{"id":1758784,"date":"2026-02-06T13:13:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T10:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1758784"},"modified":"2026-02-06T13:13:00","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T10:13:00","slug":"how-bad-bunny-became-a-political-icon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1758784","title":{"rendered":"How Bad Bunny became a political icon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/6\/1436546.jpg&#8221;]<\/p>\n<article class=\"main-article standard \">\n<div class=\"article-main-content article-wrapper has-media-but-its-an-image\" data-status=\"loaded\" data-primary-article=\"true\" data-url=\"\/music\/article\/69572\/1\/bad-bunny-became-political-icon-super-bowl-lx-ice-puerto-rico-trump-us\" data-article-id=\"69572\">\n<header class=\"article-header has-landscape-image no-media\">\n<div class=\"wrapper dg-max-width\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<figure class=\"main-img has-figcaption\" data-img-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\" data-img-aspect-ratio=\"1.5\" data-template=\"Standard Article\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"GettyImages-1156191061\" class=\"img\" height=\"2000\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1400\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/6\/1436546.jpg\" width=\"3000\"><\/span><\/span><figcaption class=\"img-caption\"><span class=\"inner\"><span class=\"credit\">Photo by ERIC ROJAS\/AFP via <span class=\"nowrap\">Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"meta\">\n<div class=\"inner\"><time datetime=\"2026-02-06T13:13:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"06 February 2026\"><span class=\"month\">February<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"6\">6,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<div class=\"titles\">\n<div class=\"tags\">\n<div class=\"sections\"><a class=\"category vertical - music\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\">Music<\/a><br \/>\n\/<br \/>\n<a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/feature\">Feature<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"standard-tag-container\"><a class=\"standard-category\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\">Music<\/a> \/<br \/>\n<a class=\"standard-series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/feature\">Feature<\/a><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"title\"><span>How Bad Bunny became a <span class=\"nowrap\">political icon<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n<div class=\"standfirst\">\n<h2>Ahead of his highly anticipated Super Bowl LX performance, we revisit nine key moments that led the reggaet\u00f3n star to become the profoundly anti-colonial voice he <span class=\"nowrap\">is today<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-02-06T13:13:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"06 February 2026\"><span class=\"month\">February<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"6\">6,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><time datetime=\"2026-02-06T13:13:00+00:00\" class=\"timestamp\" title=\"06 February 2026\"><span class=\"month\">February<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"day\" data-day=\"6\">6,<\/span>\u00a0<br \/>\n<span class=\"year\">2026<\/span><\/time><\/p>\n<div class=\"providers\">\n<div class=\"contributors\"><span class=\"contributor\" data-contributor-role=\"Text\"><span class=\"contributor-role\">Text<\/span><a class=\"contributor-name\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/user\/OscarAdame\">Oscar Adame Galeano<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article-body-container\">\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"dazed-gallery has-11-images \">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"info\"><span class=\"heading\">Bad Bunny \u2013 <span class=\"nowrap\">Autumn 2024<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumbs\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/gallery\/34126\/0\/bad-bunny-autumn-2024\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bad Bunny \u2013 Autumn 2024\" class=\"img\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-490-1152-768\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1380\/4\/1384874.jpg\" width=\"1152\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/gallery\/34126\/1\/bad-bunny-autumn-2024\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bad Bunny \u2013 Autumn 2024\" class=\"img\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-239-1152-768\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1380\/4\/1384868.jpg\" width=\"1152\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/gallery\/34126\/2\/bad-bunny-autumn-2024\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bad Bunny \u2013 Autumn 2024\" class=\"img\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-914-1152-768\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1380\/4\/1384865.jpg\" width=\"1152\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/gallery\/34126\/3\/bad-bunny-autumn-2024\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bad Bunny \u2013 Autumn 2024\" class=\"img\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-362-1152-768\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1380\/4\/1384869.jpg\" width=\"1152\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/gallery\/34126\/4\/bad-bunny-autumn-2024\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bad Bunny \u2013 Autumn 2024\" class=\"img\" height=\"1092\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-231-1638-1092\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1380\/4\/1384875.jpg\" width=\"1638\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/gallery\/34126\/5\/bad-bunny-autumn-2024\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bad Bunny \u2013 Autumn 