“Now everyone wants to be Latino”
Does what he wants: singer Bad Bunny
Quelle: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
The success story of Latin pop singer Bad Bunny is also that of the Spanish language. Spanish songs are making up a growing share of the charts, also thanks to artists like Rosalía and Daddy Yankee. Why this often leads to arguments.
Dhe Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny is currently the biggest pop star in the world. In 2022 he was the most-streamed artist on Spotify for the third year in a row. With that, he pushed rap superstar Drake off the throne. His “El Último Tour Del Mundo” was the first purely Spanish-language album to reach number 1 on the US Billboard charts. His latest album “Un Verano Sin Ti” then made it for the second time. Now the American “Time” magazine is celebrating its first Spanish-language cover with Bad Bunny. The success of Bad Bunny, but also artists like Rosalía and Daddy Yankee are competing with English as a world pop language.
“El Mundo de Bad Bunny” is written on the cover along with a quote from an interview with him: “No voy a hacer otra cosa para que a ti te guste”. In English: “I won’t do anything differently just to please you”. That seems to be a kind of life motto for Bad Bunny, who also chose the initials for his album “YHLQMDLG” afterwards. This stands for “Yo hago lo que me da la gana” (in English. “I do what I want”). He doesn’t speak English himself, but is currently learning it, as he tells Time in an interview.
The strong presence of Spanish-language songs on the pop market is also a political issue, especially in the USA. According to statistics from 2021, 13 percent of the population there speak Spanish at home. The USA also has the second largest group of Spanish speakers in the world after Mexico. According to a projection in Forbes magazine, by 2050 one in three Americans will also speak Spanish. That’s why there was a fuss about Bad Bunny’s performance at the Grammy Awards this February. When he started singing, the subtitles on the TV broadcast read “Speaking Non-English.”
The World of Bad Bunny: Time cover in April 2023
Source: Screenshot Welt/Photo Elliot & Erick Jiménez for TIME
The fact that the language was not recognized as Spanish caused displeasure among fans and colleagues like 50 Cent. The Grammys, which honor musicians with awards in Los Angeles every year, then added the translation of the subtitles afterwards. The artist himself commented on the incident in the interview as porqueria (shit). And said somewhat cryptically: “The system doesn’t work.”
Whether he means the translation system or wants to be political is not entirely clear. The annoyance of his fans about the subtitles – apparently automatically generated – points to the political charge of Spanish-language pop. What is already an important political issue in the USA due to the border with Mexico and the large number of Spanish-speaking immigrants is reinforced in the case of Bad Bunny by the fact that he comes from Puerto Rico. The Caribbean island is one of the so-called “territories” of the USA, but it is not a full state. Despite this, residents are officially US citizens, but are not allowed to vote in presidential elections.
The tension between Puerto Ricans and Americans served as a template for the 1957 Broadway musical West Side Story, in which gangs from both sides fight each other. Of course, everyone still sings in English here. Now the tide is turning, and artists like Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber are recording songs in Spanish. When Bad Bunny makes his music, a mix of reggaeton, pop, rap and hip-hop, he thinks of his homeland: “When I write and make music, my mind is always in Puerto Rico.” Also the song he wrote who opened the Grammys and caused trouble is a declaration of love to Puerto Rico. In “El Apagón” he sings, among other things: “Now everyone wants to be Latino … but they lack spice, drums and reggaeton.”
The line has been criticized as divisive. Bad Bunny himself says that he wrote the song on the spur of the moment and at that moment he was angry. To artists who suddenly mention their Latin American roots, which they would never have done before. “Cabrona (asshole), you’ve been making music for 20 years and suddenly you remembered that you wanted to sing in Spanish?”
In recent years there have been more and more pop stars who suddenly sang in Spanish or recorded songs with reggaeton stars. For example Ed Sheeran, who recorded the song “Sigue” with J Balvin. Justin Bieber also sings in Spanish in Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito.”
In the meantime, however, his anger has dissipated, says Bad Bunny with his usual nonchalance: “Our culture and music is widespread. It affects people in other countries. You want to try them and feel them. So why should it bother me?” When asked if he’s annoyed by being asked when he’s going to release a song in English, he says no: “Why doesn’t anyone ask Drake when he’s going to do a song in Spanish?”