Fans race to learn Spanish before Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show | Bad Bunny

Bad Bunny is expected to perform his Super Bowl halftime show Sunday entirely in Spanish; which inspired fans to learn the language quickly.

In October, the Puerto Rican singer born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio kicked off the 51st season of Saturday Night Live by expressing his pride in the achievement in Spanish, then said in English: “If you don’t understand what I just said, you have four months to learn!”

The statement further fueled the ire of some conservatives who vilified Bad Bunny for speaking out against US president Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant policies. The singer canceled the US portion of her tour last year out of fear that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials would target her fans.

There are a lot of people posting about Bad Bunny’s lyrics online; Including Puerto Ricans explaining the singer’s slang and documenting non-Hispanic speakers’ journeys to learn Spanish.

Anticipation for the halftime performance has intensified since last weekend, when her album Debí Tirar Más Fotos became the first Spanish-language album to win the Grammy for album of the year. He did not shy away from touching on the federal immigration operations targeted in the awards.

“I’ll say ICE out before I thank God,” he said in English after winning his first Grammy for his album Música urbana. “We are not savages, we are not animals, we are not aliens. We are people and we are Americans.”

‘Kind of like a protest’

Niklaus Miller, 29, has been learning Bad Bunny’s lyrics since the singer appeared on SNL months ago.

“I was dreamy enough to think, ‘This would be easy. I could pick it up pretty quickly,'” Miller said.

The desire to learn a new language in a short period of time highlights the strong influence of Latino culture in the United States, despite the president’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions.

“It felt like some kind of protest,” Miller said. “What can I do right now besides everyone trying to help? It feels good.”

Miller said that since she started posting about her process of learning Spanish, she has received messages from people who watched her videos with their parents. They say they feel seen and appreciated.

Although Miller did not learn Bad Bunny’s entire discography, he did learn parts of six songs he thought would be a part of the halftime show, including Tití Me Preguntó, DtMF, and Baile Inolvidable.

The day after Bad Bunny was announced as the halftime show, New York actor and content creator O’Neil Thomas, 28, began learning the singer’s catalogue.

“I was so excited because he wasn’t an artist I expected,” Thomas said. “And given the state of the country right now, I think he’s the perfect person to lead on such a huge stage.”

Thomas added that the response to TikTok videos showing Thomas learning NEVAYoL and other pieces has been really positive. Many Puerto Ricans reached out, saying they were proud that someone from outside the community was trying to learn about their culture.

Latin culture intensifies interest in Spanish

“People were already starting to make an effort to learn Spanish as a result of their interest in Latin music,” said Vanessa Díaz, associate professor of Chicano and Latino studies at Loyola Marymount University. “The Super Bowl itself is an additional impetus for a trend that was already happening.”

Díaz, co-author of P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance, says the rise of Latin music in the past decade has pushed non-Spanish speakers to learn the language. Díaz said Bad Bunny’s clear message in his lyrics, videos and performances fueled this interest.

According to U.S. census data, with all but three states, Spanish is the most spoken language at home in the United States after English. More than 13% of residents aged five and over speak this language.

But Bad Bunny’s booking at the Super Bowl caused divisions from the beginning. Trump called the election “ridiculous.” Conservatives called this un-American, even though native Puerto Ricans are also U.S. citizens. Turning Point USA is putting on an alternate “All-American Halftime Show” with a lineup led by Kid Rock.

All of this is happening against a backdrop of Trump’s crackdown on immigrants targeting Latinx and Spanish-speaking communities. Enforcement actions have greatly expanded who is eligible for deportation, and routine hearings have turned into deportation traps for immigrants.

Díaz doesn’t think his performance will change the perception of Latinos in the United States, but he says it will create an interesting conversation based on “how people deal with the magnitude of having someone like Bad Bunny on stage.”

Diaz said his visibility is strong at a time when “the United States is targeting Latinos, immigrants, and Spanish speakers, even those perceived to be any of those things in a way we haven’t seen in our lifetimes.”

Bad Bunny’s music offered Thomas the perfect opportunity to overcome the challenge of learning a new language.

“I love Spanish and always wanted to learn it,” Thomas said. “So this was a fun introduction for me to finally improve myself.”

Both Miller and Thomas said learning Spanish, especially Puerto Rican Spanish, in a short amount of time is a unique challenge.

Thomas said casually listening to Bad Bunny’s music is a different experience than learning the lyrics.

“His music is really fun to listen to,” Thomas said. “I can’t even count the number of times I’ve hit rewind just to get one sentence in.”

Miller said the hardest part of learning the songs is that the Puerto Rican dialect tends to cut some words and is very fast. Miller said if he hasn’t tried to understand a song for days, he may forget the pronunciation and it can be difficult to get back to the song.

“It’s been fun but also stressful because I’m a type A person, so honestly it’s been very difficult,” Miller said. “I’m firing on all cylinders.”