NPR Music - Alt.Latino: Bad Bunny Closes Out His Residency

Episode Date: September 17, 2025

Bad Bunny's months-long residency in Puerto Rico is coming to an end. The shows brought in hundreds of millions of dollars to the island, and sparked new debates about Puerto Rican identity and politics.For this week's episode, Alt.Latino's Anamaria Sayre and Felix Contreras traveled to San Juan to take in one of the final performances, and interview both locals and tourists about the musical and cultural impact of the summer of Bad Bunny.This podcast was produced by Noah Caldwell. The executive producer of NPR Music is Suraya Mohamed.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

A quick note before the show, this podcast contains explicit language. From NPR music, this is all Latino. I'm Felix Contreras. And I'm Ana Maria Sayer. Let the Chisemet Begin. Anna, this week, I decided to join you in Puerto Rico and San Juan. Okay. You know how many texts, calls, photos I have tried. I mean, it's been like the project of my summer to get you here.

Well, because, I mean, it'd be nice to spend time with you, but I had other things on my line. You don't have to lie. It's okay. I've had other things on my mind. I wanted to come and see the end of the historic Bad Bunny residency here in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Pretty special first experience, bad bunny experience for you, Felix. First live experience, yes. Also the day after your birthday. Yes, it was.

Happy birthday. Thank you very much. It was quite a gift. It was Benito giving you a gift, Felix. Thank you. So, last show for you, Felix. There you go. I appreciate that.

Thanks, bro, if you're listening. Okay, so I spent the morning. in the water, on the beach, like, okay, processing, because there's so much to take in. And the event itself is a spectacle and the good way, right? It's spectacular, all this stuff, the lighting and everything. But then also, it just triggered so many things for me. So can I go first?

I was literally about to be like, I know you said I should go first, but I've been dying to know what you thought. I've been all summer long. This is my fifth show. Sorry, it is. I have to say it out loud. all summer long I've been like I can't wait to Felix sees this and he sees this

and he sees this what's he going to think so go ahead it was like a Grateful Dead concert okay and here's my jaw is on the floor and here's why because what he did and what he's done over 30 days and what he does when he performs and then with his records it's like he creates this sense of community through music

lyrics rhythms sounds all that stuff he creates this sense of community And especially with the last record, it was all about Puerto Rican pride and bringing it all back to the island, right, within himself. And so there's a sense of community. And then last night, you know that feeling you had in the five shows that you've gone to where your part, it's like you're almost another member of the band? Like there was so much give and take. It's a dead show. It's totally a dead show.

Wow. Yeah. There needs to be a plaque or something made on September, whatever. 2025 Felix Contreras said that about. Bad Bunny's concert was like a dead show. I mean, that's like... Strictly because my experience with the Grateful Dead, well, Gary Garcia was still alive.

Not dead in company. There's some of that, but like the original band, there's this deep sense of community. Like there's so many different people from so many walks of life, doing so many different things. But when you're in that stadium, you're in that room, it's all about the music, the band, the solos, the interplay. It was exactly like a dead show yesterday.

And so many different. levels. So there's that. Okay, that's one impression. The other impression is, you know, my bar is musically. Musically, live performance wise, right? I've seen James Brown. I've seen a Springsteen show in 78 is legendary, you know, Prince. I've seen Prince three times going back to the Dirty Minds Tour, right? My bar is high. Benito, man. He was on it. He has that, he has those elements of greatness in terms of performance, in terms of like he's singing to you, even though there's 19,500 people in the venue. He's singing to you, and he's got them all in the palm of his hand in a very, very loving and friendly and engaging way. And when he's on top of the casitas singing

with the other guys that came up to sing with him as guest artists, and when he's singing with the bands, the salsa band, the bumba bands, the plana bands, the play-na bands, like his performance, a three-hour performance, as you point out, was on point, nonstop. And as I'm watching him. And, you know, I sit down at concerts. I just do. I know.

I couldn't tell. I was like, Felix was sitting there, eyes closed. I was like, is the man like deep meditation or sleeping? I don't know. I just take it in because I was listening.

