Bad Bunny came close to making history at the 65th Grammy Awards on Sunday with his album «Un Verano Sin Ti.»
“Un Verano Sin Ti” was about to become the first Spanish-language album to win the top prize in Recording Academy history, before losing to Harry Styles for his album “Harry’s House”.
Also nominated for ABBA album of the year were Adele, Beyoncé, Mary J. Blige, Brandi Carlile, Coldplay, Kendrick Lamar and Lizzo and Harry Styles.
But Bad Bunny didn’t go home empty-handed. “Un Verano Sin Ti” won an award for best urban music album, beating out Latin urban music legend Daddy Yankee, as well as Farruko, Maluma and Rauw Alejandro.
The artist also lit up the Grammy stage with his opening performance. Bad Bunny recreated iconic scenes from Puerto Rico’s most famous street festival known as Las Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián with the folkloric sound of bomba and plena.
The medley included parts of his song «El Apagón,» which infuses Puerto Rican folk rhythms with electronic dance music, and his energetic mambo track «Después de la playa.»
Dancing with Bad Bunny were the «big heads». Traditionally, the artists of Las Fiestas de Calle San Sebastián wear costumes with giant heads, which represent historical figures that have contributed to Puerto Rican culture.
Artists from the Puerto Rican art collective Agua Sol y Sereno dressed as reggaeton pioneer Tego Calderón, poet Julia De Burgos, salsa singer Andy Montañez, music composer Tite Curet Alonso, women’s rights activist Lola Rodríguez de Tió, Major League Baseball player Roberto Clemente and musician Ismael «Maelo» Rivera.
Bad Bunny was also nominated for best pop solo performance with «Moscow Mule,» the opening song that sets the tone for «A Summer Without You.» Adele finally won in that category with her hit «Easy On Me.»
“Un Verano Sin Ti” was a critically acclaimed album that debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart upon its release and spent 13 non-consecutive weeks at the top of the chart. most weeks at No. 1 since 2016.
«Un Verano Sin Ti,» Bad Bunny’s fourth studio album, was only the second Spanish-language album to top that chart. The first was Bad Bunny’s previous studio album, «El Último Tour Del Mundo».
«He didn’t just put out an album in Spanish, he put out the best-selling album in the world,» Leila Cobo, Billboard’s director of Latin content, told NBC News. «I think the Academy would look very deaf if they didn’t put this album on the run.»
Bad Bunny also set the world record for the highest-grossing tour in a calendar year in 2022, racking up $435.3 million with more than 2.4 million tickets sold through 81 shows of his most recent concert tours, “World’s Hottest Tour” and “El Último Tour del Mundo”.
The global impact of Bad Bunny — en español
Vanessa Diaz, the co-creator of the Bad Bunny Curriculum Project and a professor at Loyola Marymount University, where she teaches a course titled «Bad Bunny and the Resistance in Puerto Rico,» told NBC News that her students give her an idea of the artist’s global impact.
«You don’t have to understand what the lyrics are, but if you do understand it, it adds another level,» Diaz said. Its Spanish-speaking students are delving into Puerto Rican slang to better understand Bad Bunny’s music, while non-Spanish speakers seek to learn the language.
«The fact that he’s nominated, and that he only speaks Spanish on his album, and that he didn’t have to switch to English, and that people who don’t speak Spanish love his music, that’s fundamentally innovative,» Diaz said. on Friday. «This moment is so historic that we can’t underestimate what it means culturally, what it means historically. We’re going to constantly come back to this moment, whether I win or not.»
For Diaz and Cobo, Bad Bunny’s authenticity is a key feature of his global appeal.
Part of Bad Bunny’s authenticity comes through in the way he centers Puerto Rico in his music, as well as the way he infuses multiple musical genres while maintaining his reggaeton DNA, Diaz said. «Bad Bunny’s voice has now been equated with reggaeton.»
«He manages to put all his idiosyncrasies in there. And I think that’s what makes him so unique,» Cobo said.