Bad Bunny walked out in a #64 jersey with “OCASIO” on the back.
Not Bad Bunny.
Not Benito.
His real name.
His family name.
Then he grabbed the mic and said:
“My name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. And if today I’m here at the Super Bowl, it’s because I never, never stopped believing in myself.”
In Spanish.
No translation.
Even the jumbotron was in Spanish.
And I watched the whole thing with a translator on.
Because the message was that important to me.
They said he was “un-American.”
They said nobody would understand him.
They said having him perform was “ridiculous.”
And he SHOWED OUT!
He brought out Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.
He staged a wedding on the field.
He recreated a bodega.
He gave us a whole scene of family and love.
He humanized an entire culture on the world’s biggest stage.
All in his native language.
And he didn’t flinch.
His lyrics were clear messages:
“They want to take the river from me, and the beach too. They want my neighborhood and for my grandma to leave.”
“I should have taken more photos when I had you. Hopefully my loved ones will never move.”
And that last line:
“Ojalá que los míos nunca se muden.”
Hopefully my loved ones will never move.
That’s about families being separated.
Forced to leave.
Displacement.
Yeah, he didn’t chase the mainstream.
He made the mainstream come to him.
He put his family name on his back and told 120 million people exactly who he is.
And I’m here for ALL of it!👏🏽
16 years ago today, Lady Gaga revealed the album covers for The Fame Monster, shot by fashion photographer Hedi Slimane.
She told Rolling Stone at the time that it was “World War III” getting her label to approve the imagery:
"They were like, 'It's confusing, it's too dark, you look gothic, it's not pop,' and I said, 'You don't know what pop is, because everyone was telling me I wasn't pop last year, and now look - so don't tell me what pop is, I know what pop is.' It's funny, because I fought and fought and fought, and I actually ended up having two covers, because I wanted to do this yin and yang presentation with the covers. When I go to see what my fans are saying, I go onto GagaDaily - they see the cover and say, 'I don't really like the blonde one, but the brown one is fucking sick.' They love it, and I know what they love, so I make it for them, I don't care what anybody else wants."
The way she yelled “now scream” at the exact same second… from the parking lot to 2.5 MILLION people in the audience… she really is the greatest pop star alive
I’ve wished for years that Gaga put a spin on her greatest hits. What she did to Poker Face and Paparazzi for Coachella was precisely that and more. I mean, she just infused new life into Poker Face. To have the best performance for this song 17 years into your career is no small feat.
I'm gonna need Lady Gaga to release a studio recording of that dramatic synth-heavy version of "Paparazzi."
Like, immediately.
#Coachella#Coachella2025