NFL Praises Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Show Amidst Criticism

The NFL has posted on social media praising Bad Bunny's recent Super Bowlhalftime show, which has garnered plenty of controversy and criticism from certain football fans.

The performance marked the first non English-language halftime show in Super Bowl history, and the NFL has now confirmed that it was also the first-ever show to feature "a multilingual signing program incorporating Puerto Rican Sign Language."

While sign language interpreters have been present at most other Super Bowl performances in recent memory, this marks the first example of languages other than English being available. The decision to use Puerto Rican Sign Language rather than the most widely-spoken Spanish Sign Language is also crucial, as much of Bad Bunny's music uses specific Puerto Rican slang terms—and the performance was a clear homage to his home territory.

Bad Bunny's halftime show broke records as the most-watched performance in Super Bowl history, with 128.2 million viewers tuning in to watch the Puerto Rican singer-songwriter take the stage (via Nielsen).

Despite controversy about the decision to hire a Spanish-speaking performer for the show, the NFL has doubled down on its decision by praising Bad Bunny consistently on social media. The league posted multiple clips of his performance, and NFL comissioner Roger Goodell even called the singer "one of the great artists in the world" (via Parade).

The show came just days after Bad Bunny's huge success at the Grammys, where he took home the award for Album of the Year. His streams have only continued to climb since performing at the Super Bowl, with the album's titular track "DtMF" (Debí Tirar Más Fotos) climbing to the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. This marked his first-ever number one spot for a solo song. "Baile Inolvidable" has also climbed to number two.