WHAT DOES BAD BUNNY TEACH US ABOUT THE OTHER AND OTHERS?

This paper analyzes Bad Bunny's performance during the halftime show of Super Bowl LX from the perspective of Lacanian psychoanalysis. Starting from the registers of the Real, Imaginary, and Symbolic, as well as the concepts of desire, object little a, gaze, and act, the performance is interpreted as a complex staging of the relationship between the subject and the Big Other in the contemporary spectacle. Particular attention is given to the use of the Spanish language, the emphasis on the Puerto Rican flag, the appearances of Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, as well as the symbolic gesture of awarding the Grammy to the boy. These moments are interpreted as attempts to regulate jouissance and destabilize the imaginary identifications that the global audience projects onto the artist. The digital erasure of content from Instagram is further analyzed as a potential psychoanalytic act of withdrawal from the field of the gaze. It is concluded that the performance does not close the structural lack of the subject but makes it visible, leaving the question open as to whether it represents a rupture or a sophisticated reproduction of the Symbolic order.

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Publication Details

Journal
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Published
2026-02-25
DOI
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18777437
Primary Topic
Latin American and Latino Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

WHAT DOES BAD BUNNY TEACH US ABOUT THE OTHER AND OTHERS?

Bajro Salkunić
Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Latin American and Latino Studies
article

WHAT DOES BAD BUNNY TEACH US ABOUT THE OTHER AND OTHERS?

Bajro Salkunić
article en

Abstract

This paper analyzes Bad Bunny's performance during the halftime show of Super Bowl LX from the perspective of Lacanian psychoanalysis. Starting from the registers of the Real, Imaginary, and Symbolic, as well as the concepts of desire, object little a, gaze, and act, the performance is interpreted as a complex staging of the relationship between the subject and the Big Other in the contemporary spectacle. Particular attention is given to the use of the Spanish language, the emphasis on the Puerto Rican flag, the appearances of Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, as well as the symbolic gesture of awarding the Grammy to the boy. These moments are interpreted as attempts to regulate jouissance and destabilize the imaginary identifications that the global audience projects onto the artist. The digital erasure of content from Instagram is further analyzed as a potential psychoanalytic act of withdrawal from the field of the gaze. It is concluded that the performance does not close the structural lack of the subject but makes it visible, leaving the question open as to whether it represents a rupture or a sophisticated reproduction of the Symbolic order.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
Active Technologies (Italy) (IT)
Gender equality
Openalex Percentile: Top 44%
Latin American and Latino Studies
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