Puerto Rican rapper and singer whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. He began uploading songs to SoundCloud in 2013 and was signed by a record label three years later. In 2018 he collaborated with Cardi B and J Balvin on "I Like It", which topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in America.
Bad Bunny raps and sings almost exclusively in Spanish. His songs were streamed 2.5bn times in 2018, according to Luminate, an analytics firm; by 2024 that figure had jumped to 11.5bn. Between 2020 and 2022 he was the most-played artist on Spotify, the first musician to claim the top spot for three consecutive years.
His 2022 album "Un Verano Sin Ti" ("A Summer Without You") was the first Spanish-language record to be nominated for Album of the Year at the Grammys. His music puts a Latin twist on genres such as trap and house by incorporating Puerto Rican sounds including reggaeton, plena (an Afro-Puerto Rican mode involving syncopated beats on panderos and maracas) and salsa.
He performed the Super Bowl halftime show in February 2026, singing entirely in Spanish. Donald Trump complained: "Nobody understands a word this guy is saying." With more than 40m Spanish speakers, America is the fifth-biggest Hispanophone country in the world.
His lyrics are often political. "Afilando Los Cuchillos" ("Sharpening the Knives", 2019) criticised Puerto Rico's governor at the time. "El Apagón" ("The Blackout", 2022) addresses the regular power failures that plague the island and the gentrification displacing locals. He is credited with helping make Spanish-language music a mainstream force in global pop.
Creativity is no substitute for knowing what you are doing.