Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny smashed the record for the most watched Super Bowl Halftime Show in Santa Clara, California with a historic 135.4 million views. And became the first musician to perform entirely in Spanish at a Super Bowl.
Benito Martínez Ocasio has been Spotify’s top annual streaming artist four times and has helped to turn Spanish-language rap into a global success story. Born 10 March 1994, in Bayamon, the son of a truck driver and a school-teacher, he sang in the church choir as a child and got his first record deal aged 14.
Unlike last year, Donald Trump did not attend and poured vitriol on BB’s performance -“Absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” he declared on Truth Social presumably a reaction to Bad Bunny using his recent Grammys speech to criticise the government-sanctioned ICE raids in Minnesota.
BB is a Sun Pisces with a Pisces/Aquarius Moon. He has an intense North Node conjunct Pluto in late Scorpio which squares Mercury giving him strong opinions. His Pluto North Node also square a hard-edged Mars Saturn (Moon) in Pisces which will give him a deep reservoir of anger about unfair treatment. His Pluto opposes Trump’s Midheaven and squares DT’s Mars for a mighty, never-give-in clash. BB’s inventive and highly-strung, generational Uranus Neptune also oppose DT’s Saturn Venus in Cancer for a clash of values. And BB’s short-fused Mars Saturn falls in DT’s 7th house.
Worst of all possible combinations.
Their relationship chart has a composite Mars Venus in final degree Taurus opposition Neptune in final degree Scorpio – Mars Neptune is an ego-clash, one wins the other loses. The final degree of signs is pervasive in-the-news charts at the moment. Maybe a hint that this run-in could have potentially wider ramifications as a turning point in the culture of the times.
Bad Bunny looks very unsettled ahead with tr Uranus square his Pluto in March and then moving in to square his Mars Saturn in June/July and on. Risky?
I don’t follow the NFL or Bad Bunny and my comment will probably be viewed as superficial and frivolous, but I was impressed that a significant someone had chosen to wear a high street brand for a public event.
And Bad Bunny did it! During one half of his show he dressed not in designer or bespoke clothing – but in Zara the Spanish brand which revolutionised fashion merchandising.
As a fashion nerd, I’ve been waiting a long time for this to happen. In a slight way, I think it’s significant. A feather in the Aquarian wind.
Congressional Republicans want the FCC to investigate Bad Bunny for pelvic thrusts and his dancers twerking so that may be manesfistation of the activity in his charts over the next several months.
Absolutely pathetic from the repubs. They’re more worked up about Bad Bunny than they are about the Epstein Files. Rep.Andy Ogles’s ridiculous post was like something out of the 1950s.
I tell a lie – I read that somewhere and I’m not sure that’s correct!
Honestly though, if people understood half of the sexual references in early Blues and Rockn’Roll (and ‘rock’nroll’ itself is a sexual reference), they would reach for the smelling salts.
Sorry that post was meant to be a reply to bmc.
@Virgoflake, one thing I would love to go away with Neptune passing to Aries is the prudishness of Neptune in Pisces era. Yes, we can talk about sex without inappropriate sexualization of children. My preteen has actually found some of the music I listened to as a child in our native language during Neptune in Sadgittarius. Interestingly, the content is surprisingly “woke” when it comes to consent, bounderies, or even gender dysmorphia.
@ Virgoflake,
It is just more culture war stuff that they are going to use to get their base out for the mid-term elections because the economy is in the dumpster and will probably be worse by Election Day.
I’m an Australian and tuned in to watch the football and the half-time performance of Bad Bunny. I found the football game boring, but that could be because I’m not familiar with the game. I absolutely loved Bad Bunny’s performance. Like a lot of people, I didn’t understand a word he was singing, but it was obvious he was putting his heart, body and soul into that performance.
His natal Pluto and NN are both square the upcoming 17Feb solar eclipse. No wonder he’s causing so many ripples from the right wing side of politics.
I understood it..I was really surprised that a “family friendly” show had so many references to cocaine, having sex with lot’s of women but not marrying them, sexual acts like licking the back side of a woman, twerking but using a verb that means dancing like dogs having intercourse..etc…etc..very amusing if you understand it (sorry for being so descriptive with the translation, feel free to edit or delete marjorie).
He changed the more salacious lyrics for the performance.
Many years ago Elvis was widely criticised for his pelvic gyrations, then Michael Jackson was criticised for grabbing his crotch. Madonna has also been criticised for overly sexualised performances early in her career. Lately Taylor Swift has made an obvious reference in a song to her fiancé’s genitalia. It all comes down to what each of us are prepared to accept as “performance art”, boundaries being pushed which can shock some people and for others it’s not a big deal.
From an astrological perspective it would be interesting to examine the artists’ charts to see if there are common aspects indicating their willingness to challenge society’s so-called acceptable limits.
Janet Jackson’s boob would like to have a word. The absolutely amazing fact is that nobody cares when it’s white men doing this. I also happen to be a huge The Rolling Stones fan, and invite you to read their XL Half Time Show set list lyrics.
