"Everyone, however, knows what to do at a party, Spanish or not: You dance. You dance salsa and perreo, you soft-shoe and twerk, in sugarcane fields and in parking lots and on rooftops, all lovingly reproduced midfield at California's Levi's Stadium as Benito took the world on a grand tour of Puerto Rican history in a breathtaking 13-minute extravaganza. It was a show that gave viewers the sort of surprise appearances they might expect from a Super Bowl halftime show."
"It was also a watershed moment in pop culture history: The world has changed, and this is what our pop culture looks and sounds like now. The idea of U.S. cultural hegemony as represented by a lily-white, English-language media, is on the decline. And: Good! This is the Gospel of Benito, proclaiming "God bless America," and then proclaiming the names of nearly every country in the Americas, marching with their flags flying behind him, on a literal level playing field."
Benito Antonio MartÃnez Ocasio, known as Bad Bunny, entered the Super Bowl halftime show following a historic Grammy Album of the Year win as the first Spanish-language artist. The performance recreated Puerto Rican life and history at Levi's Stadium with salsa, perreo, soft-shoe and twerking across sugarcane fields, parking lots and rooftops, and included surprise appearances and a real wedding. The 13-minute set foregrounded Spanish-language music on a U.S. cultural stage and showcased flags and the names of nearly every American country. The moment signaled a shift away from English-only cultural dominance toward a more diverse, hemispheric pop culture.
Read at Slate Magazine
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