Far-right conservatives promoted a baseless 2024 conspiracy theory that Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce would announce their engagement and support for President Joe Biden’s reelection at the Super Bowl halftime show. Now, far-right conservatives are criticizing the NFL’s decision to feature Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl halftime show, citing his earlier refusal to tour the U.S. due to concern that Immigration and Customs Enforcement might show up at his concerts. Some opponents argue that Bad Bunny shouldn’t perform because he isn’t a U.S. citizen; however, this is incorrect. He is from Puerto Rico, where residents are indeed U.S citizens.
Language is another flash point. Bad Bunny performs his music almost exclusively in Spanish, and on the season premiere of “Saturday Night Live,” which he hosted, he teased non-Spanish speakers that they had four months to learn the language. My Spanish isn’t good enough to understand more than a few of his lyrics, but I listen to Bad Bunny’s music during workouts at the gym because it motivates me. Bad Bunny has had over 197 billion streams on Spotify. Even if the game is dull, Bad Bunny’s presence guarantees an audience and significant ratings for the halftime show, translating into millions of dollars in advertising revenue. In the end, just like the boycott of Budweiser, and the cancellations of Disney and Hulu streaming over the Jimmy Kimmel controversy, capitalism prevails, right?
Returning to Taylor Swift, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro expressed disdain for her new album, “Life of a Showgirl.” He wants her to return to singing country music and write songs about getting married and having babies. That’s unlikely to happen. Swift’s new album includes a song that references Ophelia from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Swift isn’t asking the question “to be or not to be.” She already knows who she is.
Philip Wasserman
Stevenson Ranch
