They call it the biggest stage in music. The Super Bowl halftime show is one of the precious few American events that we have left—save the actual sports—that people watch live, and with each other, which is why whatever happens during it takes on outsize significance. When Janet Jackson had a wardrobe malfunction in 2004 during the show with Justin Timberlake, it broke the fledgling internet. I couldn’t tell you who took the field in 2013, except for Destiny’s Child, reunited during Beyoncé’s epic performance. Bad Bunny took the stage this year, and while there was no decade-defining wardrobe malfunction, or even a musical performance for the ages, there was something great: a colorful, joyful, multigenerational show at human scale.
Bad Bunny’s performance recreated a small town Puerto Rican vibe: At the outset there were old men playing dominoes, a woman getting her nails done, and a man hawking jewelry. Bad Bunny, real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, weaved and danced through boxers sparring and a man barbecuing before taking the roof of a casita while a battalion of dancers in Adidas sneakers shook and twisted below. Compare this to Rihanna’s halftime show, where the dancers were basically in hazmat suits and the set was made of industrial-lit cubes.
