Donald Trump is the president of the United States, but the population believes that Bad Bunny better embodies American values. According to a survey published by Yahoo and YouGov, a company specializing in market research, the artist best reflects the North American country, with 42% of positive responses, compared to the Republican president, who had 39%. The study was conducted days after the Puerto Rican’s performance at halftime during Super Bowl LX, which took place on Sunday, February 8.
Trump said on social media that the show had been one of the worst in history. “It is an affront to the greatness of the United States and does not represent our values of success, creativity, and excellence. No one understands a word this guy says, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children.” But the numbers tell a different story.
The partisan difference is striking. About 78% of those who identify as Democrats view Bad Bunny favorably, and only 7% reject him. On the other hand, among those who identify as Republicans, only 12% approve of the Puerto Rican, compared to 70% who disapprove. Among independent voters, 46% voted for the artist, while 27% voted for the president.
Bad Bunny’s performance at one of the most watched events in the world has also generated increased interest in learning Spanish and traveling to the Caribbean island. Duolingo, one of the most popular language learning apps, shared a graph on its social media showing a 35% increase in Spanish learners minutes after the artist’s performance ended.
I watched Bad Bunny’s performance. He was entertaining, he danced well, and the sets were nice. There were no subtitles so I could not tell what he was saying. I still felt like I understood him when he named off all the countries in North and South America. I understood that he was saying everyone in those countries is American and should be united. I can’t say for certain though, but that was the message I received.
Meanwhile, not only is Trump going after brown people, but his thugs executed a woman on the spot for what she saw. No trial, just straight to execution. Then they executed a protester. Trump said they were both terrorists. If Ms Good was a terrorist for what she saw that day (we will never know exactly what she saw that warranted her immediate execution), what does that make the rest of us who see this kind of thing day in and day out on the news?
Apple and Google have both advertised products which will translate speech in real time. They’ve never said anything about music. But maybe one day we will live in a world where it won’t matter what language a person uses, whether speaking or singing, we will be able to understand them, at least to some extent. (I’ve tried Apple’s solution with music. It works, but it struggles to keep up. So you get one line and maybe another a minute or so later. It is definitely not ready for prime time. Also, I used a Japanese song, and Japanese and English are the most foreign to one another, so Spanish might have yielded better results.)