Bad Bunny—Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio— has broken another record with nine Emmy nominations for his Super Bowl halftime show, the most for any halftime show. The final awards will be announced in September.
The number of nominations is a breakthrough for halftime shows in general, validating them as an artistic form. In fact, several popular social media memes announced that Bad Bunny’s concert would also feature a football game.
The nominations
- Outstanding Variety Special twice — as producer and performer
- Outstanding Directing and Production Design for a Variety Special
- Outstanding Choreography
- Outstanding Lighting Design/Direction
- Outstanding Music Direction
- Outstanding Sound Mixing
- Outstanding Technical Direction and Camerawork
The range of nominations show the importance of all the various elements of the show. Each aspect of the performance was crafted with excellence and all were coordinated to work together in a cohesive narrative.
The show
Bad Bunny’s show was different from the usual Super Bowl show. It was performed almost entirely in Spanish. It was also centered on Puerto Rico with historical references to the sugar industry and electric blackouts as well as cultural icons showing love for the Island.
The show had an astonishing level of viewership, with 1.28 million during the Super Bowl and more than four billion views in 24 hours globally. For Puerto Rico, the moment carries extra weight. The island’s artists have profoundly shaped global pop, but often aren’t recognized as Puerto Rican. A Puerto Rican artist commanding the Super Bowl stage—and then being honored by the Television Academy at this level—demonstrates that the Island is not a peripheral influence but as a central driver of contemporary culture.
The controversy
When the NFL announced their choice for the Super Bowl show, there was outrage at the idea of a halftime performance entirely in Spanish. There were also ignorant complaints that Bad Bunny was not an American — a particularly strange complaint given the number of Super Bowl halftime headliners who actually aren’t American, including the Rolling Stones.
For a surprising number of Americans, this event was an opportunity to learn that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens and Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory. Bad Bunny also suggested that it was a chance to learn Spanish, the second most widely-spoken language in the United States.
