Is Puerto Rico Part of the US? Bad Bunny's Halftime Show Sparks Questions About Identity, Culture, and Grammy Speech

On Sunday, Bad Bunny posed an indirect question to America: Is Puerto Rico part of the US? Many still aren't sure.

The Puerto Rican rapper headlined the Super Bowl LX halftime show at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, becoming the first performer to deliver a set almost entirely in Spanish. He climbed an electrical pole. He waved a Puerto Rican flag. He turned the field into Puerto Rico's sugarcane fields, dotted with dancers in traditional jíbaro straw hats. It was a 13-minute love letter to his homeland. It was also a political act more than a century in the making.

A Grammy Speech That Lit the Fuse

One week earlier, at the Grammy Awards on 1 February, Bad Bunny accepted the prize for best música urbana album and opened with two words: 'ICE Out.' Then he went further. 'We're not savages, we're not animals, we're not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.'

Earlier that night, host Trevor Noah had asked if Puerto Rico could be a refuge for Americans. Bad Bunny's deadpan reply: 'I have some news for you. Puerto Rico is part of America.'

He's right. Technically.

Puerto Rico has been a US territory since 1898. Its 3.2 million residents hold American citizenship. But they can't vote for president. They don't have voting members in Congress. The Council on Foreign Relations calls the island 'a political paradox: part of the United States but distinct from it.'

A $72 Billion Crisis Nobody Talks About

Pew Research Centre data released ahead of the Super Bowl showed more Puerto Ricans now live on the US mainland — roughly 6.1 million — than on the island itself. The population has been shrinking for years. The fertility rate dropped to 1.0 in 2024. Hurricane Maria in 2017 killed nearly 3,000 people and triggered a mass exodus that hasn't slowed.

Then there's the money.

Puerto Rico's $72 billion (£53 billion) fiscal crisis forced Congress to impose a federal oversight board, a body locals call 'la junta'. Residents remain largely excluded from programmes like Medicare and food assistance. Amílcar Barreto, a Northeastern University professor who studies Puerto Rican citizenship, describes this as 'attenuated citizenship' — where 'negative characterisations of Puerto Ricans have for decades shaped Washington's decisions.'

Culture Became the Message

Bad Bunny performed 'El Apagón' at the Super Bowl, a protest track about the island's constant blackouts and government neglect after Hurricane Maria. Ricky Martin joined in for a song about locals being displaced by mainland investors. The show closed with Bad Bunny clutching a football that read 'Together we are America,' shouting out countries across the Americas.

His album 'Debí Tirar Más Fotos' had just become the first all-Spanish-language record to win Album of the Year at the Grammys. He was Spotify's most-streamed artist globally in 2025. Latino purchasing power in the US now sits above $4.1 trillion (£3.01 trillion), and a 2025 McKinsey report projected Latinos would drive a third of US sports market growth by 2035.

None of that has moved the needle in Washington. Six referendums on the island's political status have been held since the 1960s. In 2020, nearly 53% of voters backed statehood. Congress did nothing binding.

The halftime pick itself became a flashpoint. Conservative group Turning Point USA ran a counter-show headlined by Kid Rock. President Trump called the selection 'absolutely terrible'. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell didn't budge, calling Bad Bunny 'one of the greatest artists in the world.'

As Bad Bunny told the Grammy audience during his Album of the Year speech: 'Puerto Rico, we are much bigger than 100 by 35 miles, and there's nothing we can't accomplish.'

He asked America a question on Sunday. It's been 127 years. The country still hasn't answered.