The 2020 Super Bowl halftime show was huge, and as part of the NFL's 100th anniversary,
the league decided to break new ground with a show paying homage to the Latino culture
that is prevalent in Miami, where the game was held, and growing in influence nationwide.
The game's featured entertainers were Shakira, who is Colombian, and Jennifer Lopez, a native
New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent who has not forgotten her Latina roots.
While both Shakira and Lopez have had major English language hits, they also perform in
Spanish.
Shakira told World News Tonight,
"I'm so honored to be taking on one of the world's biggest stages in the company of a
fellow female artist to represent Latinos and Latinas from the U.S. and all over the
world."
She called the opportunity, quote, "a true American dream."
J. Lo also enthused over "performing with a fellow Latina," saying,
"I can't wait to show what us girls can do on the world's biggest stage."
What the ladies did not mention at the time, however, was that they would also be joined
by some cool guys who are also Latin pop icons.
Entertainment Tonight revealed that the mystery guests who joined Shakira and Lopez were two
reggaeton superstars.
Joining Shakira was Bad Bunny, a 25-year-old Puerto Rican performer named Benito Antonio
Martínez Ocasio.
After starting out on SoundCloud, he first charted on Billboard in 2018 with his debut
album.
He was also featured on Cardi B's "I Like It," a No. 1 hit on which he raps in Spanish
and English.
Bad Bunny's other hit collaborations include tracks with Drake and Jennifer Lopez.
In 2019, he performed at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Bad Bunny also recently released a song called "6 Rings," a touching tribute to the late
Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant, who was killed in a helicopter crash just one week prior
to Super Bowl Sunday.
During J.Lo's performance, Colombian rapper J Balvin strutted out, cool and casual in
a black hoodie, to deliver two commanding collaborations.
"Say hello to everyone.
Everything good?
Hello, hello."
Balvin moved to the United States at age 17.
His first reggaeton single came out in 2004, but his first big hit was released in Colombia
in 2009 and in the States the following year.
Balvin's popularity has been growing steadily since then, and he's won two Grammy Awards,
one for best urban song and another for best urban album.
Like Bad Bunny, Balvin also collaborated with Cardi B on her chart-topping "I Like It."
Balvin also holds a Guinness World Record for longest-lasting No. 1 Latin song in the
United States for his 2017 hit "Ginza".
Before hitting the Super Bowl 54 halftime stage, J. Balvin took to Instagram to post
a picture with fellow performer, Bad Bunny, with a caption in Spanish referencing their
2019 collaborative album, Oasis.
While it was both artists' first time performing during America's Game, it definitely wasn't
the first time these two had shared the same stage.
In fact, Balvin and Bad Bunny are actually longtime friends who met for the first time
in 2016, when they were introduced at one of Balvin's concerts in Puerto Rico.
Since then, the two have performed together several times and collaborated on numerous
projects.
In March 2017, the two teamed up and dropped their first track together.
The same year, Balvin and Bad Bunny performed their song for the first time at the 2017
Billboard Latin Music Awards.
On the red carpet ahead of the performance, Bad Bunny talked to Billboard about what it
meant to him to be able to work with Balvin, saying,
"He respects and admires what I do, he likes my work, and for me, it's an honor to work
with an artist of that caliber."
In recent years, Balvin and Bad Bunny have performed together at Coachella twice, the
American Music Awards and the Billboard Music Awards.
Now, with the Super Bowl halftime show under their belt, it's clear that this dynamic duo
is just getting started.
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