I came to the Super Bowl halftime show this year with low expectations and an open mind. I didn’t expect anything groundbreaking. I wasn’t even looking for anything particularly memorable.
What I did expect, however, was a performance that felt appropriate for the Super Bowl — an event that, for better or worse, serves as the most distinctly American cultural moment of the year. That expectation was not met.
From the start, the choice of Bad Bunny as the halftime artist never made much sense. This has nothing to do with party politics. Whether an artist supports Donald Trump, opposes him, or avoids politics entirely is irrelevant.
The problem is representation. The Super Bowl is not just a concert venue. Rather, it is a national event watched by tens of millions of Americans and marketed as a celebration of American culture.
The United States is a melting pot of cultures, languages and backgrounds. But American culture still has shared foundations, and the most fundamental is language. English is the common thread that allows a country so large and diverse to function as one society.
When a halftime show is dominated by music performed largely in a language most viewers don’t understand, it can no longer feel like a unifying moment and instead seem disconnected from the audience it’s meant to entertain.
This is not an argument against Spanish music or Spanish-speaking artists. Bad Bunny is undeniably popular and successful. His music has a place and his fans are real.
But the Super Bowl halftime show isn’t just about individual popularity. It’s about creating a moment that resonates broadly with American audiences. That didn’t happen here.
Objectively, the performance itself was terrible. There was little actual singing, minimal involvement and almost no effort to connect with the audience watching at home.
The energy felt flat. The set lacked spectacle. Even apart from the language problem, it was just plain boring. As an entertainment piece, it failed to justify its place on American sports’ biggest stage.
What made the situation worse was how politicized the performance became – albeit not by conservatives. The politicization initially came from the left, which regarded the selection itself as a cultural statement. That framing turned the halftime show into a symbol instead of a celebration.
The Super Bowl should not be used to make ideological comments about identity or culture.
There have been plenty of halftime performers who weren’t conservatives, weren’t Republicans, and weren’t Trump supporters. That has never been the problem.
Those artists understood their responsibility: to connect with the audience, communicate in a shared language and deliver a performance that fits the moment.
This halftime show did none of that. It shouldn’t have happened and it should serve as a lesson. The Super Bowl is an American institution, and treating the halftime show accordingly isn’t solely a matter of respect for the audience that made it what it is.
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