00:00We're going to start in the United States, where in a deeply divided country, there were
00:05predictably mixed reactions to the much-awaited halftime show at last night's Super Bowl,
00:11when Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny delivered his set, making history by performing it almost
00:16entirely in Spanish. Bad Bunny, who was the world's most played artist in 2025, that's
00:23according to Spotify, did choose to say one line in English, shouting, God bless America.
00:30Before listing nations of Central, South and North America, as dancers carried their
00:35flags. Well, as the show ended, he held up a football to the camera. It had a message
00:40that was also on the scoreboard, the only thing more powerful than hate is love.
00:46Well, on Truth Social, President Donald Trump called the show absolutely terrible, one of
00:51the worst ever. Let's hear the views now of some of those who watched Bad Bunny's performance
00:56from his hometown in Puerto Rico. Take a listen.
01:00I danced, I screamed, I cursed about everything, just to be cool.
01:11Spectacular as always. He surprises us every time he does something. He surprises everyone.
01:17And you're going to be surprised too. He's going there, so have a good time over there,
01:21because it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
01:25And I'm very proud that someone from Vega Baja has reached such heights, putting the name
01:30of Puerto Rico and, above all, Vega Baja on the map. I'm very proud.
01:35Well, for more on the Super Bowl halftime show, I'm joined now by our former U.S. correspondent,
01:42Keravan Gurdjastani. Hi, Keravan.
01:44There was a lot of anticipation coming up to this, wasn't there? And some expectation that
01:50he might use it to send some sort of political message. What did you make of it in the end?
01:55Well, look, there was a lot of expectation. And some people may have come away saying,
02:01well, he didn't really go overboard with the political message. But when you look closely
02:05at his performance, you see that everything from the choice of song, the imagery, the details,
02:12the costumes, everything was a political statement, starting with the choice of the Puerto Rican flag.
02:19It was not the official Puerto Rican flag. The yellow triangle is actually a light blue shade,
02:25as opposed to the dark blue. And that is the color of the independence movement for Puerto Rico.
02:33So that in itself was already a big political statement. Then you had the whole segment of
02:39Bad Bunny dancing with his dancers atop electric poles, some of them exploding. That was a clear
02:46reference to the situation in Puerto Rico and the long-running problems with its infrastructure
02:52and its electric grid, especially since Hurricane Maria hit back in 2017. And that has caused a lot
03:00of political upheaval back in Puerto Rico. But there were plenty of symbolic moments, and some that maybe
03:07more Americans could actually understand. One was when Bad Bunny handed over his Grammy trophy that he won
03:16just about a week ago to this young boy who was watching him get that Grammy on TV. Now, this was a symbol of you need to follow your dreams,
03:27you can do everything. But it was also, for many, a reference to Liam Conejo Ramos. He's that five-year-old child who,
03:35just a few weeks ago, was arrested by ICE and became sort of a symbol of the violence of the anti-immigration crackdown
03:43in the United States. Really, the whole performance was sort of a love letter to Latino culture, but also
03:50to immigrants in the United States, combined with the sort of message of unity. And that was really the grand finale there,
03:58with all those flags coming out and Bad Bunny saying, God bless America, some of the only words he spoke in English,
04:05before listing all of the countries of the continent of America, so reclaiming the word America to mean the whole continent,
04:13and not just the United States. And that football that he's holding, the message on that football was,
04:19together we are America, meaning we all belong here. All the immigrants from all those different countries
04:26in the United States. That is also their country. And the message on the big screen that you mentioned
04:32at the end, the only thing stronger than hate is love. Given the current sort of context in the United States
04:40and the divisive nature of the context, this performance, really, you could say, was probably
04:47political from the very first minute to the very last minute.
04:50And, you know, some people will have loved it. Some, as you say, so divided, the U.S. will not,
04:56including Donald Trump, who called it a slap in the face.
04:59He took to his social media platform during the show to blast Bad Bunny and the whole show itself.
05:09Absolutely terrible. Makes no sense. It's an affront to the greatness of America. Nobody understand a word
05:17this guy is saying. Donald Trump and the whole Make America Great Again movement, really,
05:23have been up in arms against Bad Bunny and his choice as being the headliner for the halftime show.
05:29Ever since Bad Bunny was announced as the headliner, and that was months ago,
05:34the first real uproar was the fact that he sings in Spanish. And that really didn't sit well,
05:39with a lot of MAGA supporters basically saying he should be singing in English,
05:46and an act at the Super Bowl should be singing in English. But some actually went further than that,
05:52saying that they were not happy because Bad Bunny was a foreign act, a reminder that Puerto Rico is
05:59part of the United States, and therefore Bad Bunny is an American citizen. And also the fact that,
06:06over the years, the NFL has many times had foreign headliners. But for the MAGA crowd,
06:14those foreign headliners were white, and they sang in English. But you had plenty of bands from the UK,
06:20for example, like the Rolling Stones, Coldplay, a lot of acts from Canada, like Shania Twain,
06:26like The Weeknd, but also acts who were not from the UK or Canada. Like Rihanna, just three years ago,
06:33she is from Barbados. And you also had, a few years back, Shakira, who's from Colombia.
06:40And MAGA World was so angered by the choice of Bad Bunny that they decided to hold their own sort of
06:46counter-programming, counter-halftime show. It was organized by TPUSA, Turning Point USA. That's the
06:53organization of the late Charlie Kirk. They had a full, all-white, all-American sort of display of
07:01musicians, including Kid Rock. We don't yet have the numbers of the viewers of both the halftime show with
07:09Bad Bunny and of the TPUSA show. But it is expected that the TPUSA concert was probably four or five
07:19million, maybe, whereas the halftime show, some are expecting, might have broken some records. We'll
07:25have to wait. But it is expected that it's around 120, maybe 130 million. We'll have to wait a few
07:32days to get the exact numbers. But clearly, this sort of split-screen moment showed how divided the
07:39United States still is, despite that message of unity from Bad Bunny, who wanted to bring everyone
07:46together. Not everyone got on that bandwagon, especially not the sort of MAGA part of the United States.
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