NPR Music’s Anamaria Sayre breaks down the Easter eggs and references nonetheless being unpacked from Unhealthy Bunny’s halftime present.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BAD BUNNY: (Singing in Spanish).
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Sunday’s Tremendous Bowl halftime present with Unhealthy Bunny included lots of Easter eggs – you understand, little surprises – largely speaking in regards to the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the place he grew up. In dialog, I spotted some individuals obtained the references and a few did not. So we have referred to as an knowledgeable, NPR Music’s Anamaria Sayre, and we did a lightning spherical, naming issues within the present, beginning with rows of sugarcane on the soccer discipline.
ANAMARIA SAYRE, BYLINE: Oh, I like this sport. OK. The crops, that is only a very clear visible identifier of Puerto Rico. He likes to carry the pure panorama of Puerto Rico. It is also enjoyable that there have been actual individuals.
INSKEEP: Individuals taking part in dominoes.
SAYRE: Essentially the most traditional of Puerto Rican video games. It is a picture – everybody from the oldest to the youngest love this sport.
INSKEEP: I additionally observed lots of plastic chairs.
SAYRE: Oh, the plastic chairs. There’s lots to be stated. So that is really a principal picture from his final album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos.” It was the picture featured on the duvet of the album to point out one thing that is often utilized in Puerto Rico, at outdoors gatherings, household capabilities. Additionally, the picture of the child falling asleep on the plastic chairs, that’s, like, essentially the most identifiable Latino picture.
INSKEEP: (Laughter).
SAYRE: You get your Latino card as a child whenever you go to sleep on the plastic chairs.
INSKEEP: Wow. I do know you have been up lots working. Hopefully, you may get to sleep on a plastic chair quickly.
SAYRE: (Laughter).
INSKEEP: However let me ask first in regards to the mild poles.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BAD BUNNY: (Rapping in Spanish).
SAYRE: OK, so the sunshine poles is a reasonably express reference to {the electrical} points in Puerto Rico. It is some of the troublesome issues in Puerto Rico, the apagones, the blackouts that they consistently face. For him to make use of that second, getting on prime of these mild poles to inform the world that it is wonderful to be Latino, I imply, wow, that is a extremely placing visible.
INSKEEP: Let me ask subsequent in regards to the girl who, in the midst of the present, poured him a shot at a bar.
SAYRE: Oh, she’s an absolute beloved Puerto Rican icon. Her title is Toñita, and she or he is the proprietor and founding father of the Caribbean Social Membership in Williamsburg in New York. It is just like the watering gap for all of the Puerto Ricans in New York, an enormous nod to Boricua tradition, the diaspora dwelling in New York Metropolis, which hasn’t at all times been acknowledged or celebrated actually till now.
INSKEEP: Subsequent, different music stars who saved showing.
SAYRE: So we had Girl Gaga, which this one was controversial. Some individuals stated that this was his try and pander to a wider American viewers. What I say is it was him flipping the normal Latino crossover. He had Girl Gaga on, singing her hit track however with a salsa association. The opposite function right here was Ricky Martin.
This was an particularly heartfelt one, Steve, as a result of Ricky Martin famously crossed over right into a U.S. market, was one of many first from Puerto Rico to do it. And so as to take action, he actually needed to conform to what individuals thought a mainstream U.S. viewers would wish to expertise. What we noticed on Sunday evening was successfully Unhealthy Bunny giving Ricky Martin the chance to be his most Boricua self. What he did was sing Unhealthy Bunny’s most political track off his final album, “Lo Que Paso A Hawaii,” in Spanish.
INSKEEP: I do not suppose there was lots of express political messaging on this present, which is suitable. Nevertheless it did appear that he was expressing a view of the world.
SAYRE: You already know, Steve, it is nearly arduous to say that it wasn’t explicitly political, as a result of in some ways, it was. I imply, that is Benito’s model. He isn’t going to face up onstage, as he really did on the Grammys per week in the past in his speech, and condemn ICE. What he’ll do is present the fantastic thing about Latin American labor, present how that is the constructing blocks of America. He will present the fantastic thing about Latin American unity.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BAD BUNNY: God bless America…
(CHEERING)
BAD BUNNY: …Sea Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay…
SAYRE: Taking this second on the largest stage in the US to decenter the US and present that America consists of all of us.
INSKEEP: Anamaria Sayre, it is at all times a pleasure speaking with you.
SAYRE: Identical right here, Steve.
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