Bad Bunny, a rapper and singer from Puerto Rico, is well-known for his reggaeton and Latin trap songs. He is credited with playing a significant role in the global mainstream success of Spanish-language music.
He set a record for Spotify’s most streamed artist in 2020 and repeated it in 2021, making him the first non-English-speaking performer to do so. He was then the musician on Spotify with the highest streaming popularity in 2022. Moreover, Bad Bunny is recognized as one of the tour performers this year with the best ticket sales.
However, some people are perplexed as to why so many people remained to love and support him despite all of the controversies he encountered throughout the course of his career.
Bad Bunny has been at the center of several controversies throughout the years.
One of the controversies that Bad Bunny faced was when he was still in the early stages of his career. At that time, Bad Bunny used SoundCloud to upload some of the songs he made. However, some of those included racial slurs. The accounts are now deleted as well as the songs.
Bad Bunny’s subsequent controversy involved his actions while sharing a stage with Natti Natasha. Bad Bunny inappropriately grabs and grinds on Natti Natasha many times when they are on stage together at a concert. Natti has been observed attempting to push him away on several occasions, as well as running away when she notices him approaching to grind on her.
Speaking of concerts, Bad Bunny also has a history of getting too close to women. Additionally, there are other videos of him making out with and kissing strange women during his performances and afterparties in the past few months.
Another instance involved Bad Bunny pressuring TV anchor Natalia Rivera to date him and ordering her husband to break up with her because she was supposed to be his. Bad Bunny continued to message her in both his songs and her Instagram comments, which offended and disturbed Natalia Rivera and her husband.
Bad Bunny received criticism for some of his music videos as well. In April 2020, charges of sexual assault were brought against a friend or team member who had starred in several of his music videos and songs; several of the incidents occurred during the filming of the videos.
In the same month, Bad Bunny produced the song and music video for “Yo Perreo Sola.” Women’s empowerment is the song’s main subject; thus, a woman named Nesi sings the music’s hook.
However, he did not give vocal credit to the only woman who appears on his album; instead, he decided to exclude her name from the track listing. Worse yet, he was unable to recall the performer’s name when he was asked who sang the hook at a promotional event.
For my non Spanish speakers!
— Missy Elliott SupaFriends (@Supa_Friends) March 13, 2022
English subtitles pic.twitter.com/sWZrnfvs0U
Along with music videos, Bad Bunny’s songs have a troubled past that made them controversial. Take “Get Ur Freak On” by Missy Elliott from his album “Safaera,” for instance.
In an interview with MoluscoTV at the time, Bad Bunny and his friends, who were featured on the song, made up that Missy Elliott took 99% of the song’s royalties because they were unhappy about having to split them with her. Moreover, one of them called Missy Elliott a “b-tch,” which is really offensive.
#1 People continue to love Bad Bunny because his fame blinds them.
These controversies are indeed shocking, which is why people are confused about the support and love Bad Bunny is still getting. But what is the explanation for why other people have stood by him through good and bad times?
Many claimed that the reason for this is that Bad Bunny’s fans are so smitten with him that they are so unaware of the possibility that the musician would kill someone at some point due to his fame.
Some argue that despite our best efforts to be inclusive, we frequently fail to consider the specific characteristics of people from other races and cultures since society has spent so much time excluding them.
#2 Bad Bunny made significant contributions to the Latino community.
Others backed the musician, stating that he contributes significantly to the Latino community, particularly in Puerto Rico. They asserted that he recently worked with local community organizers in Puerto Rico to develop a music video highlighting the island’s economic and social disparities.
#3 Some of Bad Bunny's fans believed some of his controversies were not true.
Multiple fans even claimed that some of the information about his controversies were not true and that none of these issues were publicized. For instance, Nesi was given album credit for the “Yo Perreo Sola” remix Bad Bunny put out.
Others believe that the singer had the consent of several women before kissing them. Furthermore, the reason that there was no animosity toward Missy Elliot during the interview concerning her.
#4 Bad Bunny has previously taken action on his past mistakes in his songs.
Lastly, since Bad Bunny had already deleted songs on his SoundCloud that contained racial slurs, some think it shouldn’t be a problem anymore.