2024\" class=\"img\" height=\"1092\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-319-1638-1092\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1380\/4\/1384876.jpg\" width=\"1638\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-footer\">Gallery \/ 11 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>After his first reggaet\u00f3n track went viral on SoundCloud in 2016, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/bad-bunny\">Bad Bunny<\/a> left his job as a supermarket bagger and stepped into public view. With eccentric haircuts, painted nails, skirts, and fluorescent glasses, he disrupted the hyper-masculinity that defined the genre for decades: a body that didn\u2019<\/span><span>t ask for permission, and the attitude that later transformed him into a political icon. By 2018, the artist (real name Benito Antonio Mart\u00ednez Ocasio) was already Puerto Rico\u2019s biggest musical export; by 2019, the most influential singer in the Spanish-speaking market; and since 2020, the most listened-to artist in the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>However, even in Latin America, his own cultural territory, he has long been viewed with suspicion. Eurocentric criticism, also dominant in the Global South, never forgave reggaet\u00f3n for having transformed the body, desire and excess into political language. Middle-class, predominantly white listeners dismissed it as vulgar \u201cpornographic music\u201d, while early 00s critiques in Puerto Rican media went further, criminalising the genre for its aesthetics. Its detractors demanded a translated, sanitised version, reshaped to fit the dominant English-speaking values.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>To understand Bad Bunny\u2019s refusal to be softened or translated, you need to understand Puerto Rico: a territory shaped by its colonial condition, disguised as a \u201cCommonwealth\u201d by the US and exploited as a strategic and military enclave rather than a social equal. Lacking sovereignty and living under constant cultural scrutiny, the island developed an urgency of identity that runs through its music, where each genre becomes an act of resistance, a war of colour and sound fought through bodies, streets, and dance to keep Puerto Rican identity alive.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"SFKLTYwS9Fg\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SFKLTYwS9Fg\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>The recent celebration of Bad Bunny in the United States, including a Best Album of the Year win at the 2026 Grammys and his forthcoming headlining show at the Super Bowl, functions as the cultural turning point of a centenary identity struggle: the moment when Puerto Rico, and Latin America at large, ceases to justify itself or depend upon translation to be understood. The US is now the one forced to accept a Latin centrality that can no longer be ignored, domesticated or treated as secondary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s a clear fracture. While Hispanic artists continue to dominate both US and global charts, Benito\u2019s Super Bowl performance also arrives in the middle of brutal ICE raids across the States, which disproportionately target Latino and Hispanic communities. It is in this context that Bad Bunny emerges as a figure who signals that this transition is forcing the United States to recognise itself as part of a broader, more diverse, and Spanish-speaking Am\u00e9rica (yes, with an accent).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Below, we break down nine key chapters from Bad Bunny\u2019s career that led him to become the profoundly anti-colonial voice that he is today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>2017 \u2013 \u201cCARO\u201d AND TOXIC MASCULINITY<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"bg64AFnRnkc\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bg64AFnRnkc\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>In a scene dominated by hypermasculine codes of trap and reggaet\u00f3n, Bad Bunny started making appearances wearing painted nails and dresses, without framing it as provocation or statement. The gesture mattered because it refused justification.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This refusal was not improvised. From an early age, Benito had already learned to move outside the limits imposed on masculinity. He has recalled how some of his favourite moments with his mother were spent wandering through women\u2019s clothing sections in shopping malls, drawn to the colours, cuts, and combinations unavailable to him in men\u2019s fashion. \u201cWhen it was my turn to buy clothes, it was always the same jeans and shirts in different sizes. Women\u2019s clothing had freedom; men\u2019s didn\u2019t. There\u2019s definitely a double standard,\u201d he said in a 2021 interview with<em> Allure<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>SEPTEMBER 2018 \u2014 \u201cESTAMOS BIEN\u201d AND HURRICANE MAR\u00cdA\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"SIQXI0UuX8M\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SIQXI0UuX8M\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>\u201cA year after the hurricane, there are still people without electricity in their homes. More than 3,000 people died, and Trump is still in denial. But you know what? We\u2019re good, with or without $100 bills [&#8230;] And we\u2019re going to be even better, Puerto Rico.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Bad Bunny said these words during his first-ever appearance on US television performing \u201cEstamos Bien\u201d (\u201cWe\u2019re Good\u201d). Standing on the stage of <\/span><em><span>The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon<\/span><\/em><span>, he chose not to introduce himself with spectacle or gratitude, but with grief and accusation. He was preparing to release his debut studio album, <\/span><em><span>X 100PRE<\/span><\/em><span>, after nearly nine months of self-imposed silence, caused not only by the shock of sudden global fame, but by a historical rupture that reshaped Puerto Rico entirely: Hurricane Mar\u00eda.