Dangerous Bunny speaks onstage through the Tremendous Bowl LX halftime present press convention at Moscone Heart West on February 5, 2026, in San Francisco, California.
Mike Coppola/Getty Photos/Getty Photos North America
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Mike Coppola/Getty Photos/Getty Photos North America
Puerto Rican celebrity, Dangerous Bunny, made historical past on the 2026 Grammy Awards when he grew to become the primary artist to win album of the 12 months for a Spanish-language mission, with him profitable for his album Debí Tirar Más Fotos. Along with the highest prize, Dangerous Bunny, whose given identify is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, took residence the award for the most effective música urbana album and finest international music efficiency for his track “EoO”.
In his acceptance remarks, and never in contrast to different moments all through his profession, the artist used the highlight to specific his political beliefs.
“Earlier than I say because of God, I’ll say ICE out,” Dangerous Bunny mentioned throughout his acceptance speech for finest música urbana album. “We’re not savages, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens — we’re people and we’re Individuals,” he added in response to the continuing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids throughout the nation.
The gang in Los Angeles, largely met his statements with applause and ovation.
However this Sunday, Dangerous Bunny will meet a bigger and doubtlessly extra politically divided viewers on the Tremendous Bowl, the place he’s set to headline this 12 months’s halftime present. Since late September when the NFL, Apple Music and Roc Nation introduced their invitation to Dangerous Bunny, many took to social media to voice their indignation on the option to platform an artist who has solely launched music in Spanish.
To be taught extra about Dangerous Bunny’s political historical past and what we’d anticipate on the Tremendous Bowl, Morning Version host A Martinez spoke with Petra R. Rivera-Rideau, who chairs the American Research Division at Wellesley Faculty and the co-author, alongside Vanessa Díaz, of the brand new e-book, P FKN R: How Dangerous Bunny Grew to become the World Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance. The 2 teachers are additionally behind the Dangerous Bunny Syllabus, an on-line educating useful resource based mostly on Puerto Rican historical past and Dangerous Bunny’s meteoric rise since 2016.
Beneath are three takeaways from the dialog.
College students come for Dangerous Bunny and keep for the historical past
Rivera-Rideau teaches “Dangerous Bunny: Race, Gender, and Empire in Reggaetón” at Wellesley and mentioned the course makes use of Dangerous Bunny’s work as a hook to get college students into the seminar.
“However we actually really spend most of our time speaking about Puerto Rican historical past and Puerto Rican historical past is a part of U.S. historical past,” she mentioned. “And Dangerous Bunny music has constantly made references to this historical past.”
Rivera-Rideau pointed to an instance from 2018 when Dangerous Bunny debuted on a U.S. mainstream English language tv present, The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon. The artist opened with a critique of the Trump administration’s dealing with of Hurricane Maria, which had devastated his island in 2017.
“After one 12 months of the hurricane, there’s nonetheless folks with out electrical energy of their houses. Greater than 3,000 folks died and Trump continues to be in denial,” Martínez Ocasio mentioned.
Latinos stay “perpetually international” to some
Puerto Ricans are born U.S. residents — however this has not all the time protected them from being caught in current ICE operations.
“I feel a part of that has to do with the sort of racialization of Spanish and the racialization of Latino communities of which Puerto Ricans are an element,” she mentioned. “And I feel what it signifies is that, to me, Latinos in america, a lot of whom have been right here for generations, are sometimes understood to be perpetually international as a bunch of those that simply doesn’t belong.”
The Celebration is the Protest
Rivera-Rideau mentioned if Apple Music’s trailer for the Tremendous Bowl halftime present — which options Dangerous Bunny dancing with a bunch representing a smattering of ages, faces and skills — is any indication of what audiences can anticipate on Sunday’s stage, the theme is perhaps pleasure within the face of a troublesome second for immigrants and Latinos within the U.S.
“One of many issues we speak about in our e-book is that Dangerous Bunny is a part of resistance, he does interact in protests but it surely’s usually by way of pleasure,” she mentioned. “We’ve a chapter in our e-book referred to as ‘The Celebration is the Protest’ and I really really feel like that is what I anticipate on the Superbowl, a celebration and a protest.
