By Madeleine Marr, Miami Herald
MIAMI — Jennifer Lopez doesn’t understand all the hoopla surrounding Bad Bunny.
The reggaetonero was hit with some criticism after being chosen as the headliner of the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime Show next February. One of the reasons is the 31-year-old doesn’t sing in English and the other is that he recently said he wouldn’t do any concerts in the U.S. due to fears people in his audience could be targeted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
While Lopez was appearing on the “Today” show to talk up her new movie “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” host Craig Melvin asked her what she thought about the controversy.
“Is there [one]? But why!? I don’t understand that. He’s one of the top artists in the world right now, probably the top,” said the 56-year-old. “I’m super excited for people to see him. I think they’ll be pleasantly surprised because his music transcends language.” Lopez knows what she’s talking about. When she and Shakira, 48, were the halftime act during Super Bowl LIV at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens in 2020, Bad Bunny was a guest performer.
The Puerto Rican artist came out in a Space Age-outfit and threw down some tracks from Cardi B’s “I Like It.” Then he and Shakira did a mashup duet of her song “Chantaje” and his “Callaita” (en español, mind you).
In a different interview Wednesday on “The Culturistas” podcast with comedians Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, JLo rehashed the Super Bowl experience once again. Rogers gushed over Lopez’s inspiring performance, which included odes to her Latina heritage. He also had to naturally bring up her alleged beef with Shakira that was alluded to in the 2022 Netflix BTS documentary “Halftime.”
In one scene, Lopez expresses her angst about having to share the stage with the “Hips Don’t Lie” superstar. She — and purportedly Shakira, though she never made a peep publicly — had concerns there wasn’t enough time to cram in all they wanted to accomplish in roughly 15 minutes.
“This is the worst idea in the world to have two people do the Super Bowl,” Lopez complains to her music director in the flick.
Around the 49-minute mark of Wednesday’s podcast, Rogers touches on the “strife” with the Colombian pop star.
“There’s moments where you’re like …you get, like…” acknowledged Lopez, sighing. “She’s trying to fit in her whole discography, and I’m trying to fit mine, into not 15 minutes now, but seven. It was frustrating, it really was.”
Ever the pro, Lopez managed to pivot, and turn a negative into a positive.
“At the end of the day,” she told the hosts, “it was meant to be how it happened … in such a beautiful way.”
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