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The aftermath was devastating. More than 200,000 people were displaced. Entire regions of the island were left without electricity for months, some for over a year. The death toll, initially minimised by the US. government, would later be confirmed to be in the thousands.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>DECEMBER 2018 \u2013 \u201cSOLO DE M\u00cd\u201d AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"7rbprAR_Reg\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7rbprAR_Reg\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>\u201cSolo de M\u00ed\u201d is a song that directly confronts one of the most pressing issues in Latin American society: violence against women. <\/span><span>In the video, a woman faces the camera in a fixed shot while visual effects simulate the appearance of bruises and wounds as she sings. By the end, she wipes away the marks and goes out to a club to dance with friends, a gesture of resistance. The lyrics deliver a clear message: \u201c<em>I\u2019m not yours, nor anyone else\u2019s. I belong only to myself<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Bad Bunny introduced the song on Instagram, emphasising that it was meant as a protest against gender-based violence and the intolerable number of women killed every month: \u201cLess violence, more <\/span><em><span>perreo [reggaeton traditional dance, similar to twerking]<\/span><\/em><span> (and if she wants to, let her dance alone and don\u2019t bother her)\u201d. Later, in <\/span><em><span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/em><span>, he added: \u201cAs a human being, violence against women affects me. I will do everything I can to fight it. My message should not be seen as feminist, but as universal\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>2019 &#8211; \u201cAFILANDO LOS CUCHILLOS\u201d AND CRITICISING CORRUPTION\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"RSh7HIH2pvg\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RSh7HIH2pvg\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>On January 10, 2019, alongside fellow Puerto Rican rapper Residente, Bad Bunny stood outside La Fortaleza, the governor\u2019s residence, demanding accountability for a wave of violence ravaging the island. Puerto Rico had already recorded dozens of murders in the first days of the year, including the fatal shooting of openly gay trap artist Kevin Fret, and both artists used social media to document their attempt to be heard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span><span>Denied entry, they spoke to guards, critiqued plans to close hundreds of schools, and condemned a \u201cprehistoric\u201d educational system incompatible with younger generations. Eventually, public pressure, amplified by millions online, finally forced Rosell\u00f3 to meet with them. The meeting produced no real change and requests for follow-ups were ignored.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Later that year, in the wake of leaked Telegram messages exposing racism, sexism and homophobia within Rosell\u00f3\u2019s government, Bad Bunny joined protestors on the streets. Amid the uprising, Bad Bunny and Residente recorded and released music that openly criticised Rosell\u00f3\u2019s corruption and complicity in the scandal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>When Rosell\u00f3 finally announced his resignation on July 24, the streets erupted, not with solemn anthems but with reggaet\u00f3n. The main theme was \u201cTe Bot\u00e9\u201d, a hit popularised by Bad Bunny\u2019s line, which literally means \u201cI kicked you out of my life\u201d: Puerto Ricans celebrated their own refusal to endure corruption while recognising Benito\u2019s role not as a detached pop star, but as a visible participant in their struggle.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>2020 &#8211; \u201cYO PERREO SOLA\u201d AND TRANS RIGHTS<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"GtSRKwDCaZM\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GtSRKwDCaZM\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>During his second appearance on <\/span><em><span>The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon<\/span><\/em><span>, Bad Bunny wore a skirt, diamond earrings, a pink blazer, and a T-shirt reading: \u201cThey killed Alexa, not a man in a skirt.\u201d The message referred to the murder of Alexa Neulisa Luciano Ruiz, a trans woman killed in Puerto Rico just days earlier after being targeted for using the women\u2019s restroom at a McDonald\u2019s in Toa Baja.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>At the time, media outlets and police reports repeatedly misgendered Alexa, reducing her identity to sensationalist and transphobic language: \u201ca man in a skirt\u201d. Bad Bunny\u2019s intervention cut through that erasure with a sentence worn on the body, broadcast live on American television.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A month later, that stance shifted from mourning to assertion with \u201cYo Perreo Sola\u201d, where Bad Bunny appears in drag, singing from the perspective of a woman who wants to dance alone, unbothered, unclaimed. The video ends with a clear directive: \u201cIf she doesn\u2019t want to dance with you, respect it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>2022 &#8211; \u201cEL APAG\u00d3N\u201d AND THE BLACKOUT<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"1TCX_Aqzoo4\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1TCX_Aqzoo4\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>In 2022, Bad Bunny\u2019s fourth album <\/span><em><span>Un Verano Sin Ti<\/span><\/em><span> became the most-streamed album of the year on Spotify (and, later, of all time). Rather than diluting his political stance, this level of commercial success made it impossible to ignore. One standout song from the project,\u00a0<\/span><span>\u201cEl Apag\u00f3n\u201d, radiates particular pride in belonging to the island.