On the Eve of the Super Bowl, A Bad Bunny Primer

Welcome to the latest edition of All the Music of All the World, our weekly series where we aim to share music worth being passionate about. Consider us a guide who can help you get the most out of your Victrola by giving you new music to listen to, or new ways to think about music you already know.

There’s at least a 50/50 chance, if not even more, that you will be watching the Super Bowl in two days. Whether you like football or think it’s the modern version of the deplorable gladiatorial games from ancient Rome, something like 150 million Americans will tune in to watch it this weekend. In 2023, according to Chuck Klosterman’s stellar new book, Football, 93 of the top 100 telecasts of the year were pro football games, and 3 or 4 more of them were college football. The point is: We don’t agree on much in this country, except that we agree on football as a television program that can’t be missed.

As you may have heard, this year’s halftime show—inarguably the most viewed musical performance of every year; there are people who will never watch another musical performance all year after this one—is headlined by Puerto Rico’s—and the world’s—most popular artist, Bad Bunny. Born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, Bunny is the undisputed king of Spotify, YouTube, and even physical media retail, and won Album of the Year at the Grammys this past weekend for his masterpiece, DeBi TiRAR MaS FOTos. Taylor Swift is the biggest American artist in the world right now, but even her numbers pale in comparison to Bunny, whose music is as popular in Spain, Puerto Rico, Argentina, and the entire Spanish-speaking world as he is here.

The Super Bowl halftime show is an enormous moment for Bunny, because for the first time, he’s about to be in front of an audience who may have never heard of him; and unfortunately, his casting in the game set off a supremely dumb “controversy” when it was announced last fall. He’s been working his way towards a monocultural breakthrough for a minute; he’s wrestled in WWE (his entrance at Backlash is one of the best in wrestling history) and starred as an actor in movies and on Netflix shows like Narcos: Mexico. His music is entirely in Spanish—he’s resisted any urge to try to “crossover” on anyone’s terms but his own—and he’s broken records for being the first Spanish-speaking artist to top Billboard, to be nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys and to play the Super Bowl.

If you’re unfamiliar, it can be a bit daunting to get into Bunny, since he’s released seven albums in eight years, and guested on a bunch more. So, here’s a brief primer to hip you to what you might see and hear on Sunday.

Cardi B ft. Bad Bunny and J. Balvin, “I Like It”

Bad Bunny’s first intro to the non-Spanish speaking world was this monster hit off Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy album in 2018. Sampling Fania legend Pete Rodriguez’s “I Like It Like That,” Bad Bunny delivers the second verse in between Cardi B’s hilarious first (“Bout my coins like Mario!”) and the king of reggaeton J. Balvin’s third. The verse captures the magnetism of Bunny; he’s called the King of Latin Trap for a reason. He’s as deft at rapping in Spanish as any English-speaking craftsman you can name. I’m betting Bunny does this song at the halftime show this weekend, especially since Cardi’s boyfriend Stefon Diggs will be playing for the Patriots during it.  

“Chambea” ft. Ric Flair

Bad Bunny’s verse on “I Like It”—and that WWE entrance above-- opens with a reference to his breakthrough hit, “Chambea,” arguably the Big Bang for Latin Trap. Worth a listen because it rocks, but also to see Bunny’s floral suit in the video.

DeBi TiRaR mAs FoToS

The easiest album-length entry point into Bunny is his 2025 masterpiece DeBi TiRaR mAs FoToS, a love letter to the history of Puerto Rican music. The album title translates as “I should have taken more photos,” and a nostalgia for home, history, and lost relationships that Bunny had to let go on his trip to the top. The song above, “BAILE INoLVIDABLE,” (unforgettable dance) will almost certainly figure heavily, since you can imagine the vast dancer line that could accompany it. The title track was nominated for a Record of the Year and Song of the Year Grammy too, and it’s one of the album’s most wistful.

It’d be rad if he also did “Lo Que Le Paso a Hawaii,” a song that wonders aloud what would await Puerto Rico if it did achieve the statehood many of its politicians have been pushing for since the 1950s. Bunny comes down on the side of Puerto Rican independence, which I’m sure would have enraged anyone who made a controversy out of his booking if they took the time to listen to his music.

Continued Studies: Un Verano Sin Ti, Oasis, X100 Pre

Any of these three other albums would be my next move if I was teaching a Bad Bunny appreciation course. All three were massive streaming hits, but all three have different vibes and styles, showing Bunny’s range.

Random Side Quest: Grupo Frontera ft. Bad Bunny “Un X100TO”

In 2023, right as the genre called Musica Mexicana—a catchall for the oft-American born, Spanish-speaking Mexican acts playing a mix of traditional Mexican music and modern pop and R&B—was starting to crest on Spotify and on the radios in every reputable taco shop in America, Bunny hopped on a song with his fellow U.S. citizens Grupo Frontera, from Edinburg, Texas. The song—“UN X100TO” has been streamed on YouTube over a billion times (that’s with a B, billion), and is inarguably the genre’s biggest, most meaningful hit as it hit number 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100. It’s a traditional ballad about getting a text off when your phone is dying, promising an ex the world while you stand drunk in the club. It paved the way for artists like Eslabon Armado, Fuerza Regida and Peso Pluma to storm the charts and Spotify in Bunny and Frontera’s wake. This is my dream collab at the Super Bowl; I will pop louder than the San Juan crowd for WWE in my living room if Grupo Frontera come out at the Super Bowl.  

--Andrew Winistorfer