As a child of a certain era in Texas, I grew up on a certain brand of country music. Kenny Rogers, Alabama, the Oak Ridge Boys. I listened to Dolly Parton before she was retro cool. So I heard Lee Greenwood a long time before his anthem “Proud to be an American” became the battle hymn of the current president and the larger MAGA movement. To be clear, Lee Greenwood is currently 82 years old and hasn’t released a meaningful album in decades. That’s not a knock on his musical career, which has gotten quite a boost from recent politics, but simply a statement of fact. Most of his recent recordings have been Christmas themed, in case you’re interested.
So I found it odd when Speaker of the House Mike Johnson suggested that Lee Greenwood of 80’s country fame would be an outstanding choice for the 2026 Super Bowl Halftime Show. He said that Greenwood would appeal to a wide audience and would be a great role model for all the kids watching the game. Of course, as he and everyone knows, there’s already someone picked to do the halftime show, and that’s Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican singer and rapper that’s currently one of the most popular entertainers on the planet. He just finished a 30 concert residency in San Juan that drew over 600,000 fans, including a ton that flew to the island in their otherwise off season for travel. He’s one of the few artists that can be spoken of in the same sentence as Taylor Swift and not sound foolish. And not surprisingly, his audience skews younger, much to the pleasure of the NFL and the advertisers who hope to sell through that vehicle.
Now, as Mike Johnson also knows, the President of the United States is not a fan of Bad Bunny. He made that abundantly clear after he was announced as the performer, namely when he said the choice was ridiculous. He also said that Bad Bunny hates ICE and that he accuses everyone he doesn’t like of racism. Trump also said that he’s never heard of him. So try to reconcile all that. So, as any good party loyalist would do, Mike Johnson got on board and not only denounced Bad Bunny as the performer, but also recommended Lee Greenwood, who, as you may know, seems to be one of Trump’s favorite performers. That’s how we got to the place where the Speaker of the House of Representatives is taking time from his schedule on then the cusp of a government shut down to weigh in on why one of the biggest performers on the planet should be replaced at the Super Bowl by an 80’s country star. By that logic, it all makes sense.
There’s obviously enough subtext here to fill a library, to the extent they still exist. For one, Bad Bunny sings primarily in Spanish, and thus would do so at the big game. By current political calculus, that’s red meat for a nativist argument built on the preservation of certain American ideologies. Second, Bad Bunny has been a detractor of the President, and largely kept his current tour from the states because of the administration’s immigration and ICE policies. Imagining Trump wouldn’t jump on this would be like putting a steak in front of a dog and seeing if he might walk away. It is literal red meat for an administration with an insatiable appetite.
But what’s lost here is the reality of why Bad Bunny was chosen in the first place. The NFL is not making some grand political gesture to appease some unnamed left-wing populace. To the contrary, the NFL is better than just about anyone at reading the tea leaves of the consumer public and making sure to take the path at the juncture of greatest revenue and least resistance. Right now, the NFL is trying to figure out how to extent is consumer base to both the next American population – who, not for nothing, do not watch TV like their parents do – while also expanding to a global audience that generally sees American football as an odd pastime. Bad Bunny is one of the few available artists who threads that needle quite nicely. And it doesn’t matter if he sings in Spanish or English or Greek. It just matters that people watch.
That’s the reality. And why Lee Greenwood would make Coldplay look like Michael Jackson – assuming you follow Super Bowl halftime history. That said, if we are talking about 80’s country, we should at least talk about Dolly Parton.
Keith Strudler is the Dean of the College of Communication and Media at Montclair State University. You can follow him at @KeithStrudler.
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