<\/span><span>\u00a0Its final section, driven by hard techno, shifts perspective to a woman singing openly against the gentrification of the island: \u201c<em>I don\u2019t want to leave here, they should be the ones to go \/ This is my beach, this is my sun, this is my land, this is who I am.<\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Six months after the album\u2019s release, Benito chose to expand the song\u2019s message through its visuals. What emerged was a documentary exceeding 20 minutes. <\/span><span>Through testimonies from residents, activists, and journalists, \u201cEl Apag\u00f3n\u201d links everyday precarity, the collapse of basic services, and the inability to remain in one\u2019s own neighbourhood to a colonial economic model that treats the island as a commodity. Privatised beaches, tax laws designed to benefit US investors, and communities pushed out in the name of development.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>2024 &#8211; \u201cMOSCOW MULE\u201d AND PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"p38WgakuYDo\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p38WgakuYDo\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Despite repeatedly speaking out against internal and external forces that have harmed Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny had largely avoided direct intervention in the island\u2019s electoral politics.<\/span><span> \u201cPuerto Rico has given an organic endorsement,\u201d Bad Bunny told thousands at a public rally in 2024. \u201cIt\u2019s you, the people of Puerto Rico, who have made it clear that on November 5th, we must vote for Juan Dalmau and the Alianza.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Dalmau ran as the candidate of a new third-party coalition that united the Puerto Rican Independence Party with the Citizens\u2019 Victory Movement, a political force founded in 2019 that sought to break with decades of partisan stagnation. Together, they advocated for the full independence of Puerto Rico from the US, and, with Bad Bunny\u2019s endorsement, the independence movement became the country\u2019s second-largest political force for the first time in history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>2025 &#8211; \u201cNO ME QUIERO IR DE AQUI\u201d AND THE US MARKET\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"KU5V5WZVcVE\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KU5V5WZVcVE\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>The release of his album <\/span><em><span>Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s<\/span><\/em><em><span>Fotos<\/span><\/em><span> became an instant landmark in Latin American music. <\/span><span>Yet the celebration unfolded against a shifting political backdrop: the re-election of Donald Trump and the renewed force of an openly anti-Hispanic agenda in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>When Bad Bunny announced his world tour, one detail immediately stood out. The schedule included 46 stadium dates across the globe and an additional 31 shows in Puerto Rico, but none in the continental United States. <\/span><span>\u201cThere were many reasons why I didn\u2019t show up in the US, and none of them were out of hate,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe problem was that ICE could literally be outside the concerts. That was something we talked about and were deeply concerned about.\u201d He later added a line that landed as a quiet dismissal of a market long considered the most important in the world: performing in the United States, he suggested, \u201chad become unnecessary\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The decision aligned seamlessly with the album\u2019s broader argument, Spanish-speakers no longer asking for permission, and Puerto Rico no longer positioning itself around US validation. More than 600,000 people attended Bad Bunny\u2019s residency, generating an estimated $700 million for the island\u2019s economy.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>2026 &#8211; THE GRAMMYS AND ICE<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"hhvdOTvdpjs\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hhvdOTvdpjs\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>2026 was the first time Bad Bunny won a Grammy in the \u2018big three\u2019 categories at the ceremony, crystallising his position at the top of the musical mainstream. <\/span><span>True to the spirit of <\/span><em><span>DtMF<\/span><\/em><span>, Bad Bunny remained accountable in his acceptance speech for album of the year:\u00a0 \u201cICE out. We are not savages, we are not animals, we are not aliens; we are human,\u201d he declared defiantly before calling on Latin Americans: \u201cIf we are going to fight, we have to do it with love. Let&#8217;s not hate them, but let&#8217;s love our people, our family, our culture.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s in view of all of this that Bad Bunny\u2019s upcoming Super Bowl performance emerges as particularly significant. It speaks to a future in which Latin music, and Spanish, cease to ask for permission. The world will dance this weekend, but it will also have to learn how to listen without translation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Bad Bunny performs at the Super Bowl LX Halftime show this Sunday (February 8).