Fans have worked out that Lady Gaga sent a ‘hidden message’ during her appearance in Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance.
The Seattle Seahawks’ commanding 29-13 victory over the New England Patriots at Super Bowl LX may have dominated sports headlines, but it was the halftime show that truly captured the nation’s attention, and sparked intense debate across social media.
Bad Bunny’s historic performance as the first solo Latin male artist to headline the Super Bowl halftime show was already making waves before kickoff.
The Puerto Rican superstar, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, had promised a celebration of his culture on one of the world’s biggest stages. What viewers got was a 14-minute spectacle that blended music, politics, and cultural pride in a way the Super Bowl had never seen before.
But it was Lady Gaga’s surprise appearance that had fans digging deeper, searching for layers of meaning in every detail of her performance.
A historic night
The performance at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California was nothing short of groundbreaking. For the first time in Super Bowl history, the halftime show was performed almost entirely in Spanish, marking a watershed moment for Latin representation in American popular culture.
Bad Bunny, who has topped Spotify’s most-streamed artist list in three of the past five years, had recently made history at the 68th Grammy Awards by becoming the first artist to win Album of the Year for a Spanish-language record with ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos.’
His Grammy acceptance speech had sent shockwaves through the political establishment when he declared ‘ICE out’ and delivered an impassioned defense of immigrants.
The halftime show arrived amid heightened political tensions.
Just days before the Super Bowl, Trump administration officials had announced that ICE agents would be deployed ‘all over’ the Bay Area during the game.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had warned fans to stay away ‘unless they are law-abiding Americans who love this country,’ while the President himself had called Bad Bunny’s selection ‘absolutely ridiculous’ and vowed not to attend.
Against this charged backdrop, Bad Bunny opened his set walking through an elaborate sugar cane field constructed on the stadium floor, a choice that would later be analyzed as a reference to the history of slavery in Puerto Rico and throughout the Caribbean.
The controversies
The reaction to the halftime show was immediate and sharply divided along cultural and political lines.
Supporters celebrated it as a historic moment of representation and a powerful assertion of Latino identity in American culture.
“This by far is one of the most culturally significant Super Bowl performances ever,” one viewer wrote. “Bad Bunny just showed the world what Puerto Rico is all about.”
But critics were equally vocal. “This by Bad Bunny is literally the worst halftime performance in Super Bowl history,” one detractor wrote. “Couldn’t understand one word. Not even the performance was good.”
Some framed their criticism in explicitly political terms. “The NFL having a Super Bowl halftime show where their performer sings entirely in Spanish and waves other nation’s flags is 100% a political statement,” one post read.
Notably, fans pointed out the apparent double standard in these complaints.
“You know what’s funny about this Bad Bunny ‘outrage’?” one person wrote. “We’ve had several ACTUAL non-American performers in the history of the halftime show – The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Rihanna, The Weeknd, U2, and there wasn’t an issue. Folks just out here yapping.”
The controversy was compounded by the existence of Turning Point USA’s ‘All-American Halftime Show,’ which featured Kid Rock and was streamed as counter-programming.
The conservative-backed event drew approximately 4 million viewers on YouTube, a significant number for an online stream but dwarfed by the NFL’s official broadcast, which typically attracts over 127 million viewers.
Trump’s response
President Donald Trump, hosting a Super Bowl watch party at Mar-a-Lago, weighed in approximately 30 minutes after the performance ended with a lengthy post on Truth Social.
“The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, EVER!” Trump wrote. “It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity, or Excellence.”
He continued: “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World.”
What social media users found particularly amusing was that Trump’s detailed critique made it clear he had watched the entire NFL halftime show rather than the Turning Point USA alternative featuring his ally Kid Rock.
“The irony of Trump hate-watching Bad Bunny instead of supporting Kid Rock’s show is just chef’s kiss,” one commenter wrote.
Enter Lady Gaga
Roughly midway through the performance, following Bad Bunny’s opening medley, the 39-year-old pop icon made her entrance to thunderous applause.
Gaga appeared in a striking powder blue pleated dress, a creation by Dominican-American designer Raul López, per Remezcla.
The choice was immediately significant to those paying attention.
López, founder of the fashion brand Luar, had dressed Gaga with an explicit political statement in mind. In interviews following the performance, he revealed the dress was intended as a symbol of unity ‘for the culture and for all immigrants.’
The powder blue shade also echoed the lighter blue Puerto Rican flag that Bad Bunny had waved during his set, a flag historically associated with Puerto Rico’s pro-independence movement and one that was actually illegal to own under the island’s former ‘gag law’ from 1948 to 1957.
There was also a small detail on Gaga’s dress that had eagle-eyed fans rewinding their recordings and zooming in on every frame: a bright red pin in the shape of a flower.
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The Flor de Maga
Within hours of the performance, social media detectives had identified the pin as a Flor de Maga, the official flower of Puerto Rico, designated in 2019.
This vibrant red hibiscus, known scientifically as Thespesia grandiflora, grows exclusively in Puerto Rico and has become a powerful symbol of Puerto Rican resilience and pride.
“Did anyone else catch the Flor de Maga on Gaga’s dress?” one viewer posted on X (formerly Twitter). “That’s not just any flower, that’s Puerto Rico’s soul right there.”