When you saw me with my eyes closed, it was what probably I think of plan a part, just listening to all the parts playing together. No, and then I looked at you in Baile and Unulidabli. And you're crying. Because it's just, it was such. amazing moment. Like it was, it was that moment of being part of something bigger. And in all

honesty, I'm coming to it from an outsider's perspective because obviously I'm not Puerto Rican. I'm not raised here. My exposure is through friends, through music, through, you know, a couple of visits here. But I didn't feel like an outsider. I felt included. I felt like the familia. I felt part of La Familia last night. So our producer, Saraya, is sitting here crying again, and I saw her cry so many times last night. Soray doesn't speak Spanish. Well, okay, she speaks a little Spanish. She mostly doesn't speak Spanish in there.

She, like, that's the energetically, you can feel it. And what you're describing, right, you had to go on the water and you had to process it. And I've spent this whole summer processing this, right? Like, I have seen it five times. I've been on and off the island all summer. This has been my summer, is the show. And, you know, we're in this moment. What I think of my latest thought on it, because I have so many, is that,

art is so commercial, it's so transactional, it's so quick, more and more and more. It's like make a quick movie, make a quick album, make a quick whatever. To have someone who is this popular and who is this global be able to pause and take their time and make something slow and meaningful that feels like more than just, you know, I always think good art, great art, culture shifting art, life changing art because that's what this show really is. It's life changing. I've talked to many Puerto Ricans who say, I'm going just because this is a once in a lifetime experience.

And that kind of art to go five times and to actually fall in love with it more on the fifth time. To go and be like, there's every single time 10, 20, 30 things that I'm like, wow, I never thought about life that way, let alone the music. And I think for me, so you can hear my voice. Tell them where you were. Okay. We lost you just walking out of the building. I will say, I have to disclaimer that. it was not just the concert.

It was a series of events last night. The concert was my first thought. I did sprints out the door. I ditch Felix and Soria, although I didn't invite you guys, to be fair. You did. To run and go meet my friends at Pomar Rosa, which is my favorite karaoke bar in San Turse. And I was like, I have to have it all.

And then, of course, I'm in the Uber drive over, screaming with my Uber driver about how much I love Puerto Rico. And he's talking about how much he loves his home. And now he's never leaving. And Benito just represents everything that he is. and my claim for why I lost my voice, yes, I was singing, but is because I was screaming for Puerto Rico, not for him.

Like, for him, but I was, it was like in the moments when it's like, screaming Puerto Rico, sta cabron, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, all of these things, like, that's where I lost my voice because after a summer of being here and sitting in that community feeling in the show and then every other experience you have outside of it, right, just supports that. Like the people, that's what I say.

His power, his magic. Why this show is successful. Yes, he's an amazing showman. But he is so successful at channeling the energy of this place. That's his genius, right? But it's not about him. It's about the other. It's something bigger.

That's his genius, man. And obviously, Felix, we're not the only people that felt that. A lot of other people feel that way. And of course, I've mentioned this before. Hugely impactful, important, meaningful for people. on the island and Puerto Ricans coming home. Sure. We spoke to someone outside of the venue.

Her name is Samantha Hernandez, and she came to Puerto Rico for the show from New Jersey. With the government and like hurricane after Hurricane Maria and just like seeing the support Puerto Rico didn't receive and having family here that was affected by it. And just seeing how bad bunny is bringing all of this revenue. to Puerto Rico to the island. It's very special. No other artist has done that. No other government or politician has done that.

So the fact that one man on a mission that loves his country, his island is able to do that. It's very special. Sorry, I did not expect to cry. That's crazy. That was, yeah, but yeah. Okay, Anna, now multiply that emotion, like, 19,500 times. That's what's in that room.

And obviously, Felix, I felt that every single time, right? I have cried every single time. Every person I've gone with has cried with me. I brought all my Puerto Rican friends. I will never forget the moment that my friends turned to me and said, I'm so grateful to my mom. She had me here in Puerto Rico, that this is my home. The difference to me, for this fifth time,

this last show, was Benito. Because, you know, when you know you're in that final finishing victory lap of something, and you're really, you could feel him taking it in. Like there were pauses. It's like a late career, a moment of just pausing and taking in everything that you've done. And you could feel him stopping and breathing. And the way he kissed Chui and hugged them and announced him, he didn't do that in another show.