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<footer class=\"article-footer\">\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<div class=\"article-series\">\n<h4 class=\"heading\">More on these topics<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-series\"><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\">Music<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/feature\">Feature<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/bad-bunny\">Bad Bunny<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/political\">political<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/puerto-rico\">Puerto Rico<\/a><a class=\"series\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/donald-trump\">Donald Trump<\/a><a class=\"series\" 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href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/69513\/1\/midnight-sun-producer-margo-xs-grammy-michigan-transness-viral-pop\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Edit_Sequence 01.00_07_38_14.Still024\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/480\/0-460-2317-1541\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/5\/1435863.jpg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">Margo XS on the sound of transness: \u2018Malleable, synthetic and glossy\u2019<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><a class=\"card-latest\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/69509\/1\/the-boy-who-cried-terrified-ranking-tracks-fakemink-new-ep-fml\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"card-latest__img-wrapper\"><span class=\"image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"ab6761670000ecd4b6987b3bed62263200072ca8\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/479\/0-89-479-319\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/5\/1435849.jpeg\"><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"card-latest__content\">\n<h3 class=\"card-latest__title\">The Boy who cried Terrified: Ranking all the tracks on fakemink\u2019s new EP<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline\" data-newsletter hidden>\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article-body wrapper\">\n<div class=\"dazed-gallery has-11-images \">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<header>\n<div class=\"info\"><span class=\"heading\">Bad Bunny \u2013 <span class=\"nowrap\">Autumn 2024<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumbs\">\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/gallery\/34126\/0\/bad-bunny-autumn-2024\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bad Bunny \u2013 Autumn 2024\" class=\"img\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-490-1152-768\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1380\/4\/1384874.jpg\" width=\"1152\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/gallery\/34126\/1\/bad-bunny-autumn-2024\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bad Bunny \u2013 Autumn 2024\" class=\"img\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-239-1152-768\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1380\/4\/1384868.jpg\" width=\"1152\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/gallery\/34126\/2\/bad-bunny-autumn-2024\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bad Bunny \u2013 Autumn 2024\" class=\"img\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-914-1152-768\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1380\/4\/1384865.jpg\" width=\"1152\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/gallery\/34126\/3\/bad-bunny-autumn-2024\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bad Bunny \u2013 Autumn 2024\" class=\"img\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-362-1152-768\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1380\/4\/1384869.jpg\" width=\"1152\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/gallery\/34126\/4\/bad-bunny-autumn-2024\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bad Bunny \u2013 Autumn 2024\" class=\"img\" height=\"1092\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-231-1638-1092\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1380\/4\/1384875.jpg\" width=\"1638\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-thumb\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/gallery\/34126\/5\/bad-bunny-autumn-2024\"><span class=\"has-css-custom-props image-container\" data-aspect-ratio-type=\"landscape\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Bad Bunny \u2013 Autumn 2024\" class=\"img\" height=\"1092\" src=\"https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/320\/0-319-1638-1092\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1380\/4\/1384876.jpg\" width=\"1638\"><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gallery-footer\">Gallery \/ 11 images<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>After his first reggaet\u00f3n track went viral on SoundCloud in 2016, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/tag\/bad-bunny\">Bad Bunny<\/a> left his job as a supermarket bagger and stepped into public view. With eccentric haircuts, painted nails, skirts, and fluorescent glasses, he disrupted the hyper-masculinity that defined the genre for decades: a body that didn\u2019<\/span><span>t ask for permission, and the attitude that later transformed him into a political icon. By 2018, the artist (real name Benito Antonio Mart\u00ednez Ocasio) was already Puerto Rico\u2019s biggest musical export; by 2019, the most influential singer in the Spanish-speaking market; and since 2020, the most listened-to artist in the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>However, even in Latin America, his own cultural territory, he has long been viewed with suspicion. Eurocentric criticism, also dominant in the Global South, never forgave reggaet\u00f3n for having transformed the body, desire and excess into political language. Middle-class, predominantly white listeners dismissed it as vulgar \u201cpornographic music\u201d, while early 00s critiques in Puerto Rican media went further, criminalising the genre for its aesthetics. Its detractors demanded a translated, sanitised version, reshaped to fit the dominant English-speaking values.