By Mark Oppenheim
Within Bad Bunny’s 2026 Superbowl Halftime show I see my extended family and friends. Not a Spanish-speaker (wish I was), yet still I identify with what he conveyed through his art. And it is art.
I saw in Bad Bunny’s work: Italian and German opera; Broadway from before Oklahoma to after Hamilton; Charlie Russell and Frida Kahlo, Edward Hopper and Jasper Johns. I saw Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks and Robert Mapplethorpe. I saw Balanchine, Graham, Ailey and Crystal Pite… the Tallchief Sisters and Baryshnikov… Mako and Mostel, Oberon and Robeson, Hayek and del Toro. I saw Scott Joplin and John Phillips Sousa, Ellington and Gershwin, Blades and Selina, Williams and Parton and Cash… and I saw Tupac, Latifah, Nas, Eminem and Cardi B.
I saw elders communing, kids scampering, newly-weds kissing. I saw people who live on the land and in cities. I saw the prosperous and the poor… people just like those I love… people who experience and overcome hardship to reinvent themselves and find joy. I saw the experiences of daily life, family and sports… all presented in a place where we can come together to compete, cheer-on and celebrate afterwards.
I saw me and maybe I saw you. This was art and this was us: Americans all.