Bad Bunny
Bad Bunny (born March 10, 1994, San Juan, Puerto Rico) is a Puerto Rican singer and songwriter who helped bring reggaeton and trap music to a wider audience. His urban music style also incorporated other genres, including rock, punk, and soul.
He began singing when he was young, and he chose his stage name, Bad Bunny, after sharing an online picture of himself as a child wearing a bunny suit and having a grumpy expression on his face. He created a Twitter account under that name, and it stuck as he began to gain fame. Bad Bunny attended the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo, where he took audiovisual communication classes. At night he worked on his music, which centers on reggaeton and trap music. The former is a type of Spanish-language rap blended with reggae, while the latter focuses on urban problems, such as drugs and violence, and uses synthesized snare drums and cymbals to produce an energetic beat.
Bad Bunny began posting songs at SoundCloud, an international audio platform through which subscribers can share music. Puerto Rican music producer DJ Luian discovered Bad Bunny’s “Diles” (“Tell Them”) and in 2016 signed him to the label Hear This Music. Bad Bunny became famous almost immediately with “Soy peor” (“I’m Worse”). In 2017 he released more singles, both on his own and in collaboration with other artists. Of particular note was “Sensualidad” (“Sensuality”), featuring Bad Bunny, Colombian singer J Balvin, and American-born Dominican singer Prince Royce.
In 2018 Bad Bunny collaborated with Cardi B and Balvin on “I Like It.” Bad Bunny raps in both Spanish and English in the song, which reached number one on the Billboard Top 100 and introduced Bad Bunny to a wider audience in the United States. Later that year he worked with Drake on “Mía” (“Mine”), which reached number five on the Billboard Top 100. With his popularity soaring, Bad Bunny released his first studio album, X 100PRE, at the end of 2018; the title is an abbreviation for por siempre, or “forever.” Containing “Mía” as well as 14 other songs, the album is a mix of various genres, including pop-punk, hip-hop, electro, and dembow (a Jamaican musical rhythm).
In 2019 Bad Bunny and Balvin released the joint album Oasis, a fusion of Spanish, Latin American, African, and other beats. In early February 2020 Bad Bunny performed during the Super Bowl halftime show. Later that month he released YHLQMDLG (an acronym for Yo hago lo que me da la gana, or “I do whatever I want”), an album of party songs that was a critical and commercial success. Bad Bunny earned his first Grammy Award when YHLQMDLG won for best Latin pop or urban album. In late 2020 he released his third solo album, El último tour del mundo (“The Last World Tour”). It became the first Spanish-language album to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 chart, and the recording won the Grammy for best música urbana album. Bad Bunny’s success continued with Un verano sin ti (2022; “A Summer Without You”), which also debuted at number one. As with his previous works, the album featured a blend of various genres, and a number of the songs were collaborations with independent artists. It earned Bad Bunny his second Grammy for best música urbana album as well as several Latin Grammy Awards.
In addition to his music, Bad Bunny was also known for his arresting looks on the red carpet. This made him a fitting choice to cochair (alongside Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Lopez, and Zendaya) the 2024 Met Gala, the annual benefit for the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.