Beyond Grammy wins: How Bad Bunny is making history in the music industry
Bad Bunny’s DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS made history as the first ever Spanish-language LP to win Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards.
Bad Bunny has become the first artist to win Album of the Year at the Grammy Awards with an all Spanish-language record, a historic moment not only for his career, but for Latin music.
But the 31-year-old Puerto Rican artist started making history in the music industry long before this milestone.
The winning record DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS is the most personal and intense project of his career.
Bad Bunny - whose real name is Benito Ocasio - was brave enough to release a political album at a time when the Latin American community is facing a difficult moment amid anti-immigration policies in the United States.
With this release, he fully embraced his Latino identity and celebrated Puerto Rico while challenging the definition of “America” as synonymous with the United States. Benito, instead, reclaims the real definition as “America” being the whole continent that includes Latin America and its people.
Released a year ago, the album was an intense hit with 36.95 million streams on Spotify on release day, another landmark in his career. His previous album, Un Verano Sin Ti, is the most-streamed album ever on the platform.
Beyond numbers and recognition, Benito placed international focus on Puerto Rico and on the problems faced by its people.
The track TURiSTA (tourist in English) is a social critique of tourism in Puerto Rico.
Benito sings: “In my life you were a tourist. You only saw the best of me and not what I suffered.”
On LO QUE LE PASO A HAWAii, he urges Puerto Ricans to protect the island and to hold onto their identity and culture amid the influence of the United States.
The chorus says: “They want to take away the river and also the beach, they want my neighborhood and grandma to leave. Don’t let go of the flag nor forget the lelolai, because I don't want them to do to you what happened to Hawaii.”
Bad Bunny’s major Grammy wins also give more space to other Latin artists and genres.
When he received the award, he made a political speech, supporting immigrants and praising love against hate.
He said: “Before I say thanks to God, I’m going to say, ICE out.
“We’re not savages, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.
“I wanna say to the people: I know it's tough not to hate these days, and I was thinking sometimes we get contaminado (contaminated, in English).
"We have to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love. We don't hate them. We love our people, we love our family, and that's the way to do it - with love. Don't forget that, please.
"Thank you. Thank you, God, and thank you to the Grammys."
Bad Bunny will make history once again next week, when he becomes the first artist to sing primarily in Spanish during his Super Bowl halftime show.
