🇵🇷 Bad Bunny | Puerto Rico on the Big Stage
As Bad Bunny performs at the Super Bowl today, he does so after a year that tied global fame to a very deliberate project at home: using his platform to materially invest in Puerto Rico and confront the forces reshaping it.
In 2025, Bad Bunny staged an unprecedented 31-show residency in Puerto Rico titled No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí (“I Don’t Want to Leave Here”), running from July 11 to Sept. 20 at San Juan’s José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum. The first nine shows were reserved exclusively for Puerto Rican residents, prioritizing locals before international tourists. The final performance, Una Más, was held on the eighth anniversary of Hurricane Maria and livestreamed worldwide on Amazon Music.
The concerts had a sizable effect on the island during its slow hurricane off-season. Roughly 600,000 people attended, doubling typical seasonal tourism and pushing hotel occupancy rates up by about 70 percent. Estimates of the total economic injection range from $200 million to $400 million. Between 2,000 and 8,000 temporary jobs were created across hospitality, event production, and retail. Local operators saw revenues rise by 14 percent, and artisans and traditional food vendors reported major sales spikes. Moody’s Analytics raised its 2025 growth forecast for Puerto Rico from 0.3 percent to 0.4 percent, explicitly citing the “Bunny Bump.”
That economic intervention runs alongside a clear political current across his latest, Grammy-winning album. One of its sharpest statements comes in LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii, where Bad Bunny frames Hawaii as a warning for Puerto Rico’s future, taking aim at gentrification, displacement, the erosion of native culture, and the steady transfer of land and natural sources to outsiders.
🎶 In it, Bad Bunny sings:
No quería irse pa Orlando, pero el corrupto lo echó
He didn’t want to go to Orlando, but the corrupt man kicked him out
Y no se sabe hasta cuando—
And it is not known until when—
Quieren quitarme el río y también la playa
They want to take away the river and also the beach
Quieren al barrio mío y que abuelita se vaya
They want my neighborhood and they want grandma to leave
No, no suelte’ la bandera ni olvide’ el lelolai
No, don’t let go of the flag or forget the lelolai
Que no quiero que hagan contigo lo que le pasó a Hawái
I don’t want them to do to you what happened to Hawaii
Aquí nadie quiso irse, quien se fue sueña con volver
Here no one wanted to leave, whoever left dreams of returning
🎥 Video: Al Jazeera speaks to a university professor specializing in decolonization who worked with Bad Bunny to create visualizers for YouTube videos on his latest album.