"Nobody understands a word this guy is saying," US President Donald Trump wrote on social media after Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny's halftime show at the NFL Super Bowl on Monday night.
Trump didn't appreciate that most of the show was held in Spanish. But that's what made it historic: Never before has an artist singing in Spanish had the honor of headlining the Super Bowl.
Bad Bunny made sure to fill the 13-minute show, which was watched by nearly 130 million viewers, with loaded symbolism. Here are some of them.
Sugarcane:
The stage set consisted of a sugarcane field, symbolizing Puerto Rico's economic and colonial history, in which the island has been exploited for its agricultural potential.
The outfit:
Bad Bunny's off-white "sweatsuit" included a jersey with the number 64, the same number his uncle wore when he played American football. The rest of the outfit was a tribute to "jibaros" - Puerto Rican rural workers.
The national flower:
The red flower Flor de Maga adorned guest artist Lady Gaga's dress, symbolizing, among other things, the Puerto Rican people's ability to survive economic and political challenges.
Street life:
At the beginning of the show, Bad Bunny moved through elements of Puerto Rican street life. There were older men playing dominoes, girls at a nail salon, jewelry vendors, tacos and shaved ice.
The wedding:
In the middle of the show, a man and a woman got married on stage, followed by a Latin American wedding party. The couple, who were actually married, had been invited by Bad Bunny because he had previously declined to perform at their wedding.
Crackling electricity poles:
During the song “El apagón,” Bad Bunny and his dancers climbed up crackling and sparking electric poles. It was a reference to the frequent outages that plague Puerto Rico’s power grid, and the catastrophic effects of Hurricane Maria in 2017.
The messages:
Towards the end of the show, a giant billboard lit up with the text “The only thing more powerful than hate is love” - Bad Bunny’s way of addressing the U.S. immigration and border crisis. Before that, he shouted “God bless America!” and read out the names of all the countries in North and South America.
