Puerto Rico’s Bad Bunny Responds to the US Super Bowl Controversy

Puerto Rican musician Bad Bunny responded with irony in his monologue on Saturday Night Live (SNL) to the controversy among conservative factions over his hosting the halftime show of the Super Bowl, the biggest sporting event in the United States, on February 8. He recalled that “no one can take away or erase” the country’s Hispanic heritage.  Benito Antonio Martínez, better known as Bad Bunny, was the guest star on the popular SNL show and took advantage of his monologue, mostly in English, to sarcastically assert that his participation in the Super Bowl “has made everyone happy, including Fox News,” which has joined the conservative voices criticizing the Puerto Rican’s selection, a critic of President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies. 

Bad Bunny, who recalled that he’s been through a very intense few months due to his residency concerts in Puerto Rico, switched to Spanish to say that the fact that he’ll be headlining the Super Bowl halftime concert “is more than an achievement of mine, it’s an achievement of all (Latinos), demonstrating that our mark and our contribution to this country can never be erased or removed.”  “If you didn’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn (Spanish),” added the artist, who starred in several sketches, including an adaptation of the famous Mexican children’s series “El Chavo del Ocho.”  Several conservative voices have criticized and even called for a boycott of February’s Super Bowl, to be held in Santa Clara, California, over the choice of the famous Puerto Rican reggaeton artist. He has made no secret of his opposition to Trump and has even refused to perform in the U.S. due to fears that ICE will continue its indiscriminate raids. Slide ahead about 13.5 minutes to listen to the monologue.