It’s well past 8:30 in Madison Square Garden. The showtime for Bad Bunny’s April 27th sold-out show was 8 PM, but in true Latino fashion, we are all running late. Excited fans are walking through the arena, donning Bad Bunny’s personal style: bright colors, eccentric outfits, and funky sunglasses. At this point, I’m on my third line for drinks after the first two concession stands I waited at ran out of alcohol. Once again, in true Latino fashion, our extensive drinking habits resulted in MSG literally running out of booze.
Bad Bunny has basically become the poster boy of Latin trap music, a Spanish version of the hip-hop subgenre. Bad Bunny released his highly anticipated debut album X100PRE (an acronym meaning Por Siempre, translating to Forever), in late-December. However, before that, he built his reputation by sharing music on SoundCloud. In the first two years of his career, he made bop after bop, landing plenty of songs on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart
For younger Latinos, Bad Bunny has also become a central figure in challenging gender norms. He takes bold risks such as painting his nails and using his social media accounts to call out injustice. Bad Bunny’s aforementioned style deviates from an otherwise extremely masculine genre.
With that being said, upon arriving at MSG, we were given wristbands. Once they began flashing, we knew it was time to get to our seats. The show opened with “Ni Bien Ni Mal,” the first song from the album, and a warm welcome from Bad Bunny. The first half of his set seemed to focus on the singles and features that made him a Latin trap superstar. The audience really seemed to enjoy older SoundCloud singles like “Soy Peor” and “Me Mata.”
After a brief outfit change, Bad Bunny went through songs from X100PRE. It was almost astounding how the audience sang along to each song word for word. But it seems as though Bad Bunny saved the best for last. He sang a lot of his most famous songs within the last half of his set. Bad Bunny performed his part of “Te Bote Remix,” a 3x Platinum (by English standards) reggaeton song sang by a collective of Spanish artists. He also played “Mia,” a hit song featuring Drake that has spent 30 weeks on Billboard charts. Another successful hit performed by Bad Bunny was “I Like It,” the 6x Platinum hit from Cardi B’s Invasion Of Privacy. He sang his verse along with J Balvin’s. A definite crowd favorite was “La Romana” (The Spanish “Sicko Mode,” as I like to call it). Latin trap star El Alfa came out as a guest to help Bad Bunny perform their lively collaboration. The song samples an already famous bachata song and makes a trap beat of it. On top of that, the beat switches halfway through into a dembow, which makes for a fun song. To close out the show, Bad Bunny performed two popular singles “Estamos Bien” and “Chambea,” which kept fans out of their seats until the very end of the show.
Overall, I really enjoyed this concert. Based on the audience’s reaction and energy, I could tell most people felt the same way. Bad Bunny managed to perform a little bit of everything to keep fans satisfied. Everyone remained excited and engaged until the end of the nearly 3-hour set. With live countless hit songs and thrilling live performances, it’s no wonder Bad Bunny has become a Latin superstar.
Works Cited
“Bad Bunny Chart History.” Billboard, www.billboard.com/music/bad-bunny/chart-history/hot-100.
“Gold & Platinum.” RIAA, www.riaa.com/gold-platinum/?tab_active=top_tallies&ttt=DAL#search_section.
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