NFL commissioner Roger Goodell says Bad Bunny’s half-time show at Super Bowl 60 will “unite” the United States after President Trump claimed his performance would “sow hatred”.
The Puerto Rican pop star is this year’s headliner for the set, with this weekend’s championship game in Santa Clara, California, expected to be watched by more than 120 million in the US alone.
The 31-year-old will be the first solo male Latin artist to perform the half-time show and is expected to be the first artist to perform the set entirely in Spanish.
Trump said in January that he would not attend the Super Bowl and that he was not a fan of Bad Bunny or American band Green Day, who are opening the show.
“I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible,” said Trump.
Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Goodell said: “Bad Bunny is one of the greatest artists in the world and that’s one of the reasons we chose him, but the other reason is he understood the platform he was on.
“This platform is used to unite people and to be able to bring people together with their creativity, with their talent, and to be able to use this moment to do that. I think artists in the past have done that.
“I think Bad Bunny understands that and I think he’ll have a great performance.”
The singer, who was Spotify’s most-streamed artist in four of the past six years, said he avoided the US on his current world tour because of concerns that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents would conduct raids on fans at his concerts.
On Sunday Bad Bunny made history as he became the first Latin artist to win album of the year at the Grammy Awards, where he and dozens of stars railed against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Speaking at the Grammy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, he defended immigrants and said “ICE out”.
Asked if there would be any ICE enforcement operations around the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend, Goodell said: “Security’s obviously one of the things we focus on the most.
“It’s a tier-one level event. That involves unique assets at a federal level, state level and local level all working together.
“I see no change in that with the preparations for the Super Bowl. We’re working with all three of those levels and doing everything we can to make sure its a safe environment.
“The federal government is a big part of that, including this administration and every administration before that.”
Goodell was speaking on the opening day of Super Bowl week in San Jose, where the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks arrived later to talk to fans and media about Sunday’s NFL title decider.
Source: BBC Sport