The way he paused with the legendary Puerto Rican actor, Jacobo Morales, and talked to him on stage. Usually that casita, when he moves to that section with La Casita, full of people dancing. It's immediately action, go, Nueva Yol, none of that. It was quiet. He let it be quiet,

and he shared a conversation, like an intimate moment with another person, generations beyond him. And everyone always says, it's like he plays Benito in the future, right? Generations beyond him, who's proud,

who's taking Puerto Rico to the world. And I think, you know, that final speech he gave, he's said it many times before, a lot of what he said. But the difference was he's sitting there. You can tell he can barely get out. The man is crying. He has a sunglasses on. He's always a little bit aloof, but you can tell.

And he says that he has dreamt of this since he was a kid. He always knew that if you did things with love and care and passion that they could be achieved. But he says, here I am, completing my own dream. And he says, I'm going to be grateful to you for my entire life. Presumably he's speaking to his home. And I think that right there, it was genuine, it was real and it was what everyone felt. It's like everyone's dreams in that room being completed all at the same time. The other thing that was impressive was the scene outside. Just tons of people. It was the social place to be, apparently.

There were vendors, there was food, there was music. There was all kinds of stuff going on. We saw a Bumba performance. There's tons of stuff, a really nice street fair. And in that crowd, we met a guy named George Rodriguez. and what impressed me was that he is just a few years younger than I am. But he knew Bad Bunny's deep catalog. Deep.

Yeah, very deep. It echoed some of what I've heard from younger folks where they say everything he makes is Puerto Rican. At first, it was just another rapper, in a sense, for me. But then I start listening to the lyrics and all that. I'm like, ooh, I get the message. You got a good message. Let me hear you.

I feel you. Yeah, you're right. You're talking about our people, how our people talk and feel. And that's why, you know, we all agree that it was a good place to be. Is there any lyrics or songs in particular that come to mind when you say that? Monaco, that's supposed to be somewhere else. You know, it's, yeah, you hear it. And he talks about all kinds of people.

Yeah, he's talking about what us too. When we make it, you know, we get to experience the same thing. The people shunning you because I think you're up there. You know, and that happens here a lot. You know, people get shunned because they made it. And the neighbor didn't make it and things like that. That one for me was basically what's happening to me. I work hard.

I just retired and all that. I made it. But the reason again I mentioned is because I feel a lot related to that. And it's one my favorite right now. To me, what it really showed is him representing what I feel like is very Puerto Rican about him, which is feeling in between. I've talked about that a lot. And two, that there's a diversity of Puerto Rican experiences

and to be authentic about what your exact experience is. I mean, this man was describing his success and his moving off the island at certain points that has made him feel as though he doesn't fit the Puerto Rican box anymore. And I think what Bad Bunny does is like in an instant with this album, how he made it okay to be New Yorkan. And this has been like since the beginning of time, Puerto Rican's here in Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans in New York,

they have this like, oh, well, you're not real. you're not authentic. And in one song, he goes, oh, everyone's Puerto Rican. And everyone goes, oh, okay. Yeah, they're Puerto Rican too. And now there's all this, like, New Yorkerican pride in Puerto Rico. It's crazy. But that's his power, right?

There were a bunch of baseball caps with the two New York baseball teams, but on the back of each one that said Nueva Yol. Did you notice that? It was pretty cool. Nueva Jol! Okay. What else is pretty cool is that it's time for us to take a break. It was a bad transition, but we're going to live with it.

We'll be right back. One of your worst. One of your worst. Top five bad. Yeah. We'll be right back. You know how I know that I'm starting to develop a problem of spending too much time with Felix. I actually think a lot of his dad jokes are like kind of funny.

I think I've like conditioned myself because it's like, well, you either got to find him funny or you're going to like literally go to loka. So I guess it's you're hilarious. Thank you for that. You're welcome. Okay. On a serious note, another thing we have to talk about is the economic impact here, very quickly. It's been a hot, hot issue. Just think about how many people have been coming to this show.

Each show is sold out, 19,500 people. Majority of the people are coming from off the island. We're seeing, I saw a friend of mine at the bakery at the restaurant yesterday morning from D.C. There's coming from all over, lots of friends coming from out of town. I have a brief conversation with someone who's involved with the tourism industry this afternoon. And because I wanted to know what kind of economic impact that this, the city, the island, and general is having. And there are a lot of figures floating around. Of course, they're still counting all the income that came in. But it's going to be upwards around $350 million that's been coming into the island over the last three months. And he did say that the tourism rate

has been rising, but this boosted it up in the stratosphere so that the implication is that there's going to be a little long tail after that. There's going to be continued interest in the island. And so many people really do reflect that. I mean, you talk to anyone, Uber drivers, people at restaurants, they are talking about a boom in business. They're asking if you're here for the residency. I mean, it really is something that everyone is discussing. I met a man while we were walking in. You had walked away to do, I don't know what, Felix.

