SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — During the first week of Bad Bunny’s historic residency, fans sported outfits inspired by Puerto Rican folkloric culture, including straw hats known as “la pava” and traditional “jíbaro” attire, reflective of rural Puerto Ricans who worked on farms until the 19th century.
The fashion choice is a statement. It’s consistent with the theme of his 30-show concert series: “No me quiero ir de aquí,” which translates to “I do not want to leave here.”
The concerts bring to life the songs on Bad Bunny’s sixth studio album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” or “I Should Have Taken More Photos,” which the artist has dubbed as his “most Puerto Rican” album yet.
On it, Bad Bunny sings of his need to stay in Puerto Rico and cherish its people and history. Most of the lyrics speak to Puerto Rico’s political realities and cultural legacy.
And for Puerto Ricans in the U.S. territory as well as those who live on the U.S. mainland, the focus on their beloved Caribbean archipelago is everything.
“It feels like we’re home,” Ivy Torres told NBC News. She and her spouse, Alexis, are among the more than 600,000 people who are expected to visit Puerto Rico this summer to see the show — which is the first formal residency any singer has ever done at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot, the biggest indoor entertainment arena on the island, seating over 18,000 people.
“It’s a great way to reconnect with your family, friends and everything we left behind,” Alexis said.
The couple moved to Ohio from Puerto Rico a decade ago during the height of the economic crisis on the island. “It was hard,” Ivy said. “We didn’t want to leave our family and friends, but we had to.”
Bad Bunny sings about this sentiment in his song “Lo que le pasó a Hawaii” (“What happened to Hawaii”). The song addresses fears around the erosion of Puerto Rican identity amid an influx of wealthy people from the mainland who have moved there following the passage of tax breaks, as well as a recent rise in short-term rentals that limit affordable housing opportunities for local residents.
Born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, Bad Bunny reached global success singing in Spanish, popularizing Puerto Rican slang across the world and putting a spotlight on the plight of Puerto Rican people.
‘He does his music for Puerto Rico’
That’s why for Puerto Rico resident Verónica González, it “means everything having a star like Benito singing for us,” she told NBC News. “He does his music for Puerto Rico, and he thinks about us.”
The album and residency effectively take fans on an emotional journey that fuses contemporary genres like reggaeton and dembow with traditional rhythms such as bomba y plena and 1970s salsa music.
Inside a restaurant in Old San Juan, Puerto Rican artist and painter Joabel Ortiz has been showing an art exhibit dedicated to Bad Bunny and his latest album.
Ortiz mixes traditional symbols of Puerto Rican culture like “la pava” with images of the superstar — highlighting the through line that connects a present-day cultural phenomenon like Bad Bunny to the roots of Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rican officials estimate Bad Bunny’s residency will have an economic impact of more than $186 million, generating more than 3,600 jobs and resulting in more than 35,000 hotel night bookings.
But to his fans, it’s Bad Bunny’s focus on the people and the essence of what it is to be Puerto Rican that resonates the most.
“We got a new influence to the world,” Ortiz told NBC News. “That new influence is about our culture, about the ideas we got in the island, and how we do everything, how we speak, how we love, how we remember who we are.”
Daniel Rodriguez, José Díaz-Balart and Leslie Ignacio reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Nicole Acevedo from New York.
