There’s been a lot of chatter online ever since Bad Bunny was announced to host the Super Bowl LX halftime show. Celebrities like his Happy Gilmore 2 co-star Adam Sandler and singer Jennifer Lopez have been supportive of the choice, but there has been plenty of backlash online. At one point, fans even put together a petition to replace Bad Bunny with a country singer, and things didn’t calm down after Donald Trump weighed in. Now that we’re getting closer to the February 8th game date, the chatter is still at the forefront.
In fact, more actual politicians are speaking up about next weekend’s game. While you might think the conversation would be more about whether or not the Seattle Seahawks or the New England Patriots will rein supreme, that’s not true for everyone. In fact, if you are an Alabama senator, it may be much more important to get the message out that you will be boycotting the halftime show. Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, who made a name for himself as a football coach at Auburn University before getting into politics, there’s no point in even calling it the Super Bowl anymore:
Unfortunately, we’ve got, I call it the Woke Bowl, because we’re getting more and more woke.
To be clear, from what Tommy Tuberville told Newsmax live on the air, he may still be watching the big game, but during the halftime show he has plans to tune in to the Turning Point USA show, further noting to Newsmax (via Fox News):
And we’ve got Bad Bunny, or Bad Rabbit, at halftime. I'll be watching the TP USA halftime show. It's just unfortunate we've gotten to this point.
If you don’t know what the Turning Point USA halftime show is, it’s a counterpoint to one of the biggest TV nights of the year. For a while, this seemed like more of a talking point than an actual plan, but Turning Point USA did announce this week their version of the Halftime Show – which they are dubbing the “The All-American Halftime Show”-- is happening in live time. The event will be available on the Turning Point USA YouTube page as well as Charlie Kirk’s former YouTube account, though performers are still under wraps.
The regular Super Bowl LX event will air on NBC, or you can stream it with a Peacock subscription. No additional halftime performers have yet been announced, but there have been some fun Super Bowl LX rumors running around.
Having hailed from the American unincorporated Puerto Rico territory, Bad Bunny mostly sings in Spanish. Almost 42 million Americans speak Spanish in the home, while 460 million people favor Spanish as a first language globally. The musician's made waves with the administration for ICE-related comments, but following backlash the NFL’s Roger Goodell defended the choice for Bad Bunny to represent Super Bowl LX, stating at the time:
He's one of the leading and most popular entertainers in the world. That's what we try to achieve. It's an important stage for us. It's an important element to the entertainment value.
Meanwhile, he’s not the only musician landing backlash related to the Super Bowl this year. Trump has also said he is unhappy with Green Day playing the Super Bowl LX pre-show after the band notably changed its lyrics in recent months to their hit American Idiot, as well. The new lyrics read, "I’m not part of the MAGA agenda." Trump has said he's "anti-them."
