You don’t have to talk Spanish to know that Unhealthy Bunny’s blockbuster Tremendous Bowl halftime present was a strong one: rooted in place, historical past, politics, and most significantly, pleasure.
However if you happen to’re not intimately aware of the oeuvre or the island, there are lots of smaller particulars you may need missed — from the entire very Puerto Rican actions within the intro to Unhealthy Bunny’s mild blue Puerto Rican flag.
As Vox’s largest Unhealthy Bunny fanatic — his full identify is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio — I collected among the most hanging particulars from his history-making efficiency: the primary Tremendous Bowl halftime present to be carried out totally in Spanish, constructing on Shakira and Jennifer Lopez’s joint efficiency in 2020.
Listed here are the eight can’t-miss moments from Benito’s present:
That is my Tremendous Bowl. I’m Unhealthy Bunny’s largest fan right here at Vox. I’ve been listening to Benito since 2016 — again in his bald stud period! — to the purpose the place a number of of my coworkers texted me minutes after it was introduced he was performing for the Tremendous Bowl. I’ve seen him carry out a number of instances, together with at his iconic residency in Puerto Rico final 12 months. To an off-the-cuff listener, it could appear that Unhealthy Bunny solely sings about bagging baddies. That’s partially true. However for any Puerto Rican, from these on the archipelago to within the diaspora, there are deeper layers. I needed y’all to really feel such as you, too, are in on the key.
1. Why Unhealthy Bunny’s jersey has the quantity 64
Benito’s jersey, emblazoned with certainly one of his final names, additionally options the preliminary variety of reported deaths within the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017 — possible a gross undercount. That quantity, 64, turned the middle of debate, as rural elements of the archipelago suffered from immense infrastructural harm and lack of electrical energy and clear water. The quantity was additionally used to attenuate the severity of the storm. Within the months following the devastation, the governor revised the toll to 2,975 deaths. Some research put extra deaths even increased at 4,645.
A fixture of his newest period, the casita is a pink, historically Puerto Rican-style concrete home. You’ll discover these actually wherever on the island, however they’re hottest in rural areas. Debí Tirar Más Fotos chronicles the challenges of pressured gentrification brought on by the island’s colonial standing. Whereas the seashores and fancy residences in San Juan could also be swooped up by rich vacationers and short-term rental hosts, what stays are the previous properties within the mountains — a lot of which have been deserted due to unclear wills, incapacity to afford upkeep, and emigration for higher alternatives. (That is the case for my family, sadly.)
Unhealthy Bunny’s celebration of the casita as a celebration vacation spot, filled with celebrities from Pedro Pascal and Cardi B to Alix Earle and Younger Miko, cements the struggle to remain on the island. It’s additionally a enjoyable continuation of his residency final summer season on the island, the place anybody who’s anybody had an invitation.
One other enjoyable truth in regards to the casita: When Unhealthy Bunny falls by way of the roof into that blue room, it’s a callback to the music video visualizers for his 2020 album, YHLQMDLG. He didn’t get to tour that album, so that is an easter egg for a few of his actual OGs.
3. “Nuevayol” with Toñita
Debí Tirar Más Fotos is a love letter to the diaspora as a lot as it’s to these on the island. New York has the very best density of Puerto Ricans exterior of Puerto Rico, residing in neighborhoods like Washington Heights and Alphabet Metropolis. One in every of Unhealthy Bunny’s most particular “if you already know, you already know” company is Toñita, the proprietor of the Caribbean Social Membership in Williamsburg, who has a shoutout within the music. Excessive-key, it’s certainly one of my favourite locations to hold, dance, and play dominoes — a house away from house.
4. The child with the Grammy
One of the highly effective moments of tonight’s efficiency was when Unhealthy Bunny leaves the social gathering scene in New York and passes his Grammy for finest album to a toddler who seems to be uncannily just like Liam Ramos, the 5-year-old boy who was taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as bait. Benito’s speech towards ICE performs within the background, however I feel that is extra of a symbolic gesture of passing on the mantle to the following era. In both case, it speaks to religion and hope for the longer term.
5. The jibaros on the powerlines
After Hurricane Maria, there was a brand new push to “revitalize” Puerto Rico’s financial system and infrastructure. Luma, a non-public electrical energy firm, turned the supplier for the territory. Nevertheless it didn’t work out as deliberate: Blackouts turned the brand new norm. All of the whereas, wealthy People moved to profit from newly created tax breaks as an austerity regime closed down faculties. “El Apagón” sings of this rigidity, of the need for outsiders to go away, but in addition an acknowledgment that “todos quieren ser latinos” — or “everybody desires to be Latino.”
The lads with the straw hats and white garments are jibaros, a standard subsistence farmer frequent within the mountains who usually use a curved machete to reap crops and minimize by way of sugarcane. Additionally they have a type of folks music that’s used as the premise of many Puerto Rican cries (“lelolai”). The jibaros climbing on the powerlines are a mirrored image of the altering instances and the way they’re getting left behind.
6. Ricky Martin and “Lo Que Pasó a Hawaii”
Ricky Martin — who’s as a lot of a Puerto Rican icon as Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, and Roberto Clemente — is most well-known for crossing over into the American market with songs like “She Bangs” and “Livin’ la Vida Loca.” He first discovered fame by way of the boy band Menudo, but it surely actually wasn’t till he began singing in English that he discovered worldwide success.
Martin singing “Lo Que Paso a Hawaii” is a reclamation of his heritage. It’s a music devoted to those that keep and those that are pressured to go away and alter. Unhealthy Bunny carried out for the Tremendous Bowl totally in Spanish, one thing that will have been unthinkable even a decade in the past. Ricky Martin has all the time been proudly Puerto Rican, but it surely feels totally different when he can sing in his mom tongue alone.
As Marissa Martinez wrote for Vox earlier this week, explaining the rise of requires Puerto Rican independence:
She and different followers will probably be able to shout if she sees la bandera con azul celeste, the once-suppressed 1895 light-blue model of the present flag related to the pro-independence motion that Unhealthy Bunny featured within the music video for “La Mudanza.”
“They killed folks right here for waving the flag,” he sings on that monitor. “That’s why now I take it in every single place.”
8. God Bless America — all of America
A fast Spanish lesson, first: For those who’re speaking about US residents, you would possibly assume that “americano” is the direct translation. It’s really “estadounidense” (actually United States-ian). Anyway, my level right here is that “americano” encompasses the entire Americas, from Canada right down to Argentina. Unhealthy Bunny closed his efficiency with a shoutout to the entire Americas, from Chile to Canada, and a procession of flags. On the jumbotron behind him, a easy message shone: “The one factor extra highly effective than hate is love.”