I was working. And I saw this guy. Not fair, but go ahead. Juan Gonzalez. Juan Gonzalez immigrated to Puerto Rico 40 years ago, and he makes ends meet selling flags around the island. Bad Bunny's residency is actually the first time he's found a market for selling flags outside of the venue. Every night of the show, the house lights come up a bit. Bad Bunny pauses and reminds everyone to be proud of wherever they come from.

He says be proud of being from Puerto Rico. And then he goes, wherever you're from, be proud of your tierra. And then the stands light up in a rainbow of flags from all over the world. Lost it. Completely lost it. You're crying again. I lost it last. So obviously, Gonzalez's business is booming this summer. He told me he sold flags from...

He told me he sold to people from... ...that means... Salvadoran, Colombian, Ecuadorian, Boliviano. He told me he sold to people from everywhere, even as far as Africa. But he told me this flags he sold the most of in order. have been from. But what I've been to Puerto Rico,

Mexico, and Colombia, obviously, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Colombia. In his 40 years in Puerto Rico,

he told me he's never seen so many people from all over the world. His experience living on the island, like many, hasn't always been easy.

Up until recently, he told me he'd hit a real financial low. He was at that point, he said, when you're in debt, and,

you just don't know how to get yourself out. And then Bad Bunny decided to set up shop at home. And he and many other vendors saw an opportunity. He claims the economy has gone up by 50%. We'll say more than a 50%. All the Airbnb, the hotels, the restaurants have been full. What I had been a year, I was in two months. All hotels and restaurants have been full all summer.

He said he sells in two months what he normally would sell in a year. The way he describes it, it's been... Apotheiase, a word I had to look up. It means tremendous, glorious, amazing, spectacular. He says all the vendors are hoping for someone like Bad Bunny to come and do something similar. But he has his doubts. There's no one like Bad Bunny, he told me. He brings the masses.

The other part of this that we want to unpack is the cultural impact, the musical impact. Because when you came to your first show and we did a show together in July, and I had all these questions for you, one of the people that you brought onto the show that you talked to was a friend who was actually a planera, I was learning or performing plana. Erica Rodriguez, like I mentioned last episode, she's one of the women who is really leading the charge in the local plenassing.

She goes almost every week, and every time I'm here, I go with her, to El Boricua, which is basically like the spot for Plena playing. Remember Emanuel who came and played with Benito at the tiny desk? Yes. He is the guy who leads this whole jam session. So obviously, Felix, you're in town. What are we going to do on a Monday night? Go hang out.

We went to El Borri. Tell me a little bit about where we're standing right now. This is a little bit of a sacred place that you brought me to. Thank you. And now you're bringing Felix to. Where are we? So we are in El Boricua. We're in the heart of Rio Piedras, a little block from the University of Puerto Rico,

the main campus in Rio Biedras. And this is, I'd say to me, one of the most important stages in San Juan or in Puerto Rico. It's just, for me at least, it's a place that I've come a lot. And, you know, it's like a sacred space for me because of Plena. For the past years, where I gather with my friends and with Pleneros to play music and to sing and to have a beer. What does it feel like to you when you gather here with your friends to sing and to play? What does that experience? What does it do for you?

It's like my therapy. I know a lot of people, not everyone, but the people who are in Plena, we've known each other for a long time. so it's like seeing my family, you know. It's like I haven't come since they had the stage here, so for about two months, so I'm like seeing a lot of friends, and that's why I'm like trying to catch up with my friends that I haven't seen in a while.

What stage? The stage that was put up because of the residency. So when the residency of Bad Bunny started, there was an initiative that was called La Whelitita, and they put a main stage, like, I don't know, four feet high or five, right here at the end of the street. and all the presentations were done there.

And that changed the dynamic for me. And especially with Plena, it changed the dynamic because also the people that were coming were different. You know, there were a lot of tourists too, and that changes the dynamic of how you were in the space. So we spoke two months ago towards the beginning of the residency. What are your thoughts on it at this moment right now, now that it's just about ended?

