After days of controversy during which Donald Trump complained in regards to the acts and stated he would now not attend, and selection “all-American” leisure used to be coated up, Puerto Rican rapper Dangerous Bunny took to the level of the much-hyped halftime display of Sunday’s Tremendous Bowl.
Expectancies had been prime, a reality mirrored within the extraordinary choice of audience who tuned in. Dangerous Bunny’s display surpassed 135.4 million perspectives, exceeding Kendrick Lamar’s 133.5 million in 2025 and Michael Jackson’s 133.4 million in 1993.
Media protection framed the development basically as a birthday celebration of variety, fuelling a backlash from Donald Trump supporters and conservative commentators. The grievance centered Dangerous Bunny now not just for his outspoken opposition to the Trump management, but in addition for claims that he used to be “not an American artist” – ignoring Puerto Rico’s standing as a US territory. Dangerous Bunny’s efficiency demonstrated how authenticity may also be produced via anti-colonial activism.
Whilst authenticity is continuously thought to be one thing actual, true or authentic, it’s outlined through a relational high quality that may emerge via an individual’s behaviour in 3 ways: via connections to folks or position; conformity to, or disruption of, conventions, and consistency between message and motion. We have a look at how Dangerous Bunny displayed all 3 on the Tremendous Bowl.
1. Authenticity as connection
This used to be obtrusive within the presence of sugar cane on level, a crop that formed the colonial economies of the Caribbean. Plantations had been owned through colonisers and sustained during the violent exploitation of Indigenous folks and transatlantic enslaved Africans. By means of foregrounding sugar cane, the efficiency uncovered the rules of colonial wealth and reclaimed a logo of oppression as historic fact somewhat than romanticised reminiscence.
The presence of Puerto Rican icon Ricky Martin reinforced this feeling of connection when he carried out Dangerous Bunny’s Lo Que Le Pasó A Hawaii. Thru its lyrics, the music cautions Puerto Ricans in opposition to relinquishing their cultural id amid force to assimilate into the affect of the United States. Martin’s efficiency underscored the message, highlighting cultural preservation as an crucial type of anti-colonial resistance
Woman Gaga added an impressive layer of symbolism to the efficiency. Her mild blue get dressed referenced the unique 1895 design of the Puerto Rican flag prior to its coloration used to be darkened to align with the United States flag. She decorated it with a purple hibiscus, a countrywide brand of pleasure and resistance, along white plant life. In combination, those parts echoed the colors of the Puerto Rican flag. Gaga embodied recognize, participation and unity somewhat than segregation or erasure.
Dangerous Bunny used sugar cane as his backdrop, the crop that drove the colonial economies of the Caribbean islands.
PA / Alamy
2. Authenticity as conformity
Artists continuously concurrently agree to and smash laws, and Dangerous Bunny mastered that rigidity. As a Puerto Rican artist emerging inside an business that regularly pressures performers to desert their roots, he as a substitute created a hybrid cultural area: a Spanish-language Tremendous Bowl halftime display. He operated throughout the machine whilst disrupting assumptions and expectancies that English will have to dominate and that mainstream icons will have to have compatibility a slim cultural mildew.
Dangerous Bunny additional disrupted the dominant narrative that reduces “America” to the United States, as a substitute acknowledging the total geography of the Americas. After pointing out “God bless America”, he proceeded to record international locations from the southernmost to the northern areas of the continent.
By means of naming international locations around the Americas, Dangerous Bunny additionally inverted the traditional geopolitical hierarchy. The gesture echoed Uruguayan artist Joaquín Torres-García’s well-known portray América Invertida (Inverted The us) and his statement that “the south is our north”, difficult the concept cultural or political legitimacy will have to go with the flow from the so‑referred to as north, and rejecting the aspiration to emulate it.
3. Authenticity as consistency
Consistency gave the impression via callbacks to Dangerous Bunny’s longstanding activism. The lamppost explosion prior to appearing El Apagón at once referenced the 2022 music’s tune video, which purposes as a documentary critiquing infrastructure forget and the privatisation of electrical energy through North American corporations. This second hooked up leisure to colonial fact for Puerto Ricans, reinforcing how Dangerous Bunny refuses to split his artwork from the colonial stipulations affecting his place of birth.
The transient look of El Sapo Concho, the unofficial mascot of his newest album, added any other layer of symbolic continuity. Just about pushed to extinction via centuries of ecological disruption tied to colonial extraction of sources, the Puerto Rican crested toad has grow to be a visible shorthand for survival in opposition to structural hurt. Its presence, even for a second, served as a reminder that colonialism’s have an effect on is environmental up to cultural, and invoked issues of survival and resistance in opposition to imposed methods.
The similar concept emerged when Dangerous Bunny introduced a Grammy to a more youthful model of himself, reinforcing his word: “If I’m here, it’s because I always believed in myself.” In a global the place folks from colonised countries face discrimination, exclusion, oppression and marginalisation, many got here to view the tradition in their colonisers as a trail to go beyond the ones obstacles. Thus, Dangerous Bunny’s gesture reclaimed self-belief as an act of defiance. By means of centring id somewhat than imitation, Dangerous Bunny asserted that authenticity, now not mimicry, is probably the most robust type of anti-colonial refusal.
That is The us
On the finish of the efficiency, a flashing billboard learn: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.” Dangerous Bunny held a soccer inscribed with the phrases “Together, We Are America”.
This proposed a pan-American ideally suited anchored in unity somewhat than domination, emphasising collaboration over hierarchy. Hate flourishes on isolation, however this act created a unifying imaginative and prescient. Thru symbols of collective resilience, Dangerous Bunny framed authenticity as anti-colonial activism grounded in love, reminiscence and neighborhood.
General, those visuals had been intentional, aligning with years of public statements, tune and neighborhood engagement. Every component bolstered a constant narrative of resistance, appearing that authenticity isn’t just efficiency however the fruits of sustained anti-colonial activism.
By means of embedding historical past, symbolism and private conviction into each second, Dangerous Bunny demonstrated that artwork generally is a planned vessel for political and cultural motion grounded in love, tolerance and inclusion.
Searching for one thing just right? Reduce during the noise with a in moderation curated number of the most recent releases, are living occasions and exhibitions, directly for your inbox each fortnight, on Fridays. Enroll right here.