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>To understand Bad Bunny\u2019s refusal to be softened or translated, you need to understand Puerto Rico: a territory shaped by its colonial condition, disguised as a \u201cCommonwealth\u201d by the US and exploited as a strategic and military enclave rather than a social equal. Lacking sovereignty and living under constant cultural scrutiny, the island developed an urgency of identity that runs through its music, where each genre becomes an act of resistance, a war of colour and sound fought through bodies, streets, and dance to keep Puerto Rican identity alive.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"SFKLTYwS9Fg\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SFKLTYwS9Fg\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>The recent celebration of Bad Bunny in the United States, including a Best Album of the Year win at the 2026 Grammys and his forthcoming headlining show at the Super Bowl, functions as the cultural turning point of a centenary identity struggle: the moment when Puerto Rico, and Latin America at large, ceases to justify itself or depend upon translation to be understood. The US is now the one forced to accept a Latin centrality that can no longer be ignored, domesticated or treated as secondary.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s a clear fracture. While Hispanic artists continue to dominate both US and global charts, Benito\u2019s Super Bowl performance also arrives in the middle of brutal ICE raids across the States, which disproportionately target Latino and Hispanic communities. It is in this context that Bad Bunny emerges as a figure who signals that this transition is forcing the United States to recognise itself as part of a broader, more diverse, and Spanish-speaking Am\u00e9rica (yes, with an accent).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Below, we break down nine key chapters from Bad Bunny\u2019s career that led him to become the profoundly anti-colonial voice that he is today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>2017 \u2013 \u201cCARO\u201d AND TOXIC MASCULINITY<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"bg64AFnRnkc\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bg64AFnRnkc\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>In a scene dominated by hypermasculine codes of trap and reggaet\u00f3n, Bad Bunny started making appearances wearing painted nails and dresses, without framing it as provocation or statement. The gesture mattered because it refused justification.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>This refusal was not improvised. From an early age, Benito had already learned to move outside the limits imposed on masculinity. He has recalled how some of his favourite moments with his mother were spent wandering through women\u2019s clothing sections in shopping malls, drawn to the colours, cuts, and combinations unavailable to him in men\u2019s fashion. \u201cWhen it was my turn to buy clothes, it was always the same jeans and shirts in different sizes. Women\u2019s clothing had freedom; men\u2019s didn\u2019t. There\u2019s definitely a double standard,\u201d he said in a 2021 interview with<em> Allure<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>SEPTEMBER 2018 \u2014 \u201cESTAMOS BIEN\u201d AND HURRICANE MAR\u00cdA\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"SIQXI0UuX8M\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SIQXI0UuX8M\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>\u201cA year after the hurricane, there are still people without electricity in their homes. More than 3,000 people died, and Trump is still in denial. But you know what? We\u2019re good, with or without $100 bills [&#8230;] And we\u2019re going to be even better, Puerto Rico.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Bad Bunny said these words during his first-ever appearance on US television performing \u201cEstamos Bien\u201d (\u201cWe\u2019re Good\u201d). Standing on the stage of <\/span><em><span>The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon<\/span><\/em><span>, he chose not to introduce himself with spectacle or gratitude, but with grief and accusation. He was preparing to release his debut studio album, <\/span><em><span>X 100PRE<\/span><\/em><span>, after nearly nine months of self-imposed silence, caused not only by the shock of sudden global fame, but by a historical rupture that reshaped Puerto Rico entirely: Hurricane Mar\u00eda.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The aftermath was devastating. More than 200,000 people were displaced. Entire regions of the island were left without electricity for months, some for over a year. The death toll, initially minimised by the US. government, would later be confirmed to be in the thousands.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>DECEMBER 2018 \u2013 \u201cSOLO DE M\u00cd\u201d AND GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"7rbprAR_Reg\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7rbprAR_Reg\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>\u201cSolo de M\u00ed\u201d is a song that directly confronts one of the most pressing issues in Latin American society: violence against women. <\/span><span>In the video, a woman faces the camera in a fixed shot while visual effects simulate the appearance of bruises and wounds as she sings. By the end, she wipes away the marks and goes out to a club to dance with friends, a gesture of resistance. The lyrics deliver a clear message: \u201c<em>I\u2019m not yours, nor anyone else\u2019s. I belong only to myself<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Bad Bunny introduced the song on Instagram, emphasising that it was meant as a protest against gender-based violence and the intolerable number of women killed every month: \u201cLess violence, more <\/span><em><span>perreo [reggaeton traditional dance, similar to twerking]<\/span><\/em><span> (and if she wants to, let her dance alone and don\u2019t bother her)\u201d. Later, in <\/span><em><span>Rolling Stone<\/span><\/em><span>, he