The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) sought transcripts of Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show performance from Comcast’s NBC, following concerns raised by a Republican lawmaker that the broadcast could violate federal indecency regulations.
This development was confirmed by a commission member on Wednesday.
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez subsequently confirmed she had reviewed the Spanish-language transcripts. “I reviewed them carefully, and I found no violation of our rules and no justification for harassing broadcasters over a standard live performance,” Gomez stated, dismissing the lawmaker’s suggestion.
Multiple Republican politicians expressed outrage at the Puerto Rican’s performance, done solely in Spanish. Florida Rep. Randy Fine took to X to deem Bad Bunny’s performance “illegal,” calling for the FCC investigate it. His post included screenshots of supposed translated lyrics of one of Bad Bunny’s songs. “’Bad Bunny’s disgusting halftime show was illegal. Had he said these lyrics — and all of the other disgusting and pornographic filth in English on live TV, the broadcast would have been pulled down and the fines would have been enormous,” Fine said.
Tennessee Rep. Andy Ogles mirrored Fine’s sentiment, saying that the “performance’s lyrics openly glorified sodomy and countless other unspeakable depravities.”
The Puerto Rican superstar, 31, made history as the first artist to perform a halftime show entirely in Spanish, as well as becoming the first Latin solo act to take on one of the world’s most coveted gigs.
Toward the end of his set, Bad Bunny was handed a ball with the words, “Together, we are America” written on it, and a message on the big screen read: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”
But the message of unity clearly did not go down well with the president.
“Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children that are watching from throughout the U.S.A., and all over the World,” Trump raged.