Whether or not you speak Spanish, there's no misunderstanding what Bad Bunny meant

In the final moment of his set on February 8, Bad Bunny, holding a football that read “Together, we are America,” said “God bless America” before listing the countries of South America, North America, and some of the Caribbean. He was flanked by flags of all of these countries as the Jumbotron behind him displayed the message, in English, “THE ONLY THING MORE POWERFUL THAN HATE IS LOVE.” By virtue of his birth in Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny is American, just like someone born in Canada, or Mexico, or Cuba, or Bolivia, or Chile is American. America is not the United States; America isn’t even contained in one continent. 

This is not a new thought, but it is one that deserves to be repeated, especially as the MAGA wing of U.S. politics pushes for an increasingly narrow definition of who gets to claim to be an American. These are people who were upset that Bad Bunny was selected to be the halftime performer, and upset again by his plain refusal to sing in English for the event. Turning Point USA was angry enough to plan a rival halftime set that it streamed on YouTube. (It was also supposed to stream on right-wing slop trough X, but the organizers flubbed that one.) Absurdly dubbed “The All-American Halftime Show,” TP’s starred Kid Rock, Brantley Gilbert, Lee Brice, and Gabby Barrett. Talk about a narrow definition of American. 

Of course, the crowd who would willingly tune into something like that is not the crowd that Bad Bunny is trying to woo. For as long as Bad Bunny has been famous in the United States, he has stubbornly refused to water down his identity as a Puerto Rican or to stop singing in Spanish. From the first big hit he was part of in the continental U.S., Cardi B’s “I Like It,” he has always maintained that he performs in Spanish. But as we saw at halftime, he isn’t against bringing in English when there’s something he wants to be sure is understood by people too incurious to use Google Translate. In the music video for the ebullient “NUEVAYoL,” one scene features the voice of a Trump impersonator on the radio, saying, “I made a mistake. I want to apologize to the immigrants in America—I mean the United States. I know America is the whole continent.” 

These views shouldn’t be alienating, nor should Bad Bunny’s set. There were other parts of the performance, too, where he spelled out what he meant for the non-Spanish speakers. The sole English segment featured Lady Gaga singing a salsa-style rendition of “Die With A Smile” at, tellingly, a wedding. It wasn’t just a (real!) union between two people but a union of cultures and musical styles. We then got the image of Bad Bunny handing his recently won Album Of The Year Grammy to a little boy in Puerto Rico watching on TV. Then, we saw him waving the Puerto Rican flag, shot from below to frame him almost as a general, a leader on a mission. America is bigger than you might think, the performance says. It’s a call for community, but one that insists upon respect, not just for citizens of the United States, but for Americans. The statement is clear, but Bad Bunny isn’t going to force anyone to listen.