The Only Thing More Powerful Than hate is Love

Image - Spc. Brandon C. Dyer

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On Sunday 8th February, Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny (whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio) performed at the halftime show of the Super Bowl LX. However, to many Americans, his performance was far more than entertainment, but a scene of political controversy surrounding the definition of American identity and his public criticisms of ICE. The republican reaction towards Bad Bunny’s halftime show proves why his message ‘the only thing more powerful than hate is love’ (that was broadcasted on a large banner at the end of his performance) is extremely necessary today.

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Bad Bunny put on a performance that celebrated all nationalities in America and transcended the definition of ‘America’ from just the United States to all countries in North and South America, sending a message of unity between the continents.

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‘It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence. Nobody understands a word this guy is saying’ is what Donald Trump had to say about the performance. How the performance did this, however, he did not explain. Benny Johnson (political commentator) also followed up in a widely viewed tweet, which contained the statement ‘Football is an American sport. The NFL spit in the face of their fans and our nation. This is an absolute humiliation for the NFL.’  

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With this in mind, it is worth noting that Bad Bunny is American. Puerto Rico has been an unincorporated US territory since the end of the Spanish-American War in 1898, and all citizens were granted U.S citizenship in the Jones-Shafroth Act 1917, making him a U.S citizen. To imply the performance was ‘unamerican’, therefore, is a debateable concept.

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Despite anger towards a Puerto Rican artist playing the halftime show, there was no similar controversy when Rolling Stones (a British rock band) played the halftime show in 2006, Shakira (a Colombian singer) played the halftime show in 2016, or Rihanna (a Barbadian singer) played the halftime show in 2023. Shakira even performed a lot of her songs in Spanish, mirroring that of Bad Bunny’s performance.

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So, why were people so angry at his performance? His message comes at a time where his depiction of unity between continents exists as a controversial political debate. The upscaled use and corrupted tactics of ICE (such as physical attacks and murders) as well as comments from Trump and Republicans referring to foreign American nationals as ‘aliens’ and ‘animals’, vastly undermines the image of the Americas as two united continents. Republicans are increasingly seeing anyone not from the U.S as an enemy, creating a necessity in Ocasio’s message of love and unity.

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Bad Bunny, like a lot of high-profile American celebrities, is a vocal critic of ICE. Just a week before the Super Bowl, on 1st February 2026, the 68th Annual Grammy Awards were held in Los Angeles; the ceremony saw many famous names speak out against ICE including Justin Bieber (who was pictured wearing an ‘ICE OUT’ pin) as well as Billie Eilish (who began her winning speech with ‘No one is illegal on stolen land’). Prominently, Bad Bunny began his speech with ‘before I say thanks to god, I’m going to say ICE out’.

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Unsurprisingly, these comments angered Republicans, and only fuelled resentment towards Ocasio’s performance. In a viral post on X that accumulated 77M+ views, American Youtuber and Boxer Jake Paul (who is a known supporter of Trump) accused Ocasio of being a ‘fake American’, and that he ‘hates America’, both due to his critics of ICE. Paul may represent the wider feeling of Republicans with his tweet, but fails to explain the correlation between criticizing ICE and hating America, especially since his whole halftime performance focused on loving and uniting the Americas. This comes with the added context that Jake Paul does not live in America and has lived in Ocasio’s home territory of Puerto Rico since 2021, moving primarily to dodge taxes and therefore contribute to US society.

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Further, TPUSA (a conservative non-profit organisation) created the ‘All-American halftime show’: an alternative halftime show for Americans (primarily Republicans) to watch who did not want to watch Ocasio’s. Although they were careful to include explicit political content in the show itself, the group’s strong associations with Donald Trump and the MAGA movement (especially through its founder Charlie Kirk) meant the show was widely understood as a conservative pushback to the implications of Bad Bunny’s performance.

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In a world where a message of love and unity is enough to spark anger among the political right, and is so unbearable to watch that an alternative performance is provided, Ocasio’s message of ‘the only thing more powerful than hate is love’ proves more relevant than ever. He confronts the very hate that is polarising the continent. The truth is evident: Republicans could not bear to see another American taking pride in an American nationality that wasn’t the U.S, despite the laws and geography that groups them together. Was this really about patriotism, or was it blatant racism?

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