In 2022, Bad Bunny made pop stardom a subversive act
By several measures, Bad Bunny became the world's biggest pop star in 2022. Just consider his record-breaking, sold-out, two-night run at Yankee Stadium. Twenty minutes before the show was slated to begin, a swarm of unticketed fans rushed the gates of the arena and attempted to claw their way past the NYPD officers stationed at the entrance (the cops promptly shuttered the doors and restrained anyone who tried to sneak in). Most of the 50,000 attendees had already shuffled inside, but for the hundreds of guests still in line, that meant listening to the cawing seagulls and seesawing synths that open his fourth studio album Un Verano Sin Ti from outside the stadium. After waiting outside for an hour and a half, the police finally opened up the gates and fans started to filter in. Once the show was in full swing, Bad Bunny mounted a floating island, affixed himself to its massive palm tree, and sang Un Verano Sin Ti's "Un Coco." He glided across the sky, the crowd bellowing in the stands. When the song ended, the floor erupted in chants: "Benito! Benito! Benito!"
But a month earlier, during the first the that have affected Puerto Rico since LUMA, a private consortium, took over the energy system last year. He didn't mince words, calling Gov. Pedro Pierluisi a "c*********." Predictably, the statement was labeled "vulgar" and "disrespectful" by some online, though Benito had for his detractors the next night: "You know what's also disrespectful?" he asked. "It's disrespectful for Puerto Rico to go without power one, five, four times a day. It's disrespectful that schools keep closing year after year. It's disrespectful that people in this country still don't have access to hospitals or healthcare systems. It's disrespectful that they keep trying to fool us and take us for , but they f***** with the generation that won't be taken advantage of."
