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Though he\u2019s never compromised his native Spanish, Bad Bunny framed the halftime language barrier that so triggered MAGA (\u201cin America, we speak English!\u201d<\/em>) not as an exclusion, but an invitation (body language is universal, babes). \u201cThey don’t even have to learn Spanish,\u201d he said of viewers in his preshow press conference. \u201cBetter they learn to dance.\u201d In his rich baritone, Bad Bunny rapped and sang entirely in his native tongue\u2014the only English-singing came from Gaga\u2014but what he chose to say in which language mattered, especially as President Trump predictably blasted Mart\u00ednez\u2019s performance on Truth Social, claiming<\/a>, \u201cnobody understands a word this guy is saying.\u201d Bad Bunny chose English for his stirring closing salvo, \u201cGod bless America,\u201d a stunning rebuke to anyone (Kid Rock) suggesting he doesn\u2019t love the U.S., before launching into a roll call of Latino countries, plus the U.S. and Canada. They\u2019re lands linked through language, culture and diaspora, the places from which immigrants under attack in America might hail. Bad Bunny named them all, their flags whipping behind him, with a sense of collective pride.<\/p>\n When I interviewed him in Puerto Rico for a Vanity Fair<\/em> cover story<\/a> in 2023, Mart\u00ednez was working on his English, and understood me perfectly when I spoke it. For years, he seldom spoke English in public, but Bad Bunny is notably speaking a bit more English now\u2014maybe he\u2019s sharpened his skills and maybe because, in responding to the current ICE crisis, it\u2019s important to address the Trump administration in words they can understand.<\/p>\n At last week\u2019s Grammys, he chose solemn English to assert the humanity of the Latino community<\/a>: \u201cWe\u2019re not savage, we\u2019re not animals, we\u2019re not aliens and we are Americans,\u201d he Bunny said in a powerful acceptance speech<\/a> for best m\u00fasica urbana album. He slipped into Spanish later, however, with a direct appeal to hype his homeland: \u201cBelieve me when I tell you that we are much bigger than just 100 by 35,\u201d he said, referencing the area of Puerto Rico, \u201cand there is nothing that we cannot achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n Bad Bunny is an artist born of a perilous political moment that he\u2019s never shied away from responding to, both as an artist and a young, proud Puerto Rican. His rise has coincided, almost exactly, with that of Donald Trump and his hostility and aggression toward the Latino community, set against the backdrop of Hurricanes Maria and Irma and, now, the brutality of ICE. Bad Bunny\u2019s political statements are evolving with his stardom, but he couldn\u2019t bring his full self to the Super Bowl and not include \u201cEl Apag\u00f3n,\u201d a searing protest anthem from his smash 2022 album, Un Verano Sin T\u00ed,<\/em> which took aim at repeated power outages after the privatization of the Puerto Rican power grid was sold to LUMA Energy, a Canadian-and-Texan conglomerate, in 2021. \u201cFuck LUMA,\u201d Bad Bunny declared in no uncertain terms at a San Juan concert in 2023. His sentiment manifested with a new streak of positivity on Sunday night, as he scaled a set of power lines, asserted Puerto Rico\u2019s greatness, then cut through the darkness and restored the lights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n