I mean, the thing that I can add, I think has been the experience of seeing all the tourists that have come and that has a lot of, I'm not going to say conflicted, just maybe controversial in some way if I say them out loud. One of the things that has really bothered me, and I do understand where it comes from, but it's like the, like seeing all these people using things that are part of iconography of the identity and wearing it as a prop. Like one of the moment, one of the moments that really hit me was I was driving down Caya Loisa and it was like a Saturday and I saw a tourist with a pava on and me sui oh my bajo I wanted to get out of the car to rip the pava out of her head

like the pava it's this hat made of straw that it's used in the Puerto Rican iconography to represent the peasants of Puerto Rico of people in the mountains it really bothered me and it still bothers me if I see tourists with a pava because it just feels I don't think people do it out of mockery but it feels like like you don't know the history you don't understand what's behind that like I feel like there were these things that became part of like were in altesio in la residencia that are like has become like props of the concert for like the Puerto Rican whatever experience that do bother me especially for tourists that are coming from the US, you know, like we're a colonized land and most people don't know anything

about Puerto Rico beyond the bad-boding experience or whatever they hear from his music. There was a lot of language around this idea of responsible tourism when this residency started. Like that was something I saw a lot. It's like, well, come, tourists are welcome as long as they're responsible. Is that something you can dictate now? Do you feel like now that the residency has happened, people came and left, do you feel like that was effective? Is that something people can actually mandate? How does that look like in colonized land? Honestly, I don't, it's like everything when you talk about Puerto Rico, you have to go deeper to really, like, answer things. And not many people want to get to that, because it's politics, it's the political relationship

of the United States, the economical relationship of the United States. It's a really complex question and answer, you know, to like question to have. And in the end, All this is La Colonia. I mean, like responsible tourism. I don't know how that looks like. Okay, all of this stuff does not happen in a vacuum. There's an intense political drama being played out on the island. And Bad Bunny's been part of even that conversation.

This part also fascinates me. Talk a little bit about that. So I've talked about this before, but last November, Puerto Rico hosted some really historic elections. Typically, the politics on the island run based on one issue, and that is the issue of statehood. So you have the status quo party and the pro-statehood party. The best reason I can understand from talking to my Puerto Rican friends that this happens is because people have a fear around distance from the U.S. economic system.

Like maybe if they separate from them, the island can't survive on its own. What happened this past November changed everything because the people who are running on social issues, things like fixing the still busted electrical system from Maria and talking about public health infrastructure, they united with. the Independence Party, the people who are asking to actually have Puerto Rico be its own nation. They campaigned on a really exciting, energized, artistically infused campaign where people like Bad Bunny, among many others, like rapper P. J. Censuela, who we've had on the show, rallied together to push for this candidate. Now, the candidate did not win. Jennifer Gonzalez, the pro-statehood party candidate is the current governor. But what happened is crazy because while she got 39% of the The really interesting thing is that Alianza candidate Juan Dalmao got 33%, effectively turning

Puerto Rico into a three-party system. It's the type of energy that people obviously were disappointed about, but also really excited about. That was in November. In January, Benito releases this album that very lightly discusses some of these issues. We sat down with my friend Paolina Mendez-Cordyles, who is a lawyer on the island, but also a huge Benito fan. She broke it down a little bit more.

Is Bad Bunny the result of the times that you're in politically, or did he contribute to this times just by a subtle reference to the need for a change? What I can say is that I'm grateful that he came in this part of history and that I'm living and sawing all these changes. For sure, he's the result of this generation. Like, they say we're the crisis generation. He's like he was born two years before. I was and we

are known for being a crisis generation but still he could have just ignore the political system and the political situation in Puerto Rico which is what many artists have done so he didn't necessarily had to do what he's doing and that's his value for me like his value is that

he's not ignored and he's acknowledging and he's doing all these things to bring it in a subtle way. So for me, that's his value. Okay, Anna, lots of stuff, lots of emotions, lots of facts, lots of figures, lots of reality. Your final thoughts. What does this all mean? A lot of things. So last night, Benito gave his speech. It was a closing speech, like I said, where he thanked everyone, but part of the speech, which he goes into Debbie Tirama Photos with, is he's repeated it every time I've been there, a variant of it, where he's,

talks about the importance of enjoying life, enjoying the moment, not living in the past, not living in the future. But he said this is what the album is about, really, which is funny, because everyone said it's about Puerto Rican pride, it's about Latin American unity, it's about all these things. And the man himself says, this is what this record was about. It's about not living in the past, not living in the future, living in the present, enjoying the present, disfruiting la vida, right?