The symbolism was multilayered – the Flor de Maga has become particularly significant in recent years as Puerto Rico has weathered devastating hurricanes, persistent power outages, and ongoing political struggles over the island’s status as an unincorporated US territory.
For many Puerto Ricans, the flower represents not just national pride but survival and perseverance in the face of adversity.
Gaga’s choice to wear this symbol while performing alongside Bad Bunny sent a clear message of solidarity with Puerto Rico and its diaspora, a message that resonated powerfully given the political climate surrounding immigration and the treatment of US territories under the current administration.
A performance rich in symbolism
The floral pin was just one element of a halftime show packed with cultural and political references.
Bad Bunny’s set design featured imagery ranging from a nail salon to a neighborhood bar, recreating scenes from everyday Puerto Rican life.
At one point, the stage transformed into a street scene where celebrities including Pedro Pascal, Cardi B, Karol G, and Jessica Alba danced under an awning while Bad Bunny performed from a rooftop.
Perhaps the most visually striking sequence involved dancers dressed as electrical workers, dangling from wires as if repairing transformers on power poles. This was widely interpreted as a reference to Puerto Rico’s ongoing electricity crisis—an issue Bad Bunny has repeatedly highlighted, including in his 2022 mini-documentary El Apagón (The Blackout).
According to the US Energy Information Administration, Puerto Ricans experienced an average of 27 hours of power grid interruption per year between 2021 and 2024, even without hurricanes.
The devastating effects of Hurricane Maria in 2017 and Hurricane Fiona in 2022 have left lasting scars on the island’s infrastructure, a crisis Bad Bunny has used his platform to spotlight repeatedly.
Ricky Martin’s appearance
While Lady Gaga might have been Bad Bunny’s most unexpected guest, Ricky Martin’s appearance proved to be the most culturally resonant moment of the night.
In a halftime show full of vignettes and characters, Martin appeared in the long grass of the field’s elaborate set to sing an excerpt from Bad Bunny’s ‘LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii.’
The song choice was deeply significant, drawing a direct parallel between the colonization of Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
Martin sang from the song’s chorus, with lyrics that translate to English as: “They want to take my river and my beach too. They want my neighborhood and grandma to leave.”
That Bad Bunny chose to give this particular song to Martin felt especially moving considering the open letter Martin had written just days earlier, praising Bad Bunny’s Grammy acceptance speech. In that speech, Bad Bunny had declared: “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we are humans, and we are Americans.”
In response, Martin wrote: “I know what it means to succeed without letting go of where you come from. I know how heavy it is, what it costs, and what is sacrificed when you decide not to change because others ask you to. That’s why what you have achieved is not just a historic musical accomplishment, it’s a cultural and human victory.”
After Bad Bunny’s historic Grammy win, Martin had written: “You won without changing the color of your voice. You won without erasing your roots. You won by staying true to Puerto Rico.”
‘Die With a Smile’
When Gaga took the microphone for her duet with Bad Bunny, fans were immediately surprised by her song selection.
She didn’t perform one of her iconic hits from her extensive catalog, or her newest releases. Instead, she chose ‘Die With a Smile,’ the 2024 collaborative hit she’d recorded with Bruno Mars.
The song choice itself raised eyebrows among fans who were familiar with Gaga’s extensive catalog. “I really don’t understand this choice,” one fan tweeted.
“Nobody saw that coming not even after knowing she was performing tonight,” another viewer wrote.
Some were even more critical: “Bruhhhhh Not only was Die With a Smile a bad choice, the remake was horrendous.”
But others quickly defended the selection, pointing out its thematic resonance with the broader message of the halftime show.
“The theme was love drowning out hate, which is why the couple got married. DWAS lyrics.. ‘if the world was ending, I’d wanna be next to you..’ it was a smart choice,” one fan explained.
The Bruno Mars connection
While Bruno Mars wasn’t present for the Super Bowl performance, his connection to the song added yet another layer of cultural significance that didn’t escape fans’ notice.
Mars is of Puerto Rican descent through his father, Peter Hernandez, who is of Puerto Rican and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. His mother, Bernadette San Pedro Bayot, was Filipino, and Mars was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, making his heritage a perfect cultural bridge.
The fact that ‘Die With a Smile’ represented a collaboration between two artists with such diverse backgrounds, performed at a halftime show explicitly celebrating Latino identity and immigrant contributions to American culture, felt like more than just coincidence to many viewers.
Others also thought the ‘end of the world’ lyrics were poignant given the latest political landscape, including ICE shootings and WWIII fears.
Social media erupted with celebration: “That’s my Latina sister Lady Guadalupe Hernandez Gagita yall.”
One fan wrote: “People keep saying this but my thing is Bad Bunny stands for minorities and constantly advocates for the LGBTQ community. Lady Gaga is one of the only people since before it was common to advocate for us and minorities. It was a statement and he chose right.”
There were also fans mocking the political backlash and pointing to viewing figures, with one viral post reading: “Viewership numbers: Bad Bunny – 127 million. Turning Point – 5 million. Let’s all take a moment to point and laugh at their puny safe space LOLOL.”
Throughout the performance, Lady Gaga added a splash of color to her powder blue dress with bright red heels, another possible nod to the Flor de Maga and Puerto Rican pride.
