A lot can happen in 13 minutes on the Super Bowl field. Bad Bunny’s historic halftime set on Sunday featured songs from his Grammy-winning “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” celebrity cameos and a joyful celebration of Latin heritage. Here’s a rundown of its high and low points.
Best Highroad Political Statement: Unity
Since being announced as the halftime star, Bad Bunny has been derided as “not an American artist” (as a Puerto Rican, he has U.S. citizenship) and President Trump said of his selection for the show, “All it does is sow hatred.”
Bad Bunny’s response was to celebrate a pan-Latin identity and, in his most provocative comment, to suggest — through a parade of flags and by reciting the nations of North and South America — that the phrase “God bless America” could apply to an entire hemisphere.
As he spiked a football labeled “Together, We Are America,” a message on a giant billboard behind him read: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.” — BEN SISARIO
Most Unnecessary Cameo: Lady Gaga
Even with a Latin backing band, “Die With a Smile,” Lady Gaga’s schmaltzy duet with Bruno Mars (not present, despite multiple past halftime appearances), had no place on Bad Bunny’s stage. A big-tent radio hit in a time of mass-niche explosion, the song represents the opposite of what Bad Bunny’s performance was doing before and after: bringing hyperlocal Puerto Rican and Latin culture to the world.
At least “Die With a Smile” was appropriately situated in the wedding portion of the set — its natural habitat. But in a performance where every second counts, it felt like a waste of time, a concession and a detour. Besides, Karol G, Cardi B and the next-generation Puerto Rican rapper Young Miko, all of whom were present on the casita porch, were literally right there. — JOE COSCARELLI
Best Use of Very Recent History: The Nod to Bad Bunny’s Latest Grammy
Right after a rousing rendition of his New York anthem “NuevaYol,” the camera cut to a scene of a young boy and his parents watching Bad Bunny accept his album of the year Grammy for “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” — a historic win that happened exactly a week before this equally historic Super Bowl halftime performance.
Not only was this an impressively last-minute detail (and an incredibly up-to-the-minute flex), it was also an effective moment of poignancy in the midst of an otherwise energetic spectacle. As Bad Bunny suddenly appeared to hand his Grammy over to the boy, it drove home the communal spirit that has long been at the heart of his success.
Was the child meant to symbolize a young Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, or perhaps the next generation of dreamers he is sure to inspire? Probably a little bit of both. — LINDSAY ZOLADZ
Loosest Performance Discipline: The Dancing
Anyone who remembers the mechanical precision of Beyoncé’s dance-off with Bruno Mars in 2016 knows that Super Bowl halftime performance standards are typically sky-high. As they should be.
At Bad Bunny’s show, the dancers rocked with joy and fierce pride, though clockwork it was not, which conveyed something less than military discipline. But honestly? I want to party in NuevaYol more than I want to attend a cadet routine at West Point. — BEN SISARIO
Least Likely Sartorial Excellence: The White Suit
As dancers enveloped him in kaleidoscopic street clothes, Bad Bunny looked like a celestial bandleader orchestrating a steamy, late-summer block party for the ages in a white suit by fast-fashion retailer Zara.
The white suit makes most mortals look like Colonel Sanders or a bleached-out member of a barbershop quartet, but on Bad Bunny it bestowed a sheen of above-it-all poise, an image orchestrated to counter critics. — JACOB GALLAGHER
Best Subtle Historical Allusion: The Puerto Rican Flag
The Puerto Rican flag that Bad Bunny carried was subtly different from the current official one. It was a flag of the Puerto Rican independence movement.
Like the current island flag, it was red, white and blue, with one star and red and white stripes. But the blue wasn’t the navy blue of the American flag. Instead, it was a pale blue — azul claro, in Spanish.
At one point, in the late 1940s, that flag was outlawed on the island. Bad Bunny mentions it in “La Mudanza,” the rumba that closes “Debí Tirar Más Fotos.” He specifies that he wants “the light-blue flag on my coffin.” — JON PARELES
Best Stunt: The Trust Fall
Bad Bunny has never been afraid to put his body on the line (name another halftime performer who has convincingly battled the World Wrestling Entertainment star Damien Priest), and his set included two stunts.
The first (seemingly partly pretaped) saw him crashing through the ceiling of a casita; the second featured him exiting a wedding by falling backward off a roof into the outstretched hands of the crowd beneath. He returned to his feet and swung through a block party with time to grab a drink from Toñita, the owner of the Caribbean Social Club in Brooklyn: a worthy reward. — CARYN GANZ
Joe Coscarelli is a culture reporter for The Times who focuses on popular music and a co-host of the Times podcast “Popcast (Deluxe).”
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