And he says, and we have to do it with love. he says the only option of solutions, the best always will be the love. The best always

is to do it with love. Because to do it with hate, hate only breeds hate. And we have to do it. We have to remember to always love. And that to me was like, it was like watching, like you said, you feel like he's giving the concert for you.

And I was like, oh my God, this man just summed up my entire life. Everything I say every day to everyone all the time is this gratitude and this love. And especially right now, Felix. Like especially, like I said, I've been in between Puerto Rico and the U.S. all summer, and the energy feels so distinct. Like, to be in the United States, to feel how the pesado energy of what's happening and the way that people responding to things. And then to come here and to talk to people.

I said this the other day to a friend. I said the thing about Puerto Rico is that there's always an acknowledgement that life is hard. Life never doesn't feel hard. But there's also a very easy other piece of that. where people are always disrupting la vida, because they say, hay to live,

because what are we fighting for if we're not enjoying life? And that, to me, is why it had to be a Puerto Rican artist who did this, to like heal the world, to make everyone feel as though this is something universal

and this is something that had to be heard. It had to be someone who channeled the beliefs of this island, which is I said, I've said it many times, is based in love, is based in unity, is based in community.

And he communicates that so well. And I think that, That's why everyone's so obsessed, you know? They fall in love with the island through him and they don't even know it. I thought about that while I was sitting there listening to the show last night. And it struck me exactly what you said. Like what's going on in the mainland right now is so difficult right now. And the realization that I had is that it's almost unavoidable

because we are the only place in the world pretty much where people came from different places. to be there, going back to when they invaded and took over the people that were already there, and then the centuries later. So there is, they like to say that there's a cohesive, you know, American culture, spirit, but it's always been like a mosaic. The best moments is when we're mosaic and we recognize and respect each other's different colors, different pieces, whatever the mosaic is, right? And what I felt at the concert was that we're missing that unifying moment. We're missing that moment of joy to remind ourselves, you know, I can't really, you have to live. You have to find that joy in order to deal with the difficult parts. And not everybody agrees

with that. Some people, you know, some people say it's a bunch of hippie BS or whatever, right? but you feel it here. A concert like that last night reminds us that we're all from different things, we're all different pieces of the mosaic, but when you come together, there's strength in that unity. That's what I always think about Puerto Rico

is that it's funny because it actually, I say this a lot, it's a place for people who feel in between. It actually is a place that's split between the mainland, between the indigenous people who are here, the Afro-P Puerto Rican community. And to me, it's like,

It's this really amazing microcosm of the United States in the sense that when I'm here, I feel light. And if I had to describe it, I feel hope because it's like a guide for what we could be. Like the unity and the good parts of the mainland that we could feel, they do it right here. It's like they show you that to be united and to show care for people and to love people, it is just that easy to love people. And I think that's what I see at that concert, is Benito is just putting here. his island on display, and he's in Benito's universe, which he's sharing with the world. It's just that easy. So as we were putting together this episode, we got some really exciting news.

The first being that the show we went to, which we thought was the final show, actually isn't going to be the last show. Of course, in typical Benito fashion, he's pulling out one more show this weekend on September 20th, the eighth anniversary of Hurricane Maria. Now, amazing for everyone because it's going to be live stream, so anyone who is listening to this episode feeling like they really wish they'd been able to be there, you can be. Now, to me, the most exciting part of this news is it answered a question that I've been asking the entire summer. What's next? Bad Bunny's trying to change Puerto Rico, but is anything really going to change when all the dust settles? Well, guess what?

Apparently, he and Amazon Music had been working on a multi-year initiative that they're rolling out with this last show. It's a partnership that is supposed to implement programs that, quote, uplift Puerto Rico's economy and create meaningful change across the island. That means educational programming, disaster relief, and cultural empowerment. Every single thing that we have been talking about that we said Bad Bunny was hypothetically trying to support, he's doing in a real concrete way. Obviously, we'll be falling along like always. Can't wait to see what he does next.

You have been listening to Alt Latino this week from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Our audio editor is Noah Caldwell. Executive producer of NPR Music is Soraya Mohamed. I'm Felix Contrera. I'm Anna Maria Sayer. Thanks for listening.