@bmc, my guess is that BB was trolling the haters who were complaining that he was going to do his entire performance in Spanish and he knew that most of them don’t understand the language.
To CherS, in fairness, the football game itself was boring. Unless you are a fan of either team, most of us want a game where both sides play their best until the game is over. But most games in the Superbowl seem to be where one team butchers the other. So you didn’t miss anything.
Out of curiosity, what is popular in Australia? I can always look it up, but I prefer hearing it from someone who lives there as opposed to an AI site. I assume soccer is popular, or possibly rugby? I watch both here in America, so I’m curious.
Hi Allyn
In Australia it depends on which state you live in as to which winter sport dominates. Focusing on the larger states of Queensland and New South Wales, rugby league is the dominant winter sport, whereas in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia Australian Rules is the more dominant winter sport.
Australian Rules is played in Queensland and New South Wales in the national league, but rugby league would have the greater numbers of participation for those two states. Rugby Union is mostly a private school game and is played predominantly in New South Wales and Queensland. Soccer or Football, depending on where you come from, is played in just about all the states, but is nowhere near as popular as rugby league or Australian Rules.
In Summer cricket is played in all states.
I have read quite a few articles since watching the Super Bowl game that it was a boring game. I would love to check out an exciting game!
There are a couple of rugby league games in Las Vegas at Allegiant Stadium on February 28 televised on the Fox Sports Network.
Apologies for no astrology. Definitely a one-off..see Allyn’s request for info.
I watched the half time show and couldn’t understand a word of what Bad Bunny was singing.
And that’s fine.
The artistry of the show was mesmerizing. Celebratory. Inclusive. All the things that America is when it is at its best. It didn’t have to be understood for its meaning to become clear.
MAGAs reaction to the announcement about Bad Bunny over a year ago was revealing. They hate him but can’t explain in logical terms why they hate him. Their reactions to it just caused more people to watch it. And their response was to hold an alternative show featuring Kid Rock, who wrote song lyrics about wanting relations with underage girls.
(By the way, when will MAGA start questioning why there are so many sexual deviants and predators around Trump? Birds of a feather flock together?)
The Superbowl is only another sign that MAGA is losing. When the US’s 250 anniversary arrives this summer, how many more people will compare the current situation to Trump’s rule and be inspired to stop him? I suspect more heroes will rise, and MAGA will continue to harass, like they always do. But once their power goes away, what will they have?
I lived in South America, speak Spanish and as an art teacher I taught mostly Puerto Rican, Dominican (in NYC) and Mexican (in Chicago) kiddos in my 20 year career. This halftime show was a master class in performance art. I just want to add one note that I think hasn’t been said enough- I stopped watching the NFL when they black listed Colin Kapernick but football was part of my family’s culture; the fact that the NFL platformed the intellectually minded and conceptual music of Kenderick Lamar spotlighting black culture and followed up with Bad Bunny with all the pressure they were under and didn’t pull out is astounding to me. There was one way to nail this moment and they found it- show was a celebration of love and its really hard to criticize that message- the governments attempts will fall flat to literally anyone paying attn.
I saw the halftime show. It was an incredibly rich and joyous celebration of Hispanic culture, music and family life, as well as a love letter to Puerto Rico, with many pointed historical references to Puerto Rico’s experiences and suffering under U.S. colonialism.
Of many outstanding moments packed into the 13-minute show, the one that stood out for me was when BB named all the Spanish-speaking countries and territories in the Western Hemisphere (as well as countries with a significant Hispanic representation, including Canada and the U.S.), as if to reclaim the designation “American” for the entire hemisphere. It was an acknowledgement of the huge importance of Hispanic culture in all the Americas.
And yet, BB’s message was one of inclusivity and mutual kindness; his parting statement was “The only thing stronger than hate is love,” and his show featured several Anglo performers, such as Lady Gaga. Significantly, the only English words he spoke during the performance were “God bless America.”
Forbes magazine and other sites have a rundown of the show’s symbolism, if you’re interested.
Trump, Miller and maga nearly lost their minds back when it was announced that BB would be the halftime performer; the choice was seen (rightly) as a rebuke of their white supremacist ideology and their anti-immigrant campaign. It was also a rebuke to the maga fantasy that only English-speaking people of Northern European descent are truly “American.” (Many don’t even realize, or perhaps pretend to forget, that Puerto Ricans are Americans.)
Demographically, Hispanic people are the largest minority group in the U.S., and their influence continues to grow (despite Miller et al.’s best efforts); while the old white oligarchy is on the wane. After Trump and his crew are long gone, I think Hispanic people will be saying, “seguimos aquí” (we are still here). A turning point in the culture of the times, for sure.
Speaking as an old Anglo person — who admittedly embraces Latino culture, speaks Spanish and lives near the Mexican border — I loved the show and all its symbolism. I don’t watch football and watched the show online the next day.
I was particularly impressed with Bad Bunny and his humanity. IMHO, we need more people of the open, loving character of Bad Bunny and fewer vicious, hate-filled scumbags like Donald Trump, Stephen Miller and their ilk like Netanyahu and Putin.
I sure hope this is a turning point in the culture and political wars.