations. It was a visual acknowledgement of diversity and connectedness, suggesting that a continent’s identity is built not on uniformity but on the coexistence of many histories and cultures.
One moment sparked widespread conversation: Bad Bunny handed a Grammy Award to a young boy shown on screen. Early speculation online suggested the child might be Liam Conejo Ramos, a 5-year-old whose detention with his father by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement drew national attention. It was later clarified that the boy was not Ramos. Many viewers interpreted the appearance instead as symbolic, possibly representing Bad Bunny giving the award to his younger self or honoring the countless children who look up to him and see their own dreams reflected in his success.
That interpretation aligns with the performance’s broader emotional tone. Rather than focusing on a single story, the show leaned into collective experience and future possibility.
The underlying message of the halftime show was clear: mass representation matters. Whether through language, visuals or the diversity of cultural touchstones, the performance put forward a message of inclusion. Bad Bunny’s choice to celebrate Latin music, feature a range of national symbols and invoke the shared heritage of the Americas signaled a broader view of what it means to be “American.”
Critics may argue that a sporting event is not the place for cultural statements. But the Super Bowl halftime show has long functioned as a cultural mirror, ranging from Beyoncé’s 2016 Super Bowl performance featuring Black Panthers to Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s 2020 performance, which portrayed children in cage-like structures and criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policies. These demonstrations reflect both who we are and who we hope to become. Bad Bunny used that platform to widen the conversation.
In a time of intense debate about identity and belonging, the halftime show delivered a simple but resonant idea: America is not defined by a single language, background or border. It is a living collective shaped by many people, many stories and many flags. Together, we are America.
