Who's a Bad Bunny, eh?

American libertarians, free speech absolutists, blood and soils nationalists and everyday racists are spitting into their apple pies because their Superbowl handball half-time show featured a guy singing in Spanish. They were not up for it.

Progressives have been quietly slipping Bad Bunny tunes into their playlists since he denounced ICE from the Grammys podium this month. Meanwhile, folks just need to acknowledge that even though they don’t know any of his fans, that’s a them problem as BB is one of the world’s most played artists of 2025.

I have been familiar with Mr Bunny’s oeuvre since 2024 when I saw him on SNL and Late Night With Colbert. I usually skip the music acts on both programmes, but SNL gave him a number of roles in the sketches and Colbert interviewed him, so I stayed around for the music.

But I didn’t put pen to paper this week to lay down my Amisfield street cred.

Focus Teri, Let’s get back to the racists

“Why doesn’t he just sing in English?”, they cried out, even going so far as to stage alternative events, lest their ears bleed in ¿Cómo se dice…? ah yes, rivers of blood. It’s an all too familiar refrain from palpably afraid people.

I heard a great retort to this from a lady who called in to a show remarking, “You wouldn’t expect an opera singer to sing in English if the opera is in Italian.” Well said madam. Having attended English language operas, believe me you’re better off just imagining what that big fella in tights is going on about in Italiano. I mean, get real, it’s not like Kid Rock would lip sync in Hungarian if he did a gig for Europe’s foremost hatemongers in Budapest.

Here’s the kicker though. Many more of the world’s population speak English than did last century. That number is likely to increase for the next few decades. But why, oh why, oh why would anyone “Just speak English”. Why would they disadvantage themselves in the same way as most native English speakers in the USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand. Why walk backwards and become monolingual?