Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show was a meticulously crafted narrative of Puerto Rican history and identity, transforming the global spectacle into a 13-minute visual essay on migration, resilience, and cultural pride.
The performance opened in a sugar cane field, a direct reference to the island’s colonial agricultural past and the labour of generations. This grounded the elaborate production in historical context. The artist’s custom jersey, inscribed “Ocasio 64,” carried layered meaning: the number referenced both his late uncle and the initial, widely disputed death toll of 64 following Hurricane Maria in 2017.
Throughout the show, Bad Bunny incorporated specific nods to community and diaspora. Brief appearances included Maria Antonia “Toñita” Cay, a long-time owner of a Williamsburg social club, and Victor Villa, founder of a successful taco business, highlighting grassroots immigrant enterprise. A coco frío (cold coconut) vendor cart and a New York street scene featuring “La Marqueta” referenced everyday island life and the Puerto Rican enclaves of New York that shaped the diaspora.
Political and historical symbolism was woven into the choreography and set design. Dancers dressed as jíbaros (traditional mountain farmers) scaled power lines, a clear metaphor for infrastructural collapse and the ongoing energy crisis post-Maria. Bad Bunny prominently displayed the light-blue version of the Puerto Rican flag, historically associated with the independence movement. A female dancer briefly waved Haiti’s flag, a stylised reference to the neighbouring island’s visual history, suggesting regional solidarity.
The setlist itself formed a lineage of reggaetón, blending his own hits with snippets of Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina” and tracks by Tego Calderón and Don Omar, acknowledging the genre’s pioneers. An animated mascot, Concho, represented the endangered Puerto Rican crested toad, symbolising environmental fragility.
A moment of cultural reclamation occurred when Ricky Martin performed the Spanish-language ballad “Lo Que Pasó en Hawaii,” a conscious return to his roots after a career defined by English-language crossover hits. The show concluded with Bad Bunny holding a football emblazoned with “Together We Are America,” first stating the phrase in English before switching to Spanish to affirm “seguimos aquí” (“we’re still here”).
The performance strategically used the Super Bowl’s unprecedented viewership to broadcast a complex, self-authored story of Puerto Rico—its struggles, its history, and its enduring cultural force—to a global audience. It positioned the artist not merely as a performer but as a curator of collective memory and identity.
