New York (AFP) – The argument that sport and politics should not mix could be tested at the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday, when Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny performs against a backdrop of fury from right-wing critics. One week after capturing headlines at the Grammys, where he won top Album of the Year honors and delivered a searing indictment of the US government’s immigration crackdown, the 31-year-old will be back in the national spotlight at the NFL’s biggest game in California. The crackle of anticipation about Bad Bunny’s performance — and the question of whether the singer will use his platform to renew his criticism of President Donald Trump’s administration in front of tens of millions of viewers — is palpable.
Prediction site Polymarket is taking bets on whether the star will drop an F-bomb to disparage the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on live television. While the odds are firmly against — just nine percent, as of Thursday — the wager underscores the balancing act faced by the National Football League as it prepares for its most-watched broadcast of the year. The league has been in the crosshairs of critics ever since Bad Bunny was announced to headline the show back in September, with former Trump aide Corey Lewandowski decrying the “shameful” choice of an artist “who just seems to hate America.” Trump, who attended the Super Bowl last year but is staying away this time, recently called this year’s entertainment lineup “a terrible choice” that will “sow hatred.”
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Also featuring in the opening ceremony of Super Bowl LX — in which the New England Patriots play the Seattle Seahawks — will be rock band Green Day, who have been vociferous critics of Trump for years. Right-wing political organization Turning Point USA has even organized an alternative “All-American Halftime Show” featuring artists including Kid Rock.
The NFL has remained steadfastly unmoved by the backlash. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell this week described Bad Bunny as “one of the great artists of the world” and downplayed the suggestion Sunday’s show could turn political, saying he expects the performance to “unite people.” The wildly popular Bad Bunny — real name Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio — steered clear of politics when talking about this weekend’s performance at a press conference in San Francisco on Thursday. Instead, he indicated he plans to make the occasion a “huge party.”
“I want to bring to the stage of course a lot of my culture,” he said. “But I don’t want to give any spoilers. It’s gonna be fun and it’s gonna be a party.” While Bad Bunny’s presence at the Super Bowl has antagonized political critics on the right, analysts say the choice of the entertainer reflects the NFL’s broader strategy of expanding the sport’s global fan base. “The NFL knew that they would receive criticism from a certain sector of its fan base,” said Albert Laguna, an associate professor of ethnicity, race and migration and American studies at Yale University. “But it’s obvious that when they conducted a thorough review of the pros and cons, the reach of Bad Bunny and the benefits of that expanded audience outweighed any criticism.”
A growing number of NFL regular season games are now held overseas, with fixtures in recent months in Brazil and Spain. “The NFL are not idiots. They’ve crunched the numbers,” said Patrick Bennett, global chief creative officer at marketing firm Jack Morton. “They know where they’re saturated in the marketplace. Getting a 55-year-old white guy from Texas to buy another cowboy shirt is only going to get them so far.”
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