Stephen A. Smith: ‘Would have been nice if some of the songs were in English’

Stephen A. Smith liked Bad Bunny’s halftime show, but he thinks he would have liked it even more if some of the songs were in English.

Bad Bunny’s performance was the most controversial Super Bowl halftime show since…well, last year’s Super Bowl halftime show, when half the audience seemed to love Kendrick Lamar’s performance and the other half complained about being confused by it. But it was Bad Bunny’s halftime show that drew the ire of the right and a social media tirade from president Donald Trump, who dubbed the performance a “slap in the face” to America.

Stephen A. Smith teased a response to Trump’s rant over the halftime show Sunday night, which he offered on his Mad Dog Sports Radio show Monday afternoon.  And while Smith didn’t agree with the entirety of Trump’s message, he did agree with some of it.

“He does have a point when he alludes to the ‘mess of a halftime show, will get great reviews from the fake news media.’ You’re gonna have people that are gonna be raving about the halftime show simply because they want to be anti-Trump and anti-right and all of this other stuff,” Smith said. “That ain’t me, I don’t give a damn. I’m fair-minded, down the middle. I think it was a damn good show. I think the vibe was fly.”

Smith reiterated what J.J. Watt posted on X after the halftime show, saying, “did I understand a single word of it? I did not. Was it a vibe? It was.” Smith wouldn’t put it on the level of Beyoncé, Bruno Mars, Kendrick Lamar, or Snoop, but he did enjoy Bad Bunny’s performance. He just would have enjoyed it more if it was in English.

“Here’s my only reticence, you’re in the United States of America and you perform damn-near an entire performance in Spanish,” Smith said while also praising the Spanish language. “But if you didn’t understand Spanish, you were lost. And most Americans don’t understand Spanish…It was primarily in Spanish. And if most people don’t understand the lyrics because you’re speaking in what they deem to be a foreign language, that is a legitimate point the president made.”

“Would have been nice to see a few people celebrating the Hispanic heritage, no doubt,” Smith continued, claiming he would have liked to see Jennifer Lopez and Shakira involved in Bad Bunny’s show. “But it also would have been nice if some of the songs were in English. That’s all. But it was still a good show.”

Whether in English, Spanish or any other language, it’s hard to imagine many people are sitting there truly absorbing the meaning of every lyric during previous Super Bowl halftime show performances. But Bad Bunny’s halftime show has been subjected to much spurious outrage. And yet the NFL does not and should not care. Bad Bunny is one of the most popular musicians in the world, he was the most-streamed artist on Spotify in 2025, and he was picked to help the NFL continue its goal of global expansion.