The day after the entertainer Bad Bunny spoke out at the Grammys against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that he expects Bad Bunny’s appearance at the Super Bowl will be one that unifies the country.
The remarks came as Turning Point USA promotes its alternative halftime show, born out of anger at the selection of Bad Bunny, who has been outspoken in his opposition to President Donald Trump and his immigration policies.
“Listen, Bad Bunny is — and I think that was demonstrated last night – one of the great artists in the world, and that’s one of the reasons we chose him,” Goodell said at a Super Bowl news conference.
“But the other reason is he understood the platform he was on, and that this platform is used to unite people, and to be able to bring people together with their creativity, with their talents, and to be able to use this moment to do that. And I think artists in the past have done that. I think Bad Bunny understands that, and I think he’ll have a great performance.”
On social media, many conservatives mocked the statement and some called it gaslighting, noting the performer’s prior statements about Trump and his refusal to visit the U.S. on a recent tour.
At Sunday’s Grammy awards show, Bad Bunny won three awards, including album of the year for “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” (“I Should Have Taken More Photos”). It was the first Spanish-language album to win that award. The Puerto Rican performer sings mostly in Spanish and riled some conservatives by saying on “Saturday Night Live” that Americans should learn Spanish prior to the Super Bowl.
During the Grammy awards show, the audience cheered when he said, “Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say: ICE out!” The phrase has been chanted at protests over the Trump administration’s immigration-law enforcement.
He went on to add: “We’re not savages, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens — we’re humans. The hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that’s more powerful than hate is love, so, please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love.”
Writing for ESPN.com prior to Goodell’s comments, Kalyn Kahler said that despite some concerns within the NFL about the selection of Bad Bunny to headline the halftime show, the league has stuck by its decision because of the entertainer’s global appeal, especially among Latinos in the U.S. and Latin America.
According to Kahler, “Marissa Solis, the NFL’s senior vice president of global brand and consumer marketing, told ESPN in November that the league first identified the U.S. Latino population as a ‘critical growth area’ several years ago.”
The official trailer for the show, released last month, is more reflective of Goodell’s comments than the reaction on social media suggests. It shows the performer, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, dancing with people of different ages and ethnicities — including a man in a cowboy hat who doffs his hat to him. The trailer concludes with the words “February 8, the world will dance.”