Bad Bunny: Who and what is behind this musical phenomenon?

BarcelonaJulio Iglesias, Luis Miguel, Shakira, Juan Gabriel, Ricky Martin. There's a long list of Latin singers who have racked up staggering sums of money over the last half-century, especially in the United States. Of course, while the numbers have been unmitigated, they haven't always enjoyed the prestige of their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. It took a new generation and the era of urban music to break down the cultural barriers and prejudices that had historically held them back. Of this new crop, the first to unite a massive, universal, and cross-cutting audience with specialized critics is Bad Bunny.

The Puerto Rican is not only an artist adored by connoisseurs, he's also achieved a milestone that until recently was unthinkable, regardless of the genre: selling 600,000 tickets in record time for his twelve concerts scheduled for next year in Madrid and Barcelona. If we were to make extreme calculations: if all attendees at these shows were Spanish, 1.28% of the state's population would see Bad Bunny live in the spring of 2026. That's how massive his fame and cultural influence are. But who and what is behind this phenomenon?

Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, in 1994, is the real name of this contemporary genius. The son of a truck driver and a public school teacher, before becoming one of the great icons of the 21st century, Bad Bunny, who gets his name from a bunny costume his parents bought him when he was a child, didn't grow up in a wealthy family or with artistic aspirations. His life went on relatively normally until 2016, when, as an audiovisual communication student and occasional supermarket bagger, he got the opportunity he'd been waiting for.

A viral hit

His beginning is a carbon copy of other artists with great musical careers in recent years, such as Billie Eilish and Lil Nas X. They are artists who managed to make a song go viral out of nowhere, without sponsors or a promotional platform behind them. Until then, Benito was just a music fan who published songs on SoundCloud independently, as thousands of young people do every day around the world. But unlike most people, he hit the target. At the beginning of that year, he published the song that would change his life forever, Tell themThis single, close to the trap sounds that were then experiencing their greatest moment, spread quickly across the internet and caught the attention of producer DJ Luian, who history will remember as its great discoverer.

Once established, and taking advantage of the booming context of Latin music paired with urban genres—reggaeton, trap, pop—his career has been dazzling. When someone rises so high and so quickly, they must have extraordinary talent, a fact amply demonstrated by Bad Bunny, who has applied the originality and ingenuity demonstrated in his songs to his business decisions, never hasty or erratic. Following the success of that debut, he managed to enter the charts with a new single, I'm a Pitjor, in which J Balvin, Ozuna and Arcángel ended up collaborating. A year later, in 2018, it was the turn of the first world number 1 with And like It, sung with Cardy B and J Balvin. It was the beginning of a long list. That same year he released X 100pre, the first album, which already features Drake, a global star and a huge reference in North America.

Established as a world-class artist, Bad Bunny was part of the Sónar festival lineup in Barcelona, ​​but the best was yet to come: between 2020 and 2025 he released four albums –YHLQMDLG, A summer without you, Nobody knows what will happen tomorrow. and I SHOULD TAKE MORE PICTURES– which became number 1 in the United States and Spain. This industry dominance and his influence on everything he touches have made him the most important non-English-speaking male artist in the world today. Bad Bunny turns everything he touches into gold and makes every release an event. He's also one of the most well-connected men in the world, as his circle of friends includes everyone from the Kardashians (he was Kendall Jenner's partner) to Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, LeBron James, and Kylian Mbappé.

On the musical side, Bad Bunny is a prodigy of modern song, a creator on par with any other legendary composer and the author of some of the best choruses of recent years. The Puerto Rican has managed to broaden the spectrum of urban music and adapt it to the most skeptical, all while building a truly unique universe based on pop songs sung with a very distinctive voice and lyrics that speak exactly to how and what today's youth want. Furthermore, he has unhesitatingly confronted the classism that has historically accompanied reggaeton and Latin music, viewed by a segment of white society as a lesser genre. Martínez Ocasio has managed to transcend prejudices and genres. "I'm not an urban artist, I'm a universal artist," he has said. This is the meaning of his latest album, a not-so-disguised nod to the legendary New York salsa label Fania Records and the singers Willie Colón and Héctor Lavoe. Benito has crossed all the boundaries of urban music to create the most transversal Latin pop of today.

