El Super Tazón: Bad Bunny’s Soft Power Moment

Francia Baeke & Yes Dadds

How his record‑breaking halftime show projected Latin American identity on a global stage

Timeframe: 08/02/2026 – 30/04/2026

United States of America · Conflict Resolution

Key Insights

• The briefing assesses how Bad Bunny’s 2026 Super Bowl performance operates as an intervention in hemispheric power relations. It contends that his deployment of Spanish language, decolonial aesthetics and pan‑Latino symbolism constitutes a form of counter‑hegemonic soft power. It concludes that the performance reconfigures soft power as resistance from subaltern positions and reasserts Latin American agency within a neocolonial context.

Definition

Counter‑hegemonic soft power denotes the use of cultural expression to contest prevailing geopolitical hierarchies and articulate agency from structurally subordinate positions.

Bad Bunny turns the Super Bowl into a bold act of Latin American soft power, reclaiming an ‘All‑American’ stage as a stunning display of decolonial resistance

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