Bad Bunny Super Bowl Halftime Pick Triggers Yet Another Culture Battle

The Super Bowl announcement that Bad Bunny will headline the halftime show at Super Bowl 60 has sparked a wave of conservative backlash.

No sooner had Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny been announced as the headliner for Super Bowl 60, then conservative politicians and commentators took to social media to express their outrage. Among them is Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who called for country star Jason Aldean to “bring some patriotism” to the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly took to her radio show to complain about the NFL’s decision. She compared Bad Bunny to Diddy and speculated that the 31-year-old might be transgender because of his occasionally performing in dresses. Kelly called the selection a “middle finger to all of MAGA,” and said the artist “hates the United States”—even though his native Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory.

Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, recently decided not to tour in the mainland United States, expressing concerns over the ongoing mass deportation and government-sanctioned discrimination against Latinos. “There was the issue of, like, fucking ICE could be outside [my concerts],” he said. “It’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about.”

Further, the multi-platinum artist has been an outspoken critic of Trump and his administration—especially after the president’s response to the devastation in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria.

Conservative commentator Britt Mayer claimed the Super Bowl announcement is an effort to “shove woke ideology down America’s throat,” calling Bad Bunny’s music “woke puke.” Of course, Kelly and Mayer threw some transphobic rhetoric in for good measure, referring to the artist as “that thing” over a clip in which he appears in drag. They also said it is “unclear” if he is transgender.

“If that shows up at the Super Bowl, literally the fans are going to get up and walk out,” said Kelly.

Despite the backlash—and even conservatives calling for people to reach out to the NFL to “demand some answers”—it seems unlikely that the NFL, Apple, or Roc Nation will reverse their decision. Roc Nation, notably, is Jay-Z’s entertainment company, which is partnered with the NFL to select the halftime performers, and had a hand in selecting hip-hop superstar Kendrick Lamar last year.

“We are honored to have him on the world’s biggest stage,” said Jay-Z of Bad Bunny.

“It’s for those who came before me and ran countless yards so I could come in and score a touchdown,” wrote Bad Bunny in a statement about his selection by the NFL, adding that it is for “my people, my culture, and our history.”

Bad Bunny recently completed his 30-show residency in Puerto Rico, which brought in a record-breaking amount of revenue for the U.S. territory’s local economy.