What we're getting wrong about that Bad Bunny halftime show
When politicians try to grasp on to an artist, the good ones always slip through their fingers. Bad Bunny is one of the good ones.
Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime show is the show that launched a thousand think pieces, half-cocked takes, and shitposts, even from the president of the United States.
But for about 15 minutes, the Puerto Rican rapper and singer born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio transcended all of that. He strutted, winked, crowd-surfed, and crooned. He climbed up among the power lines. Gave away a wedding ring and a Grammy. This "threat to America" made heart hands. He fell through the roof of a pink casita fronted by famous Latinos like Cardi B, Jessica Alba, and Pedro Pascal.
"God bless America," he shouted, before leading a procession of flags from North America, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. Behind them, the jumbotron read "the only thing more powerful than hate is love."
That it was delivered by a Latin performer in this political moment, when so many in the US want to dislodge Latin roots, is extraordinary.
