Bad Bunny Takes Over America

The Daily

The New York Times

News, Daily News

4.3 • 107.6K Ratings

🗓️ 1 February 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

At the Grammy Awards tonight, the Puerto Rican pop sensation Bad Bunny is the first Spanish-language artist to be nominated for album, record and song of the year simultaneously. For most artists, this would be the high point of their year, if not their career. For Bad Bunny, this is just an appetizer for what’s in store for him next week. Next Sunday, he will headline the Super Bowl halftime show. His performance comes in the middle of a nationwide crackdown on immigration — an issue he’s been vocal about — and follows a backlash against the N.F.L. for booking him in the first place. Jon Caramanica and Joe Coscarelli, the hosts of The Times’s pop music show “Popcast,” discuss Bad Bunny’s rise to the heights of pop stardom, and explore what it means for a Puerto Rican artist to headline the world’s biggest stage.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From The New York Times, I'm Natalie Ketrowaf.
0:04.6	This is the Daily on Sunday.
0:08.8	If you don't already know who Bad Bunny is, by this time next week, you definitely will.
0:14.9	At the Grammys tonight, he's up for six awards, and that's already made history.
0:20.1	He's the first Spanish-language artist up for album, song, and that's already made history. He's the first Spanish language artist up for
0:22.4	album, song, and record of the year simultaneously. But tonight is really just an appetizer for the
0:31.4	massive moment he's about to have. One week from today, Bad Bunny headlines the biggest stage in music, the Super Bowl
0:39.5	halftime show. And that would be a big deal any year. But this year, it's become incredibly
0:45.5	contentious, because Bad Bunny has been openly critical of ICE and its immigration crackdown.
0:52.6	Back in September, when this was first announced,
0:55.0	conservative commentators were not thrilled about it.
0:57.6	The NFL just chose the Bad Bunny Rabbit or whatever's name,
1:02.0	this guy who hates ice.
1:03.5	The white guilt-ridden virtue signaling NFL announcing Puerto Rican Trump-hating rapper
1:08.6	Bad Bunny will be the Super Bowl halftime show. Don't be mad that we have a cross-dresser who doesn't speak English doing the halftime show, because if Kamala won, he would have been a cabinet member. And President Trump, who loves football, called the selection of Bad Bunny, quote, absolutely ridiculous. I never heard of him. I don't know who he is. I don't know why they're doing it. It's like crazy.
1:31.0	Then they blame it on some promoter that they hired it.
1:34.3	So today, we're going to talk about Bad Bunny. And with me to do that are the hosts of
1:38.8	Popcast, music critic John Caramonica and music reporter Joe Coscarelli.
1:44.4	It's Sunday, February 1st.
1:53.3	John, Joe, welcome to the Sunday Daily.
1:56.8	Great to have you.
1:57.7	Great to be here.
	...

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