San Juan, Puerto Rico
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After finishing his sold-out 30-show residency “No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí” (“I Don’t Want to Leave Here”) in his hometown of San Juan, Puerto Rican celebrity Bad Bunny invited the world to join the celebration with “Una Más” (“One More”), a particular encore efficiency streamed on Amazon Prime over the weekend. It was no mistake that the final concert landed on September 20, marking the eighth anniversary since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico and induced unprecedented damage.
During the final present on Saturday night time, shock visitor and reggaeton star Ñengo Flow wore a jersey with “4,645” on it, the variety of victims Hurricane Maria reportedly claimed. Beyond that, Bad Bunny – whose actual title is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio – made no overt point out of the storm, however the anniversary was not misplaced on concertgoers, locals and digital viewers alike.
Upon arriving in Puerto Rico – my first time – my rideshare driver Javier Rosado struck up a dialog with me about my first impression of the island. It was lovely. Before I informed him why I used to be visiting, Rosado informed me Bad Bunny’s residency has lifted the Puerto Ricans’ spirits; even only a few months in the past, the island nonetheless felt “depressed” from the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, he mentioned.
“They (the US government) have left us abandoned here, and this young man has given us national pride and put us in the spotlight,” Rosado mentioned. “He’s put Puerto Rico’s name all over the world. It’s something we’ve never seen before with an artist from here.”
Not way back, Rosado was not all that eager on Bad Bunny’s music. He discovered the rapper and reggaeton artist’s lyrics provocative, however his 78-year-old mom was an enormous fan. Rosado mentioned she was all the time singing “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii” (“What Happened to Hawaii”) – a monitor warning Puerto Ricans of the privatized seashores, displacement and overtourism that transpired there – when she cooked, when she bathed, when she cleaned and when she watered the crops.
“It drove me crazy,” he mentioned. “I had to take Mami to see that concert.”
So he did. Rosado, his cousin and his mom all went to an earlier residency present, an expertise he referred to as “life-changing.”
“Never has anything like this been seen (in Puerto Rico). He has managed to unite the entire population in a proud way – adults, young people. He has broken down all age barriers, he is showing the world how beautiful it is and (how) the United States government has forgotten us,” Rosado mentioned of Bad Bunny’s influence. “Here, the power goes out once a week. Little by little, we have many problems that are being addressed now because he is bringing attention to them. And he is bringing attention to many social issues that affect all of us.”
Hours later, I used to be on my approach to the concert venue to select up my press move and take a look at the block get together scene forward of the concert. Throughout the three months of Bad Bunny’s residency, a whole bunch of viral TiokToks had captured a festival-like market simply exterior the world, which featured music, sponsored pop-ups, tables of unofficial merch and handcrafted souvenirs. Saturday was no exception.
“This is like a Disney (World) for Puerto Ricans,” mentioned Keren Mendez, a neighborhood vendor promoting handmade flowers for concertgoers to put on as hair equipment. Within the purple, white and blue sea of flores de Maga (the nationwide flower) and flags of all sizes, my eye was drawn to Kiki Vazquez, who was sporting an particularly massive, sky-blue model of the Puerto Rican flag as a cape.
“It’s the national, pro-independent side of Puerto Rico,” she mentioned of the shade. “But here in the concert, I don’t think it matters, the status(es) of Puerto Rico. Just that you’re Puerto Rican and celebrating our culture.”
Born and raised on the island, Vazquez mentioned she felt a novel sense of satisfaction to be in attendance on the anniversary date of Hurricane Maria.
“ I took the Bar (exam) – I’m a lawyer – three days before that, then headed home to Puerto Rico, and I was without power for four months in my house,” she recollected of the time. “We had no generator. But everyone was out and about helping each other. And I think today the concert will reflect that even though there was no power, there was power in the people.”
From strollers to wheelchairs, folks of all ages have been heading into the world. Nilsa Medina Piña, a retired professor from the University of Puerto Rico, was serving to acquire signatures among the many youth for Citizen Victory Movement (MVC), an anti-colonial political get together that has rallied unprecedented support in recent elections.
She acknowledged that Puerto Rico should “select a leader who truly represents what we are seeing here at this concert, which is to defend our national heritage, defend our coast, our natural resources, and the right of Puerto Ricans to have a sustainable country with its own economy and a political system that allows for the most effective participation of all its members.”
“We’ve been living through this natural and social disaster for eight years,” she added of the hurricane’s aftermath. “A phenomenon like a hurricane occurs, but it doesn’t happen in a social vacuum. It occurs in a country with great economic and social inequalities, which means that the dead are mainly poor people, people who are at an economic disadvantage compared to the wealthier population in the country.”
Although Medina Piña was not initially a fan of Bad Bunny, little by little, she has begun to understand the way in which he has civically woke up and culturally united the island’s youth. Three years in the past, Bad Bunny broke the web when he dropped “El Apagón – Aqui Vive Gente” (“The Blackout – People Live Here”), a virtually 23-minute music video that doubled as an investigative documentary highlighting the social inequalities Puerto Ricans have been nonetheless dealing with since Hurricane Maria. While the track was used within the closing act of Bad Bunny’s 2022 “Un Verano Sin Ti” (“A Summer Without You”) tour exhibits, it performed within the first act of Saturday’s present – and nonetheless sprung everybody to their toes.
After the concert, Kacho López Mari, the director behind that Cannes-nominated music video documentary, informed me he heard feedback in regards to the lack of overt point out of Hurricane Maria in the course of the final present, however defined that Bad Bunny’s inventive assertion – and intentional date choice – spoke volumes.
“So how do musicians talk? They talk through their music. He could have done it on the 19th, he could have done it on the 21st, Sunday. He talked about (Hurricane) María in a song, and he made a 22-minute documentary about her, man,” López Mari mentioned.
“He’s not celebrating María, he’s celebrating the coolest residency in the history of Puerto Rico, and now he’s going on tour to show the world what he did,” he continued. “So you think that in that celebration, we necessarily have to go back to a crisis, back to a trauma? The past is over. Let’s learn from it, but let’s not get stuck there. Let’s see what’s coming, and what’s coming looks like it could be better than what happened.”
During the present, households, {couples} and strangers danced along with glowing depth whereas some youngsters fell asleep on the plastic seats. A record-breaking number of viewers tuned into the Amazon Prime livestream from around the globe. From salsa legend Marc Anthony to singer-songwriter Chuwi to Jowell & Randy – a reggaeton rap duo that joined different shock artists for a photo depicting what the internet has dubbed “the Avengers of reggaeton” – it was a parade of Puerto Rican musical icons increase the message of affection, satisfaction and authenticity that originated and reverberated onstage from Bad Bunny.
“I promise you I will never change. I love you, Puerto Rico,” he mentioned in Spanish earlier than bidding goodbye along with his album title monitor, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” (“I should have taken more photos”).
“Never forget what the song says: Mientras uno esté vivo, uno debe amar lo más que pueda (As long as one is alive, one should love as much as one can). What has already happened cannot be changed. We can only learn from it,” Bad Bunny continued, in a rally of resilience to the viewers. “To all those who left Puerto Rico dreaming of one day returning, and to those of us who are still here: No me quiero ir de aquí. Seguimos aquí, p****a (I don’t want to leave here. We’re still here, damn it)!”
Bad Bunny’s “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” world tour kicks off on November 21 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic earlier than additional stops all through Latin America and later in Australia, Europe and Japan in 2026. The musician has opted to not tour within the US, citing fears of ICE actions.