added: \u201cAs a human being, violence against women affects me. I will do everything I can to fight it. My message should not be seen as feminist, but as universal\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>2019 &#8211; \u201cAFILANDO LOS CUCHILLOS\u201d AND CRITICISING CORRUPTION\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"RSh7HIH2pvg\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RSh7HIH2pvg\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>On January 10, 2019, alongside fellow Puerto Rican rapper Residente, Bad Bunny stood outside La Fortaleza, the governor\u2019s residence, demanding accountability for a wave of violence ravaging the island. Puerto Rico had already recorded dozens of murders in the first days of the year, including the fatal shooting of openly gay trap artist Kevin Fret, and both artists used social media to document their attempt to be heard.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u00a0<\/span><span>Denied entry, they spoke to guards, critiqued plans to close hundreds of schools, and condemned a \u201cprehistoric\u201d educational system incompatible with younger generations. Eventually, public pressure, amplified by millions online, finally forced Rosell\u00f3 to meet with them. The meeting produced no real change and requests for follow-ups were ignored.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Later that year, in the wake of leaked Telegram messages exposing racism, sexism and homophobia within Rosell\u00f3\u2019s government, Bad Bunny joined protestors on the streets. Amid the uprising, Bad Bunny and Residente recorded and released music that openly criticised Rosell\u00f3\u2019s corruption and complicity in the scandal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>When Rosell\u00f3 finally announced his resignation on July 24, the streets erupted, not with solemn anthems but with reggaet\u00f3n. The main theme was \u201cTe Bot\u00e9\u201d, a hit popularised by Bad Bunny\u2019s line, which literally means \u201cI kicked you out of my life\u201d: Puerto Ricans celebrated their own refusal to endure corruption while recognising Benito\u2019s role not as a detached pop star, but as a visible participant in their struggle.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>2020 &#8211; \u201cYO PERREO SOLA\u201d AND TRANS RIGHTS<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"GtSRKwDCaZM\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GtSRKwDCaZM\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>During his second appearance on <\/span><em><span>The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon<\/span><\/em><span>, Bad Bunny wore a skirt, diamond earrings, a pink blazer, and a T-shirt reading: \u201cThey killed Alexa, not a man in a skirt.\u201d The message referred to the murder of Alexa Neulisa Luciano Ruiz, a trans woman killed in Puerto Rico just days earlier after being targeted for using the women\u2019s restroom at a McDonald\u2019s in Toa Baja.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>At the time, media outlets and police reports repeatedly misgendered Alexa, reducing her identity to sensationalist and transphobic language: \u201ca man in a skirt\u201d. Bad Bunny\u2019s intervention cut through that erasure with a sentence worn on the body, broadcast live on American television.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>A month later, that stance shifted from mourning to assertion with \u201cYo Perreo Sola\u201d, where Bad Bunny appears in drag, singing from the perspective of a woman who wants to dance alone, unbothered, unclaimed. The video ends with a clear directive: \u201cIf she doesn\u2019t want to dance with you, respect it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>2022 &#8211; \u201cEL APAG\u00d3N\u201d AND THE BLACKOUT<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"1TCX_Aqzoo4\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1TCX_Aqzoo4\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>In 2022, Bad Bunny\u2019s fourth album <\/span><em><span>Un Verano Sin Ti<\/span><\/em><span> became the most-streamed album of the year on Spotify (and, later, of all time). Rather than diluting his political stance, this level of commercial success made it impossible to ignore. One standout song from the project,\u00a0<\/span><span>\u201cEl Apag\u00f3n\u201d, radiates particular pride in belonging to the island.<\/span><span>\u00a0Its final section, driven by hard techno, shifts perspective to a woman singing openly against the gentrification of the island: \u201c<em>I don\u2019t want to leave here, they should be the ones to go \/ This is my beach, this is my sun, this is my land, this is who I am.<\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Six months after the album\u2019s release, Benito chose to expand the song\u2019s message through its visuals. What emerged was a documentary exceeding 20 minutes. <\/span><span>Through testimonies from residents, activists, and journalists, \u201cEl Apag\u00f3n\u201d links everyday precarity, the collapse of basic services, and the inability to remain in one\u2019s own neighbourhood to a colonial economic model that treats the island as a commodity. Privatised beaches, tax laws designed to benefit US investors, and communities pushed out in the name of development.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>2024 &#8211; \u201cMOSCOW MULE\u201d AND PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"p38WgakuYDo\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/p38WgakuYDo\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>Despite repeatedly speaking out against internal and external forces that have harmed Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny had largely avoided direct intervention in the island\u2019s electoral politics.<\/span><span> \u201cPuerto Rico has given an organic endorsement,\u201d Bad Bunny told thousands at a public rally in 2024. \u201cIt\u2019s you, the people of Puerto Rico, who have made it clear that on November 5th, we must vote for Juan Dalmau and the Alianza.