How Bad Bunny Brought Activism To The Super Bowl Stage

After days of controversy in which Donald Trump complained about the acts and said he would not attend, and alternative “all-American” entertainment was lined up, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny took to the stage of the much-hyped halftime show of Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Expectations were high, a fact reflected in the unprecedented number of viewers who tuned in. Bad Bunny’s show surpassed 135.4 million views, exceeding Kendrick Lamar’s 133.5 million in 2025 and Michael Jackson’s 133.4 million in 1993.

Read more: Bad Bunny is the latest product of political rage — how pop culture became the front line of American politics

Media coverage framed the event primarily as a celebration of diversity, fuelling a backlash from Donald Trump supporters and conservative commentators. The criticism targeted Bad Bunny not only for his outspoken opposition to the Trump administration, but also for claims that he was “not an American artist” – ignoring Puerto Rico’s status as a US territory. Bad Bunny’s performance demonstrated how authenticity can be produced through anti-colonial activism.

While authenticity is often regarded as something real, true or genuine, it is defined by a relational quality that can emerge through a person’s behaviour in three ways: through connections to people or place; conformity to, or disruption of, conventions, and consistency between message and action. We look at how Bad Bunny displayed all three at the Super Bowl.

1. Authenticity as connection

This was evident in the presence of sugar cane on stage, a crop that shaped the colonial economies of the Caribbean. Plantations were owned by colonisers and sustained through the violent exploitation of Indigenous people and transatlantic enslaved Africans. By foregrounding sugar cane, the performance exposed the foundations of colonial wealth and reclaimed a symbol of oppression as historical truth rather than romanticised memory.

The presence of Puerto Rican icon Ricky Martin strengthened this sense of connection when he performed Bad Bunny’s Lo Que Le Pasó A Hawaii. Through its lyrics, the song cautions Puerto Ricans against relinquishing their cultural identity amid pressure to assimilate into the influence of the US. Martin’s performance underscored the message, highlighting cultural preservation as an essential form of anti-colonial resistance

Lady Gaga added a powerful layer of symbolism to the performance. Her light blue dress referenced the original 1895 design of the Puerto Rican flag before its shade was darkened to align with the US flag. She adorned it with a red hibiscus, a national emblem of pride and resistance, alongside white flowers. Together, these elements echoed the colours of the Puerto Rican flag. Gaga embodied respect, participation and solidarity rather than segregation or erasure.

2. Authenticity as conformity

Artists often simultaneously conform to and break rules, and Bad Bunny mastered that tension. As a Puerto Rican artist rising within an industry that frequently pressures performers to abandon their roots, he instead created a hybrid cultural space: a Spanish-language Super Bowl halftime show. He operated within the system while disrupting assumptions and expectations that English must dominate and that mainstream icons should fit a narrow cultural mould.

Bad Bunny further disrupted the dominant narrative that reduces “America” to the US, instead acknowledging the full geography of the Americas. After declaring “God bless America”, he proceeded to list countries from the southernmost to the northern regions of the continent.

By naming countries across the Americas, Bad Bunny also inverted the conventional geopolitical hierarchy. The gesture echoed Uruguayan artist Joaquín Torres-García’s famous painting América Invertida (Inverted America) and his assertion that “the south is our north”, challenging the idea that cultural or political legitimacy must flow from the so‑called north, and rejecting the aspiration to emulate it.

3. Authenticity as consistency

Consistency appeared through callbacks to Bad Bunny’s longstanding activism. The lamppost explosion before performing El Apagón directly referenced the 2022 song’s music video, which functions as a documentary critiquing infrastructure neglect and the privatisation of electricity by North American companies. This moment connected entertainment to colonial reality for Puerto Ricans, reinforcing how Bad Bunny refuses to separate his art from the colonial conditions affecting his homeland.

The brief appearance of El Sapo Concho, the unofficial mascot of his latest album, added another layer of symbolic continuity. Nearly driven to extinction through centuries of ecological disruption tied to colonial extraction of resources, the Puerto Rican crested toad has become a visual shorthand for survival against structural harm. Its presence, even for a moment, served as a reminder that colonialism’s impact is environmental as much as cultural, and invoked themes of survival and resistance against imposed systems.

The same idea emerged when Bad Bunny presented a Grammy to a younger version of himself, reinforcing his phrase: “If I’m here, it’s because I always believed in myself.” In a world where people from colonised nations face discrimination, exclusion, oppression and marginalisation, many came to view the culture of their colonisers as a path to transcend those barriers. Thus, Bad Bunny’s gesture reclaimed self-belief as an act of defiance. By centring identity rather than imitation, Bad Bunny asserted that authenticity, not mimicry, is the most powerful form of anti-colonial refusal.

This is America

At the end of the performance, a flashing billboard read: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.” Bad Bunny held a football inscribed with the words “Together, We Are America”.

This proposed a pan-American ideal anchored in solidarity rather than domination, emphasising collaboration over hierarchy. Hate thrives on isolation, but this act created a unifying vision. Through symbols of collective resilience, Bad Bunny framed authenticity as anti-colonial activism grounded in love, memory and community.

Overall, these visuals were intentional, aligning with years of public statements, music and community engagement. Each element reinforced a consistent narrative of resistance, showing that authenticity is not just performance but the culmination of sustained anti-colonial activism.

By embedding history, symbolism and personal conviction into every moment, Bad Bunny demonstrated that art can be a deliberate vessel for political and cultural action grounded in love, tolerance and inclusion.

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Flavia Cardoso received funding from the Chilean Government (Fondecyt 2016) and the Luksic Foundation in 2022.

Belinda Zakrzewska and Jannsen Santana do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.