BBC News asks 'Why is Bad Bunny's Super Bowl show so controversial?'

I promised "a special Sunday entertainment feature about the Super Bowl" today, so I'm returning to 'The Daily Show' on Trump talking about canceling elections plus Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl and GRAMMYs to take a serious look after a comedic one by sharing BBC News asking Why is Bad Bunny's Super Bowl show so controversial? | The Global Story.

On Sunday 8 February, Bad Bunny will perform at the Super Bowl half-time show to an audience of more than 100 million people across the world.

But the NFL’s choice of the Puerto Rican star has proven controversial, because he has long been outspoken in his criticism of Donald Trump's government, including most recently at the 2026 Grammy Awards, when he called for ICE agents to be removed from the streets.

Puerto Rican cultural critic Carina del Valle Schorske, who profiled Bad Bunny for The New York Times Magazine, speaks to Asma Khalid and Tristan Redman.

She explains how the artist’s pride in his homeland is infused throughout his music, and considers how he might use the United States' biggest stage this weekend to challenge the president’s policies.

I expected Bad Bunny's story to be intimately tied to the recent history of Puerto Rico. I was surprised, but shouldn't have been, that Hurricane Maria and its aftermath played such a big part in it. It didn't help that Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump wanted to trade Puerto Rico for Greenland so that he wouldn't have to deal with the cleanup. His obsession with Greenland has not aged well.

On the other hand, I expect Bad Bunny's halftime show will join Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, and others by being nominated and winning Emmy Awards. As I wrote two years ago:

Did you know that when you watch (or watched, depending on when you read this entry) today's Super Bowl, you'll probably see several Emmy nominees and probably an Emmy winner or two? You will, because you did last year and several of the years before that. That's thanks to the commercials and halftime show, which has been a repeat nominee going back as far as Beyoncé's Super Bowl XLVII halftime show, which won Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Special in 2013.

We'll find out about the nominations in July and the Emmy Awards in September. In the meantime, stay tuned for coverage of Best Cinematic Adaptation Film, the successor to Best Superhero Film at the Saturn Awards, tomorrow.