Jay-Z dismisses backlash over decision to have Bad Bunny perform Super Bowl LV halftime show
Legendary rapper Jay-Z came out in defense of Bad Bunny amid controversy over the Puerto Rican recording artist being tapped to perform at the Super Bowl LX halftime show.
Jay-Z’s company Roc Nation co-produces the halftime show for the NFL and reportedly makes the final decision on the headline each year. This year, the selection of Bad Bunny has drawn pushback from fans.
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But Jay-Z wasn’t buying the outrage.
“They love him. Don’t let them fool you,” he told TMZ Sports on Monday night.
Jay-Z didn’t go too much further, telling the TMZ reporter that he “ain’t got no scoops for you.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell defended the selection of Bad Bunny, despite the Grammy Award winner’s comments about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the last year.
“It’s carefully thought through,” Goodell said of the decision-making process for the halftime show. “I’m not sure we’ve ever selected an artist where we didn’t have some blowback or criticism. It’s pretty hard to do when you have literally hundreds of millions of people that are watching.”
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Bad Bunny, whose birth name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, has caught flak from President Donald Trump and his supporters given his public comments about the president and his administration. The 31-year-old expressed fears about ICE, which is why he decided to do a residency in his native Puerto Rico to avoid stops in the United States.
He said last month he didn’t book any U.S. dates on his tour over fears his fans would be detained by ICE agents.
“But there was the issue of, like, f—ing ICE could be outside [my concert]. And it’s something that we were talking about and very concerned about,” he told i-D.
Bad Bunny also recorded and posted video of what he described as local ICE raids to social media in Puerto Rico.
“Look, those motherf——s are in these cars, RAV-4s. They’re here in Pontezuela,” he said in Spanish, mentioning ICE working on the Avenida Pontezuela in Carolina, a city east of Puerto Rico’s capital, San Juan.
Some NFL fans had an issue not only with those comments, but with his hit songs all being sung in Spanish. But Goodell has no qualms with the show he’s expecting from Bad Bunny.
“We’re confident it’s going to be a great show,” Goodell said. “He understands the platform that he’s on, and I think it’s going to be exciting and a united moment.”
Fox News’ Scott Thompson contributed to this report.
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