Bad Bunny: from the boy who suffered 'bullying' to the man who embraces all noble causes

BarcelonaAlthough everyone now knows who Bad Bunny is, few know him. Even though half the world can say his real name from start to finish, few know the details that define the life of Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, a singer who had been a global hit for a long time but who, after turning the Super Bowl halftime show into the most beautiful rally of all time, is now much more than an artist. The interpreter of Tití me preguntó has been a symbol for the Latino community worldwide since this week. Especially for the more popular classes, from which he has never forgotten. As the best meme that Latinos spread on social media after seeing how Martínez had made the entire USA sing in Spanish for 13 minutes said: "Simón Bolívar could never". And for people from Latin America to say that means Bad Bunny has well and truly crossed the threshold that separates an artist from an icon.

Bad Bunny, whose name comes from dressing up as a rabbit for a school activity as a child, has never forgotten where he comes from, even though at just 31 years old he already has an estimated fortune of $100 million. The son of a truck driver and a teacher, the artist candidly revealed in an interview in early February: "My father was a truck driver, I only had a pair of shoes, there were needs, but in my home, affection was never lacking." That boy from the Almirante Sur neighborhood in the Puerto Rican municipality of Vega Baja still lives within the artist, who has supported all the noble causes he has encountered along the way since his beginnings. This, which many do when they have no influence and then stop doing when they are already known because they want to get advertising contracts, is very commendable considering the current political climate, hotter than ever with Donald Trump always as a backdrop. In fact, his political commitment has always pitted him against the orange president, both in his first term and in his second, when it reached its peak by sponsoring an halftime show of the Super Bowl as an alternative solely to boycott Martínez's.

"The first musical memory I have is buying records by catalog. My mother had a lot of music, she let me choose one or two, and I liked to play with them. I liked drawing, painting, writing stories. I was very artistic when I was little," he explained in the aforementioned interview, in which he celebrated having "had a beautiful childhood." "I lived with both my parents; thanks to God, they are still alive," recalled the artist shortly before reaching the pinnacle of pop, performing on the most-watched music show in the world after Eurovision. Surely, the boy who sang in the choir of his town's church would never have imagined it.

His 2016

If Bad Bunny had joined Instagram's trend of the past month by posting photos of himself from 2016, one of the ones he would have had to post is of him working in a supermarket or another recording music at home to upload to SoundCloud when he left university, where he studied audiovisual communication. It was then that his song Diles went viral on that platform, and a producer gave him his first opportunity, which allowed him to start collaborating with other Latin artists until he reached his first major solo hit: Soy peor. Shortly after came a huge hit – number 1 on Billboard – with none other than Cardi B and Drake: I like it. This would be followed by his first studio album, X 100pre, which would win the Latin Grammy for best urban music album of the year and entered Rolling Stone's ranking of the 500 greatest albums of all time. His successes continued in crescendo until he was chosen by JLo and Shakira to appear with them at the 2020 Super Bowl halftime show, which the US establishment forced them to share despite being two Latin female icons with their own identity.

His subsequent albums began to move away from themes of love and desire, as do most songs in his genre, to embark on deeper and more intimate topics, as well as more social issues. The latest, Debí tirar más fotos, is perhaps the most representative in this regard thanks to the song that Martínez ceded to Ricky Martin for this week's show: Lo que le pasó a Hawaii, which laments the Americanization of Puerto Rican culture and the gentrification of his beloved island at the hands of mass tourism.

Committed outside the stage too

This social tone of Martínez was not only attached to his artistic facet but also to his personal facet. When he was starting out, in 2017, he already raised his voice against the US government's neglect in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, one of the most destructive in the modern history of the Caribbean, hit the island. The t-shirt he wore for the concert held to raise funds for the island's reconstruction – with the slogan dedicated to Trump "¿Tú eres tuitero o presidente?"” – is still remembered and applauded. His aesthetic, often filled with elements traditionally considered feminine such as painted or prosthetic nails, dyed hair, skirts, very flashy jewelry, and an approach to fashion that has led him to be invited to none other than the Met Gala, where he appeared with a jíbaro style hat, the most famous in Puerto Rico, has also always been applauded. His aesthetic, often described as queer friendly, is one of his most visible causes, perhaps because far from surrendering to those who bullied him as a child for being overweight and for his aesthetic, he has decided to always campaign for freedom of expression, also in stylistic matters. If any child finds themselves in his situation today, they have a role model to emulate.

In 2019, he also stood with the Puerto Ricans who took to the streets to protest against Ricardo Rosselló, the island's governor, whose misogynistic chats had surfaced, pointing to the politician's corruption. The murder of transgender woman Alexa Ruiz also did not go unnoticed, whose dignity he defended with a t-shirt with the slogan: "They killed Alexa, not a man in a skirt." In fact, continuing in this vein, he advocated for female empowerment in the video clip Yo perreo sola, where he appeared dressed more femininely than ever. Subsequently, he has also raised his voice to support the Black Lives Matter movement and has published a short film in which filmmaker Jacobo Morales dialogues with the sapo concho – an endemic toad of Puerto Rico in danger of extinction – about the island's problems. In his Super Bowl show – which many now only feel like calling Super Tazón – the adorable sapo concho also had its singular presence on the giant screens.

Discreet, despite everything

Despite all the media attention he has received, Martínez has managed to maintain a certain privacy. The least he managed was when he was dating Kendall Jenner, the Kardashian sister and model. They shared moments together in public between 2023 and 2024. Perhaps the fact that Jenner lives off her life was what deactivated the relationship of Bad Bunny, who has had two Puerto Rican girlfriends with whom he has lasted a long time. The first was Carliz de la Cruz Hernández, one of his first known relationships, which lasted from 2011 to 2017. His university years. His relationship with jewelry designer Gabriela Berlingeri, with whom he shared a somewhat fluctuating relationship between 2017 and 2022, was also not short.

Martínez, the eldest of three siblings, is a family person who carries his family history into his artistic life. This week, the number 64 printed on the Zara t-shirt he chose for the show generated a lot of intrigue. It has finally been revealed that it is the birth year of his uncle Cutito, his mother's brother. He says he learned everything he knows about American football from him, and he dedicated the performance to him. The man died suddenly two years ago without the singer being able to take him to see a Super Bowl live, his dream. The kiss he threw into the air at the beginning of the performance was for him. The surname on the t-shirt was his mother's. It seems that from the musical Olympus of the mainstream, Bad Bunny had a thought for everyone. Even for the sapo concho. A memorable performance by a memorable character whom it will be delightful to continue watching navigate pop life. Thinking about all he still has to say and the way he will find to say it is a ray of light in the midst of the era of darkness.