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On the night that Bad Bunny took home three Grammys and became the first Latin American to win best album, he called out immigration officers: “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say ICE out.”
So what? It’s not clear who is listening. Bad Bunny was one of dozens of musicians who spoke out against the Trump administration at Sunday’s ceremony. Several wore anti-ICE badges, while Billie Eilish began her acceptance speech for song of the year by saying that “no one is illegal on stolen land”. These protests
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form part of a growing cultural backlash against Donald Trump and his policies;
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suggest renewed courage in speaking out after a quiet 2025; but
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may mean nothing when it comes to this year’s midterms.
Chorus. Accepting best new artist, Olivia Dean said that immigrants “deserve to be celebrated”. Justin and Hailey Bieber were among those who sported badges denouncing ICE, while Justin Vernon of Bon Iver wore a whistle in honour of legal observers in Minneapolis, where federal agents killed two people last month. Host Trevor Noah made a joke about Trump’s links to Jeffrey Epstein. The president threatened to sue Noah in response.
Main attraction. Bad Bunny, the most popular artist on Spotify, stole the show. “We’re not savage, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens,” he said. “We are humans, and we are Americans.”
For the uninitiated. Bad Bunny’s 2020 album El Último Tour Del Mundo was the first Spanish-language record to top the US charts. His latest record, Debí Tirar Mas Fotos, celebrates Puerto Rico’s musical heritage and references the island’s history of exploitation.
Lodestar. He has also become a voice for the millions of Latinos threatened with deportation by the Trump administration. As a Puerto Rican, Bad Bunny is a US citizen. But his 2025 world tour had no dates on the mainland because, he said, “fucking ICE could be outside my concerts”. In Puerto Rico, he sold 400,000 tickets in four hours.
The revolution will be televised. Bad Bunny headlines the Super Bowl half-time show this week, supported by Green Day of American Idiot fame. Trump says he won’t be watching. But more than 100m people will. Both acts are keeping their performance plans under wraps.
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Under pressure. The Trump administration has tried to cow the media, suing CBS News, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and the BBC. It also banned the Associated Press from the Oval Office and replaced the Pentagon press corps with a selection of right-wing bloggers, social media influencers and “independent journalists”.
We’ll step up too. In this context, musicians and other creatives have taken up the mantle of resistance. The Super Bowl will be followed by the Oscars, where deeply political films such as Sinners and One Battle After Another are expected to pick up multiple awards.
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No thanks. Artists have also cancelled performances at the rebranded Trump Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Trump said on Sunday that it would close for two years for renovation.
Lessons in history. Celebrities overwhelmingly endorsed Kamala Harris for president in 2024, but Trump still won. Although the president’s approval rating has slumped since then, there’s no evidence that the voice of musicians will have any impact on voting in the November midterms.
What’s more… Bad Bunny was one of those who backed Harris, shortly after a speaker at a Trump rally called Puerto Rico a “floating island of garbage”. Trump went on to receive a higher percentage share of the Latino vote than any other Republican in history.
Photograph by Matt Winkelmeyer / Getty Images