A musical deep dive into colonial legacy, an epic live performance residency, an oeuvre of smash albums with outstanding vary: nobody is doing it fairly like Bad Bunny.
And on Sunday, the Puerto Rican phenom made historical past, profitable the coveted Grammy for Album of the Year — and turning into the primary artist who performs in Spanish to ever declare the prize.
And he got here out swinging at President Donald Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown, incomes cheers when he advised the Grammys viewers: “ICE out.”
“I want to dedicate this award to all the people who had to leave their homeland, their country to follow their dreams,” Bad Bunny mentioned as he accepted his groundbreaking gramophone.
He gained two different prizes on the night time — for greatest world music efficiency and greatest musica urbana album.
The Grammys have been an applicable exclamation level on a rare yr that has cemented the 31-year-old’s reign over world music.
Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio’s profession is barely a decade previous, nevertheless it’s marked by historic milestones which have damaged obstacles for Latin and Spanish-language music.
In only one week, he’ll helm the world’s most seen stage on the Super Bowl halftime present, the primary Spanish-language artist ever to take action.
Bad Bunny was the primary — and stays the one — Spanish-language artist to ever obtain an Album of the Year Grammy nod.
He’s earned it twice, for Sunday’s winner “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos” and in 2022, for “Un Verano Sin Ti.”
He additionally was the primary Spanish-language artist to ever headline Coachella, delivering a two-hour efficiency in 2023 that included documentary footage and conventional dance.
That set foreshadowed the historical past lesson in Puerto Rican music Bad Bunny would quickly give with “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos,” which he promoted with a hometown live performance residency.
The first 9 reveals have been solely open to residents of the Caribbean island that has been below US rule since 1898.
He then launched a world tour in assist of the album — however with no scheduled stops on the US mainland, out of concern that federal immigration brokers would goal concertgoers.
Bad Bunny has been Spotify’s most-streamed artist 4 separate occasions, together with in 2025, beating out the likes of titans like Taylor Swift and Drake.
He is wildly standard each stateside and overseas, a business golden goose who’s critically acclaimed and instructions legions of ardent followers.
‘Deeply political’
The son of a truck driver and a trainer, Bad Bunny was born on March 10, 1994 and grew up in Vega Baja, a small municipality close to Puerto Rico’s capital San Juan.
He honed his vocal abilities within the youngsters’s choir at church, earlier than rising right into a pre-teen who beloved spending hours growing beats on his pc, as he additionally started delving into every thing from bachata to the Bee Gees.
He was working at a grocery store bagging groceries when he acquired a name from a label over his viral performs on the DIY platform SoundCloud.
Thus started the reggaeton star’s fast explosion to the highest of world music.
With his monumental fame got here strain to satisfy the various expectations of loyal followers, together with those that wished him to take stronger political stances.
Earlier in his profession, he wavered on taking on a job as a de facto spokesperson.
But extra just lately, he has joined Puerto Rican protests and spoken out towards US President Donald Trump’s insurance policies. His assertion on the Grammys stage was maybe his most direct but.
“Debi Tirar Mas Fotos” was a full-throated, identity-affirming exploration of Puerto Ricanness within the context of persistent colonialism, set to folkloric sounds, infectious salsa and reggaeton rhythms.
It was a love letter to his dwelling, for his dwelling — and it introduced optimistic visibility to a spot usually seen by means of a lens of struggling.
The artist’s dedication to singing in Spanish in a music trade that has traditionally marginalized Latino voices makes his mammoth success much more extraordinary.
Historian Jorell Melendez-Badillo advised AFP the artist’s mere presence at main cultural occasions just like the Grammys or the Super Bowl is “deeply political.”
And all these sociopolitical layers come packaged in eminently danceable type: it is exhausting to attend a Bad Bunny present and resist the urge to twerk.
© 2026 AFP