The artist of the 21st century

In 2020, when Bad Bunny was already one of the most relevant musicians of the moment, after publishing YHLQMDLG, the cultural supplement of New York Times He dedicated an interview to him that, according to the author, Carina del Valle Schorske, lasted more than six hours. And the thing is, he always has a lot to say. The journalist alerted the reader from the first line: "Bad Bunny has come to dominate global pop on his own terms." But what are his terms? Music aside, in which the wind has turned out to be in his favor, one of his strengths has been the fact that he has a public image that is canonical with what the audience demands.

Although he has not escaped accusations of misogyny for some of his writing, Martínez Ocasio has been a reference for what is known as new masculinities. Not only has he openly denounced machismo within the genre and the industry, but he has also known how to engage in self-reflection -"I get jealous for no reason and that's sexism.", sings in A summer without you– and break away from an aesthetic that is too prevalent within the urban genre. Benito wears a skirt, paints his nails, and unreservedly denounces transphobia and toxic gender relations. This type of stance connects him directly with Generation Z and has made him a reference point beyond music. In fact, these days, after so many disappointments, it seems necessary to know that our idols are more or less clean to rest easy. Among artists with a reputation for misogynism or racism like J Balvin, Maluma, and Nicky Jam, Bad Bunny has been articulating an open, committed, coherent, and contemporary discourse.

Furthermore, taking a political stand is absolutely necessary to be a global artist today. Locally, he was one of the artists who raised the flag against Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló. It wasn't enough for him to have participated in the citizen mobilizations calling for his resignation, so when he finally folded, he wrote a song to celebrate it with Residente (Calle 13). He didn't become too friendly with the next leader either, quite the opposite: he was a constant headache for Pedro Pierluisi, who was publicly vilified by Benito, who didn't hesitate to sing "I don't want to leave here, let them leave" in the song The blackoutAside from his hatred of the Puerto Rican New Progressive Party and the colonial status of his home, he has been an outspoken opponent of Catholic conservatism and criticized Donald Trump on NBC's Jimmy Fallon show.

A global phenomenon

In the midst of 2025, the concept of a generalist artist has given way to those with large niches. While we obviously have well-known pop stars—The Weeknd, Miley Cyrus, Bruno Mars, Lady Gaga—it's hard to find figures who are universally known in every corner of the planet. What new artists are as popular across the board and internationally as Michael Jackson and Madonna were in the 1990s? Aside from some icons from other generations—Bruce Springsteen, Coldplay, Beyoncé—probably only Taylor Swift has that reach these levels these days. Bad Bunny's merit lies in being an artist who's coming close. And it's even more special because he doesn't sing in English.

Bad Bunny has already surpassed 100 million monthly listeners on Spotify several times, and is often one of the three most-loved artists worldwide. On the streaming platform, Benito was the first Spanish-speaking artist to be number 1 for three consecutive years. Compared to other undisputed names, his World's Hottest Tour, from two years ago, was the highest-grossing tour globally that year: it surpassed artists like Ed Sheeran and Coldplay and became the most lucrative ever for a Latin artist in the United States, with more than $88 million.

In this new way of understanding musical consumption and the repositioning of the status of the popular musician, absolutely fragmented, Bad Bunny has managed to sweep everything away and become an artist who is breaking records and managing to be the definitive Latin artist.

That said, even today, despite everything and with so much data in his favor, it is not difficult to come across comments of contempt towards him and his work for the fact of making urban music and doing it in Puerto Rican Spanish. Martínez Ocasio sings proudly New York -instead of New York- and veldá -instead of TRUE–. If you've reached the end of this text and you're one of those people who hasn't yet entered Bad Bunny's universe, the advice I would give you would be, above all, to listen to him. And to listen with your ears wide open. The times they are a-changin, as he said.