Sam Enlund
Sports Editor / Social Media Manager
Puerto Rican rapper and singer Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, known professionally as Bad Bunny, was this year’s Super Bowl Halftime performer. The performance included his songs, “Tití Me Preguntó,” “Yo Perreo Sola,” “Safaera” and “Monaco.”
At only 31, Bad Bunny is one of the youngest performers to star in the Super Bowl Halftime show. Using this opportunity, Bad Bunny included symbols in his show that would spark controversy within the American population and be used to pay tribute to his Latino heritage and to Puerto Rican history.
Scattered throughout his performance, Bad Bunny used symbols or “Easter eggs” to provide a deeper meaning to his show and to his presence at the Super Bowl.
“During the opening of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl medley, several of the singer’s backup dancers – dressed as sugar cane field workers – wore pavas, brimmed straw hats traditionally made from leaves of the Puerto Rican hat palm,” according to USA Today’s article “All the Bad Bunny Easter eggs at Super Bowl halftime show, explained.”
More symbols included the references to Puerto Rican cuisine through the coco frío cart with dancers posing around it cosplaying customers. There was also a piraguas cart recreation, where Bad Bunny made a short stop to grab a frozen dessert. A piragua is a Puerto Rican version of shaved ice, often topped with fruit-flavored syrups.
Bad Bunny also referenced his own historic Grammy win in his performance.
The USA Today article said, “The singer walked in on a vignette of a couple watching Bad Bunny at the awards ceremony with their young son. At the 68th annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 1, Bad Bunny made history with the first Spanish-language album to win album of the year.”
“Bad Bunny later pulls out a Grammy statuette and hands it to the couple’s son and tells him, ‘Gracias, papi,’ or ‘Thank you, baby,’” according to USA Today.
During his performance Bad Bunny also used exploding telephone poles to illustrate the frequent power outages that continue in Puerto Rico.
Also taking place during the show was the wedding of Eleisa Aparico and Thomas Wolter, who were married by Pastor Antonio Reyes. The couple had originally invited Bad Bunny to their wedding, who instead invited them to be married during the Halftime show, serving as their witness and signing their marriage certificate.
The marriage wasn’t the only symbol from the wedding. The ceremony also featured a sleeping child.
“A child asleep in a chair while the party raged around him, a universally relatable image from any Latin family gathering that goes late into the night,” according to Forbes’ article “What Did Bad Bunny’s Halftime Show Mean? Every Cultural Reference Broken Down.”
Other symbols from the show included traditional instruments, the common Puerto Rican stores and businesses featured, the two people boxing on stage, and a house party-featuring many well known celebrities, such as Pedro Pascal, Jessica Alba and Cardi B.
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Sam Enlund-Social Media/Sports Editor This will be Sam Enlund’s third year on ECHO staff. She also made several contributions while taking journalism class her freshman year. |
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