Bad Bunny will be the halftime entertainer at Super Bowl 60 next Sunday. Kevin Winter / Getty Images
Super Bowl 60 halftime headliner Bad Bunny delivered a strong message to Immigration and Customs Enforcement — but also to those in opposition to the federal agency — in his acceptance speech after winning for Best Música Urbana Album at the Grammys on Sunday.
“Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say … ICE out,” Bad Bunny said, sparking a standing ovation and loud cheering among much of the audience at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. “We’re not savages, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens, we are humans, and we are Americans.”
But Bad Bunny continued with a message to those who oppose the tactics of ICE, which has engaged in an aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration across the nation during President Donald Trump’s second term.
“Also, I want to say to people, I know it’s tough not to hate these days, and I was thinking, sometimes we get contaminados, I don’t know how to say that in English (the translation is ‘contaminated’). The hate gets more powerful with more hate, the only thing that is more powerful than hate is love. So, please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love. We don’t hate them. We love our people, we love our family. And that’s the way to do it, with love. Don’t forget that, please.”
The Puerto Rican superstar, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, later in the show made history with the first Latin album to win Album of the Year for “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS.”
Trump criticized the NFL for choosing Bad Bunny to be the halftime act for the Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots and recently said he would not attend the game. Trump also ripped the league for announcing Green Day as a pregame entertainer, saying, “I’m anti-them. I think it’s a terrible choice. All it does is sow hatred. Terrible.”