Dangerous Bunny’s Tremendous Bowl halftime display did not simply spoil target audience data. Thru a level stuffed with symbols, the Puerto Rican rapper remodeled a public display right into a cultural manifesto, articulating colonial reminiscence, id and activism.
After a number of days of controversy – throughout which Donald Trump complained concerning the artist variety, stated he would no longer attend the development and that another “100% American” program can be proposed – Puerto Rican rapper Bud Bunny took the level throughout the extremely expected Tremendous Bowl halftime display on Sunday, February 8.
Expectancies had been top, as evidenced by means of the unheard of collection of audience. Bud Bunny’s display generated greater than 135.4 million perspectives, surpassing Kendrick Lamar’s 133.5 million in 2025 and Michael Jackson’s 133.4 million in 1993.
The media offered this match basically as a birthday celebration of variety, which led to a antagonistic response from supporters of Donald Trump and a few conservative commentators. Critics have centered Dangerous Bunny no longer just for his outspoken opposition to the Trump management, but in addition at the grounds that he’s “not an American artist” (learn: “American”), although Puerto Rico is a territory of america. Her efficiency confirmed how authenticity will also be built thru anti-colonial activism.
Even supposing authenticity is ceaselessly noticed as one thing actual, true or honest, it’s in fact in keeping with a high quality of courting that may be connected to an individual’s conduct in 3 ways: thru connection to other people or puts; respecting conventions or wondering them; and coherence between message and movements. All through the Tremendous Bowl halftime display, Dangerous Bunny embodied those 3 dimensions.
Authenticity as connection
Authenticity is particularly demonstrated by means of the presence of sugar cane within the scene, a crop that formed the colonial economies of the Caribbean. Plantations had been owned by means of colonizers and relied at the violent exploitation of indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans. Through hanging the sugar cane within the middle of the ornament, the efficiency recalled the rules of colonial wealth and rehabilitated the emblem of oppression as a ancient reality, no longer an idealized reminiscence.
The presence of Puerto Rican icon Ricky Martin enhanced this feeling of connection when he carried out Dangerous Bunny’s Lo Que Le Paso A Hawaii. Thru its lyrics, the music warns Puerto Ricans to not lose their cultural id within the face of pressures to assimilate with US affect. Martin’s efficiency underscored this message, presenting cultural preservation as an very important type of anti-colonial resistance.
Girl Gaga added a robust symbolic size. Its gentle blue colour resembled the unique 1895 model of the Puerto Rican flag, earlier than its colour used to be darkened to compare america flag. She wore a purple hibiscus – the nationwide brand of satisfaction and resistance – in addition to white vegetation, which in combination evoke the colours of the flag. Thus, she embodied recognize, participation and cohesion, no longer separation or erasure.
Dangerous Bunny remodeled the stadium right into a sugar cane box, in connection with the Caribbean’s colonial previous. PA/Alami Authenticity as compliance
Artists ceaselessly stroll the road between conformity and transgression, and Dangerous Bunny has mastered this steadiness completely. As a Puerto Rican artist running in an trade that ceaselessly forces other people to desert their origins, he as a substitute created a hybrid cultural area: a Tremendous Bowl halftime display in Spanish. Thus he operated inside the device whilst difficult the concept English should dominate and that primary figures should have compatibility right into a slender cultural style.
The artist additionally challenged the dominant narrative that reduces “America” to america by means of acknowledging all of the American continent. After pointing out “God bless America,” he indexed all of the international locations at the continent, from south to north.
Through naming international locations, Dangerous Bunny reversed the normal geopolitical hierarchy. This gesture evoked the paintings The us Invertida by means of Uruguayan artist Joaquin Torres-Garcia and his concept that “the South is our North”, difficult the concept cultural or political legitimacy should come from the “North”.
Authenticity as consistency
In spite of everything, consistency got here thru endorsing Dangerous Bunny’s longtime activism. The explosion of side road lighting earlier than El Apagon’s efficiency used to be an immediate connection with his 2022 tune video, which takes the type of a documentary condemning the forget of infrastructure and the privatization of electrical energy by means of American firms. This second attached the birthday celebration with the colonial fact skilled in Puerto Rico.
A short lived look by means of El Sapo Conch, the mascot of his final album, added every other symbolic size. Just about extinct because of ecological disruptions related to colonial useful resource exploitation, this Puerto Rican frog has develop into a logo of survival within the face of structural harm. His presence at the display used to be a reminder that the have an effect on of colonialism is as a lot environmental as it’s cultural.
Likewise, when Dangerous Bunny offered the Grammy to a more youthful model of himself, he strengthened his message: “If I’m here, it’s because I’ve always believed in myself.” » In a context the place the populations of colonized countries face discrimination and marginalization, many see the tradition of the colonizer as a method of social growth. His gesture thus reaffirmed self-confidence as an act of resistance.
“This is America”
On the finish of the display, an illuminated signal learn “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.” Bud Bunny then held a soccer with the phrases, “Together We Are America.” » (In combination we’re The us.)
This symbol recommended a pan-American perfect in keeping with cohesion quite than dominance. Thru symbols of collective resilience, the artist offered authenticity as a type of anti-colonial activism anchored in love, reminiscence and group.
Those visible alternatives had been planned and a part of years of public angle, tune and engagement. Every component strengthened a coherent narrative of resistance, appearing that authenticity used to be no longer only a efficiency, however the results of ongoing anti-colonial activism.
Interweaving historical past, symbolism and private convictions in each second of his efficiency, Bud Bunny confirmed that artwork can develop into a vector of political and cultural motion, in keeping with love, tolerance and inclusion.
