It’s 11:30 p.m. on October 12, and the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is packed. More than 16,000 Bad Bunny superfans have gathere d to become the first people on the planet to hear their hometown hero’s new album. Nobody knows what to expect.
Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is a boundary-defying artist whose previous four studio albums have spanned hip-hop, reggaeton, Latin pop, Puerto Rican trap and Mexican country music. Tonight’s crowd embodies that vast spectrum: Hundreds are dressed in the white T-shirts and flat-brimmed blue caps from his recent song “Un Preview.” Others sport the cowboy hats from “Where She Goes.” Many simply wear bunny ears. “I listened to a lot of salsa on my dad’s side, lots of ballads and merengue on my mom’s side. But being a ’90s kid, reggaeton and rap too,” says Bad Bunny in an interview in his native Spanish. “There’s lots of artists from different genres, countries and times that I feel are within me.”
If there’s one constant about Bad Bunny, who is 29, it’s that whatever he creates becomes a worldwide hit. Over the last three years, the alumnus of the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list has been Spotify’s most-streamed artist, with 35.9 billion plays. His YouTube channel has attracted more than 32 billion views—more than those of Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran and, yes, Taylor Swift. He has won three Grammys and 11 Latin Grammys. In April, he made history as the first Latin artist to headline the Coachella music festival.
And he’s done it all while singing solely in Spanish. “Spanish is part of me, it’s in my DNA,” he says. “I like speaking it wherever I go—not to force it on people, but because it’s who I am.”
It has made him extremely wealthy. Last year, Bad Bunny earned an estimated $88 million (pretax) from world tours, billions of streams and high-profile brand deals with the likes of Adidas and Corona. That performance was good enough for a debut in the No. 10 spot on Forbes’ HighestPaid Entertainers list. “It’s not about the money all the time,” he says about how he picks partners. “It’s about how much I love the brand and how much they’re going to respect my creativity.”
Back in the arena, the audience explodes as Bad Bunny descends from the ceiling, perched atop a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. Tonight, the musician is wearing a fitted burgundy suit with a white button-down shirt open halfway. His face is covered in a mask reminiscent of Spiderman’s, but black with glowing red eyes. “I’m very shy about playing new songs that haven’t been released yet,” he says. He hits play on his iPhone and the listening party for his album Nadie Sabe lo que va a Pasar Mañana (No One Knows What Will Happen Tomorrow) erupts.
Despite not knowing any of the lyrics, the crowd screams and dances to the new tracks. Bad Bunny doesn’t sing, save for the two songs from the album that he released earlier in the year. His face remains shrouded until after the clock hits midnight, whereupon he pulls off his mask to reveal his new buzz cut, which, like the new album, pays homage to the early trap-style music that first shot him to global fame.
Bad Bunny is the archetype of a modern pop idol—a truly global artist who harnesses the vast reach of streaming services and social media to deliver what was once regional music to billions of listeners. “He has a finger on the pulse of culture like no one else,” says Jeremy Erlich, Spotify’s head of music. “He’s dictating what culture becomes.”
Streaming is making the world smaller. Over the last five years, Spotify has seen a 170% surge in streams of Latin music, a genre that—along with other styles including West African Afrobeats and K-pop—has hooked hundreds of millions of new listeners thanks to viral memes on Instagram and TikTok and streaming services like Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music. Says Spotify’s Erlich: “The historic Anglo dominance of music is getting broken down at a crazy pace.”
Bad Bunny hasn’t limited himself to music. Earlier this year, he appeared in the Amazon Prime film Cassandro. In October, he did double duty as the host and musical guest of Saturday Night Live. A digital v...
Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is a boundary-defying artist whose previous four studio albums have spanned hip-hop, reggaeton, Latin pop, Puerto Rican trap and Mexican country music. Tonight’s crowd embodies that vast spectrum: Hundreds are dressed in the white T-shirts and flat-brimmed blue caps from his recent song “Un Preview.” Others sport the cowboy hats from “Where She Goes.” Many simply wear bunny ears. “I listened to a lot of salsa on my dad’s side, lots of ballads and merengue on my mom’s side. But being a ’90s kid, reggaeton and rap too,” says Bad Bunny in an interview in his native Spanish. “There’s lots of artists from different genres, countries and times that I feel are within me.”
If there’s one constant about Bad Bunny, who is 29, it’s that whatever he creates becomes a worldwide hit. Over the last three years, the alumnus of the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 list has been Spotify’s most-streamed artist, with 35.9 billion plays. His YouTube channel has attracted more than 32 billion views—more than those of Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran and, yes, Taylor Swift. He has won three Grammys and 11 Latin Grammys. In April, he made history as the first Latin artist to headline the Coachella music festival.
And he’s done it all while singing solely in Spanish. “Spanish is part of me, it’s in my DNA,” he says. “I like speaking it wherever I go—not to force it on people, but because it’s who I am.”
It has made him extremely wealthy. Last year, Bad Bunny earned an estimated $88 million (pretax) from world tours, billions of streams and high-profile brand deals with the likes of Adidas and Corona. That performance was good enough for a debut in the No. 10 spot on Forbes’ HighestPaid Entertainers list. “It’s not about the money all the time,” he says about how he picks partners. “It’s about how much I love the brand and how much they’re going to respect my creativity.”
Back in the arena, the audience explodes as Bad Bunny descends from the ceiling, perched atop a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. Tonight, the musician is wearing a fitted burgundy suit with a white button-down shirt open halfway. His face is covered in a mask reminiscent of Spiderman’s, but black with glowing red eyes. “I’m very shy about playing new songs that haven’t been released yet,” he says. He hits play on his iPhone and the listening party for his album Nadie Sabe lo que va a Pasar Mañana (No One Knows What Will Happen Tomorrow) erupts.
Despite not knowing any of the lyrics, the crowd screams and dances to the new tracks. Bad Bunny doesn’t sing, save for the two songs from the album that he released earlier in the year. His face remains shrouded until after the clock hits midnight, whereupon he pulls off his mask to reveal his new buzz cut, which, like the new album, pays homage to the early trap-style music that first shot him to global fame.
Bad Bunny is the archetype of a modern pop idol—a truly global artist who harnesses the vast reach of streaming services and social media to deliver what was once regional music to billions of listeners. “He has a finger on the pulse of culture like no one else,” says Jeremy Erlich, Spotify’s head of music. “He’s dictating what culture becomes.”
Streaming is making the world smaller. Over the last five years, Spotify has seen a 170% surge in streams of Latin music, a genre that—along with other styles including West African Afrobeats and K-pop—has hooked hundreds of millions of new listeners thanks to viral memes on Instagram and TikTok and streaming services like Spotify, Pandora and Apple Music. Says Spotify’s Erlich: “The historic Anglo dominance of music is getting broken down at a crazy pace.”
Bad Bunny hasn’t limited himself to music. Earlier this year, he appeared in the Amazon Prime film Cassandro. In October, he did double duty as the host and musical guest of Saturday Night Live. A digital v...
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Forbes (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 2023 - January 2024