He is the most streamed artist in the world, ticket sales for his tours are breaking world records and “Time Magazine” recently dedicated the first Spanish-language cover in the history of the magazine to him – but Bad Bunny is still hardly known in Germany. Which, according to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, is probably due to the fact that “the currently biggest pop star on the planet is mainly heard, celebrated and shared by the approximately eight percent of humanity who speak Spanish”. But it is exactly this eight percent that has turned the Puerto Rican into a phenomenon that has turned the entire music industry upside down. “Bad Bunny is leading a Latin pop revolution,” wrote Rolling Stone back in 2020 – he was right. Who is the mega star that still runs so much under the radar in this country?
The real name of the 29-year-old is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. His stage name comes from a childhood photo of him wearing a rabbit costume. The son of a teacher and a trucker, he grew up in a strictly Catholic household with two younger brothers in rural Puerto Rico, about 45 minutes from the capital, San Juan. Although there was always music – salsa and merengue – in his parents’ house, he only came into contact with reggaeton when he was a teenager. The electronic music style with its sometimes vulgar lyrics was taboo in the religious family environment. The young Benito, according to “Rolling Stone” a “lanky wallflower with a booming voice”, sang in the children’s choir of the Catholic Church at the time. By his own account, he was an introverted, shy child with a wild imagination.
He’s been making music since he was 13, he says in an interview with “Time Magazine”. At home in his room he recorded songs, experimented with different forms of Latin American music. As the “Welt” reports, he only released his first tracks on the Soundcloud platform after his friends persuaded him to do so. While he began studying Audiovisual Communications. – which he threw again a little later – he worked in a supermarket as a “grocery excavator”, i.e. he packed the customer’s goods in plastic bags after paying. He celebrated his first successes with features on songs by Drake (“Mia”) and Cardi B (“I like it”). The song, featuring the US rapper, entered the top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Bad Bunny its US breakthrough in 2018.
Six studio albums followed, with increasing success. Rolling Stone called his first record “X 100pre” – an abbreviation of the Spanish “por siempre” (“forever”) – an “attempt to woo those who are new to Latin music”. He relies on “anglophone ambassadors like Diplo and Drake”. The successor, on the other hand, is a “portrait of Bad Bunny’s Puerto Rico: unfiltered and untranslated”. Appropriately, the album bears the initials of his life motto. “YHLQMDLG” stands for “Yo hago lo que me da la gana”, in English “I’ll do something Ich will”. His latest record, Un verano sin ti, hit number one on the US Billboard Albums Chart. The record was nominated for a Grammy earlier this year, becoming the first entirely Spanish-language work in the awards’ history.
Bad Bunny has topped the list of most-streamed artists for three years in a row. There were 20.4 billion clicks last year alone. Even the least heard song on his current album has 190 million Spotify streams. He even broke a world record with his concerts. No artist has made more live concert earnings in a calendar year than Bad Bunny, earning $435 million from his performances in 2022. Three years ago he appeared at the halftime show of the Superbowl, this year he is the first Latin American headliner at the Coachella festival. Bad Bunny has even made its way into Hollywood. After a guest appearance in the Netflix series “Narcos”, he played a hitman in “Bullet Train” alongside Brad Pitt. And according to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, he will soon be seen in the Marvel buster “El Muerto”, a Spider-Man spin-off in which he would be the first Latino superhero in the Marvel Universe.
Labeling Bad Bunny’s music as reggaeton would be too easy. Although the majority of his songs are inspired by the danceable Latin American electro style, it’s the genre-spanning sounds that give the Puerto Rican’s music its special character. Influences from rap, house, dance-pop, indie rock and traditional music genres such as salsa and bachata can be heard on the tracks of the 29-year-old. “Time Magazine” calls them a “master chemist who fuses decades of Latin American music into innovative mixes”. “Rolling Stone” describes him as a “one-man hit machine”. Its recognition is based on a voice characterized by “a deep, muddy tone and viscous melodies”. The topics that Bad Bunny sings about range from sex on the beach to the lack of infrastructure in Puerto Rico – his lyrics are intended to reflect all facets of life, writes “Time Magazine”.
