It’s been roughly 24 hours since Dangerous Bunny commanded the Tremendous Bowl LX halftime stage, and we’re all nonetheless collectively reeling from the enjoyment. With a transferring meditation on heritage and unity, delivered with the easy cool of one of many world’s most magnetic stars, the present (watch here) was as private because it was world.
Wearing an all-white, customized Zara look by his longtime artistic director Janthony Oliveras, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, 31, lower a strikingly pared-back determine. The centrepiece was a cropped soccer jersey stamped with “OCASIO” and the quantity 64. Whereas followers scrambled to decode the importance, the which means, it seems, was much more intimate than any viral idea might counsel. The quantity nods to 1964, the delivery yr of his uncle, Tío Cutito, who launched a younger Dangerous Bunny to the NFL and whose affect formed his childhood. Performing within the San Francisco 49ers’ residence stadium, Benito carried his uncle’s title and reminiscence with him, turning the jersey right into a tribute.
That sense of private historical past rippled by the present itself. Opening with the exuberant “Tití Me Preguntó,” the set moved by to “CAFé CON RON” earlier than closing on the uncooked emotion of “DtMF.” Dancers in conventional Puerto Rican gown crammed the sector, with loads of nostalgic references to his upbringing—together with a candy second the place the singer arms his recently-won Grammy award to his childhood self.
Shock appearances—from Ricky Martin and Lady Gaga performing to cameos by Pedro Pascal, Jessica Alba, Karol G, and Cardi B—turned the stage right into a communal celebration of heritage.
Woman Gaga’s second, in a flamenco-style Luar gown, was notably joyful, because the pair danced by a salsa-inflected rendition of “Die With a Smile”. Later, Gaga thanked Benito for together with her in what she referred to as a “highly effective, vital, and significant efficiency.”
Throughout a pre-game press convention, Dangerous Bunny, who was the world’s most-played artist in 2025 in keeping with Spotify knowledge, summed up his ethos merely. Requested if audiences ought to study Spanish to know his lyrics, he smiled: “Folks solely have to fret about dancing… There isn’t any higher dance than the one which comes from the center.”
In a time marked by division and brutality, notably relating to the horrors of U.S. politics, Dangerous Bunny challenged hate with a efficiency rooted in love, unity and pleasure.
“God bless America”, he concluded earlier than itemizing the nations of Central, South and North America. He emphasised his motherland, Puerto Rico, as dancers carried their flags collectively, after which held up a soccer emblazoned with the phrases “Collectively, we’re America.”
As the group roared with pleasure, a billboard message overhead learn, “The one factor extra highly effective than hate is love.”
