A full-throated protest song would be welcome during Sunday's halftime show

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Might we get a moment of musical protest at the Super Bowl?

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Such is the fracturing of the previously shared worlds of news and music that I no longer expect to know much about whichever current pop star is booked to play the Super Bowl halftime show. This year was another step into our separate worlds, when it was announced that Bad Bunny would headline the show.

I had never heard of him. But a great many have. On Spotify, he has been the most-streamed artist a record four times — in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2025. He was first non-English artist to top the list.

The NFL’s timing was unwittingly perfect. Not since the 2004 Super Bowl, when Janet Jackson symbolically ushered in the pornographication of American culture, has an artist been more timely.

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