In honor of “El Mundo de Bad Bunny” (“The World of Bad Bunny”), the US news magazine dedicated its first Spanish title to him. His life motto is also emblazoned on the cover – which has also proven to be his recipe for success: “I won’t do anything differently just to please you.” It cannot be bent and does not make any compromises. Especially not when it comes to the language. Bad Bunny has never released a song in English and has no intention of doing so. When he opened the Grammys that year, the network ran the phrase “Singing in Non-English” during his song instead of a subtitle. The same happened with his acceptance speech – the musician calls it a “mess” in an interview with “Time Magazine”. Nevertheless, the question of whether a pop star should say goodbye to Spanish for a world career seems downright absurd, writes “Welt”. The streaming numbers and ticket sales speak for themselves.
His “stubborn originality”, which is not only attested to by “Time Magazine”, refers not only to language and genre but also to his political stance and his appearance. Bad Bunny doesn’t want to be pigeonholed into a typical male image, especially not into the Latino macho pigeonhole. Like Harry Styles, he belongs to a generation of male pop stars who fight against stereotypical male ideals. His heterosexuality shouldn’t define his appearance, emphasizes Bad Bunny in the news magazine’s cover story. Accordingly, the Puerto Rican can often be seen on stage and on the red carpet in cross-gender fashion and garments with feminine connotations.
He shows himself in a tulle costume, in a pink coat, with pearl necklaces or with nail polish. In 2020, he appeared on The Tonight Show wearing an oversized pink blazer and a black satin skirt to raise awareness of the murder of a transgender woman. “I’ve always felt like part of me is very feminine,” the 29-year-old told Rolling Stone. “But I’ve never felt more manly than the day I dressed up like a drag queen.” No wonder the magazine has dubbed him “a new breed of Latin superstar, tailor-made for a generation of open-minded listeners.”
As much as the singer defends himself against categories, he stands up for his origins all the more clearly. “I’m incredibly proud to be a Puerto Rican,” the superstar keeps saying. He dedicates almost all his songs, performances, achievements to the small Caribbean island. The island belongs to the so-called outer regions of the USA: the residents are officially US citizens, but are not allowed to vote in the presidential elections.
“When I write and make music, my mind is always in Puerto Rico,” the “world” quoted the 29-year-old as saying. What the fans in his homeland say about his music is most important to him, he revealed to “Time Magazine”. He wants everyone to feel happy, accepted and free. “Giving back is something that feels natural — that’s how we are in Puerto Rico.” Not only is it important to him to provide information about his homeland. He is also politically committed to the island. In 2019, he paused his tour to join protests in San Juan demanding the impeachment of Governor Ricardo Rosselló. In his single “El Apagón”, with which he also opened the Grammys, he railed against Puerto Rico’s current governor Pedro Pierluisi and the constant power cuts since the privatization of the electricity grid.
However, he is cautious about making clear political statements. “I think the US government has failed Puerto Rico,” he told Time Magazine, adding, “Likewise, Puerto Rico has failed Puerto Rico.” At the same time, his origin places a certain burden on him. In the cover story, he says he feels activist lyrics seem to compel him to answer political questions on behalf of the millions who live on his home island — which he feels is too much of a responsibility. Likewise, “each of his personal decisions is examined through a larger cultural lens,” writes the news magazine. When he was recently spotted with Kendall Jenner and dating rumors surfaced, numerous fans denounced him as a betrayal for so often emphasizing his love for Latino women.
Bad Bunny himself also attributes his success to the rise of “musica urbana,” a subgenre of reggaeton that has expanded the genre to include trap and Spanish rap. Artists like Tego Calderón, Héctor
The change in the music industry has not yet arrived in Germany. Latin music is known at most in the form of summer hits or, according to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” as a “charming niche phenomenon that doesn’t play a particularly central role in the discourse”. Accordingly, Bad Bunny is largely unknown in this country and has never landed a hit in Germany. The current record “Un verano sin ti” didn’t make it further than number 35 in the album charts. The Puerto Rican only played one concert in Germany. In this country, people are still immune “to the basically irresistible charm of the 28-year-old musician,” the “Welt” notes. However, more and more German media are currently paying attention to the artist. And they all agree that the upheaval is already underway. And at the latest when the reorganization of the pop world has also been completed in this country, you will no longer be able to avoid the Bad Bunny phenomenon.
Sources: “Die Welt (I)”, “Die Welt (II)”, “Frankfurter Allgemeine Quarterly”, “Rolling Stone”, “Süddeutsche Zeitung (I)”, “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (II), “Time Magazine”