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Dalmau ran as the candidate of a new third-party coalition that united the Puerto Rican Independence Party with the Citizens\u2019 Victory Movement, a political force founded in 2019 that sought to break with decades of partisan stagnation. Together, they advocated for the full independence of Puerto Rico from the US, and, with Bad Bunny\u2019s endorsement, the independence movement became the country\u2019s second-largest political force for the first time in history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>2025 &#8211; \u201cNO ME QUIERO IR DE AQUI\u201d AND THE US MARKET\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"KU5V5WZVcVE\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/KU5V5WZVcVE\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>The release of his album <\/span><em><span>Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s<\/span><\/em><em><span>Fotos<\/span><\/em><span> became an instant landmark in Latin American music. <\/span><span>Yet the celebration unfolded against a shifting political backdrop: the re-election of Donald Trump and the renewed force of an openly anti-Hispanic agenda in the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>When Bad Bunny announced his world tour, one detail immediately stood out. The schedule included 46 stadium dates across the globe and an additional 31 shows in Puerto Rico, but none in the continental United States. <\/span><span>\u201cThere were many reasons why I didn\u2019t show up in the US, and none of them were out of hate,\u201d he explained. \u201cThe problem was that ICE could literally be outside the concerts. That was something we talked about and were deeply concerned about.\u201d He later added a line that landed as a quiet dismissal of a market long considered the most important in the world: performing in the United States, he suggested, \u201chad become unnecessary\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The decision aligned seamlessly with the album\u2019s broader argument, Spanish-speakers no longer asking for permission, and Puerto Rico no longer positioning itself around US validation. More than 600,000 people attended Bad Bunny\u2019s residency, generating an estimated $700 million for the island\u2019s economy.<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><span>2026 &#8211; THE GRAMMYS AND ICE<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"src-youtube video-container embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"media-youtube\" data-id=\"hhvdOTvdpjs\"><span class=\"preserve-aspect-ratio\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen frameborder height=\"422\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hhvdOTvdpjs\" webkitallowfullscreen width=\"750\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<div class=\"embed-content\" data-embed-type=\"raw-html\">\n<p><span>2026 was the first time Bad Bunny won a Grammy in the \u2018big three\u2019 categories at the ceremony, crystallising his position at the top of the musical mainstream. <\/span><span>True to the spirit of <\/span><em><span>DtMF<\/span><\/em><span>, Bad Bunny remained accountable in his acceptance speech for album of the year:\u00a0 \u201cICE out. We are not savages, we are not animals, we are not aliens; we are human,\u201d he declared defiantly before calling on Latin Americans: \u201cIf we are going to fight, we have to do it with love. Let&#8217;s not hate them, but let&#8217;s love our people, our family, our culture.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>It\u2019s in view of all of this that Bad Bunny\u2019s upcoming Super Bowl performance emerges as particularly significant. It speaks to a future in which Latin music, and Spanish, cease to ask for permission. The world will dance this weekend, but it will also have to learn how to listen without translation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Bad Bunny performs at the Super Bowl LX Halftime show this Sunday (February 8).<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"newsletter-inline-last\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-small\">\n<div class=\"inner\">\n<h1 class=\"newsletter-title\">Escape the algorithm! Get The Drop<\/h1>\n<div class=\"meta-row\">\n<p class=\"meta\">Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"confirmation\" aria-live=\"polite\">\n<p class=\"confirmation-title\">Thank you. You have been subscribed<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/privacy-policy\" class=\"meta-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\nPrivacy policy<br \/>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[analyse_source url=&#8221;https:\/\/www.dazeddigital.com\/music\/article\/69572\/1\/bad-bunny-became-political-icon-super-bowl-lx-ice-puerto-rico-trump-us&#8221;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[analyse_image type=&#8221;featured&#8221; src=&#8221;https:\/\/images-prod.dazeddigital.com\/1200\/azure\/dazed-prod\/1430\/6\/1436546.jpg&#8221;] Photo by ERIC ROJAS\/AFP via Getty Images February\u00a0 6,\u00a0 2026 Music \/ Feature Music \/ Feature How Bad Bunny became a political icon Ahead of his highly anticipated Super Bowl LX performance, we revisit nine key moments that led the reggaet\u00f3n star to become the profoundly anti-colonial voice he is today February\u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,76],"class_list":["post-1758784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-dazeddigital-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1758784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758784\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1758784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1758784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1758784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}