{"id":221949,"date":"2026-01-01T16:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/221949\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T16:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T16:37:17","slug":"bad-bunny-at-the-2026-grammys-a-cultural-shift-in-the-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/221949\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Bunny at the 2026 Grammys: A cultural shift in the making?"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny<\/a> has redefined what it means to be a global giant \u2014 and he may once again make history at the 2026 Grammy Awards.<\/a><\/p>\n

The artist born Benito Antonio Mart\u00ednez Ocasio is up for six awards at the Feb. 1 show, becoming the first Spanish-language artist to be nominated for album, song and record of the year simultaneously. His critically acclaimed album, \u201cDeb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos,\u201d is only the second Spanish-language record to be nominated for album of the year. The first? Well, that also belonged to Bad Bunny, 2022\u2019s \u201cUn Verano Sin Ti.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Win or lose, experts say Bad Bunny\u2019s Grammy nominations mark a symbolic moment for Latinos.<\/a> Just a week later, after all, he\u2019ll headline the Super Bowl halftime show.<\/a><\/p>\n

Historic nominations reflect the cultural zeitgeist<\/p>\n

Vanessa D\u00edaz, associate professor of Chicano and Latino studies at Loyola Marymount University and co-author of \u201cP FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance,\u201d says Bad Bunny\u2019s nods extend beyond his own art and serve as a \u201cvery welcome recognition of Latin music that is growing.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cMusic from the Spanish-speaking Caribbean has been shaping global music tastes since the 19th century,\u201d adds Albert Laguna, associate professor of ethnicity, race and migration and American studies at Yale. \u201cBad Bunny is another link in a much longer chain of the popularity of Caribbean music on a global stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of this music \u2014 particularly Latin trap and reggaet\u00f3n,<\/a> the genres Bad Bunny got his start in and continues to use in his new work \u2014 has been historically criminalized in Puerto Rico, not unlike hip-hop in the United States.<\/a> Reggaet\u00f3n in particular, D\u00edaz points out, \u201ccomes from the most marginalized communities in Puerto Rico. And so, the fact that Bad Bunny is receiving nominations in three main categories, and this is an artist who came up with trap \u2026 is the most groundbreaking thing about the entire situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Petra Rivera-Rideau, associate professor of American studies at Wellesley College and co-author of \u201cP FKN R,\u201d says that element is particularly noteworthy because institutions often ignore marginalized genres \u2014 including at the Latin Grammys,<\/a> a sister award show<\/a> to the Grammys. <\/p>\n

A victory in the major categories could have \u201cprofound, symbolic meaning,\u201d she says. But with a caveat: \u201cI\u2019m interested to see if this is going to open doors for other people.\u201d After all, Bad Bunny himself isn\u2019t immune to the Recording Academy\u2019s institutional biases: He already has three career Grammys, but all have been in m\u00fasica urbana categories \u2014 despite the fact that he is the most streamed artist<\/a> on the planet.<\/p>\n

Local-to-global appeal that meets the political moment<\/p>\n

Across \u201cDeb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos,\u201d<\/a> Bad Bunny and his producers weave traditional Puerto Rican folkloric styles into a hyper-contemporary context. Latin trap and reggaet\u00f3n aren\u2019t abandoned but fused with m\u00fasica j\u00edbara, salsa, bomba, plena and even aguinaldo, a kind of Christmas music, in \u201cPitorro de Coco.\u201d While Bad Bunny\u2019s previous albums also fused different genres \u2014 including bossa nova, mambo, rock, merengue and more \u2014 this album\u2019s melange was more homegrown.<\/p>\n

Laguna sees \u201cDeb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos\u201d as a direct challenge to the prevailing \u201cformula for global pop stardom,\u201d which he describes as an artist making it locally, gaining traction and then \u201cwatering down\u201d their sound into something commercial and palatable for a global audience. <\/p>\n

\u201cBad Bunny went in the opposite direction. It\u2019s his most Puerto Rican album ever,\u201d says Laguna. He hopes it will communicate to other artists that they, too, can look to their ancestry and history for artmaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so much amazing Latin music that has been overlooked and that\u2019s part of what is so beautiful about this moment,\u201d says D\u00edaz. \u201cAnd that\u2019s why it feels like a win for all Latinos.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timing of the album\u2019s release and recognition, too, feels consequential. \u201cThe U.S. has a history of othering Latinos, othering the Spanish language. \u2026 We\u2019re in a moment where that feels extremely acute,\u201d she continues. \u201cFor a community that is being targeted on such a deep level, it is a little bit of light, a little bit of faith that we can still carve out our place here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Latinos and the Spanish-speaking community<\/a> in the U.S. have grown increasingly wary<\/a> amid growing anti-immigrant sentiment and raids, as President Donald Trump\u2019s immigration policies and executive actions have vastly expanded who is eligible for deportation<\/a> and routine hearings have turned into deportation traps for migrants.<\/a><\/p>\n

In an interview with i-D Magazine earlier this year, Bad Bunny mentioned that concerns around the mass deportations of Latinos factored into his decision not to tour in the continental U.S. ( Hundreds of people<\/a> have been detained in Puerto Rico itself since large-scale arrests began in late January<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u201cThe content of the lyrics \u2014 which are so steeped in the history of Puerto Rico, political histories, tourism and gentrification \u2014 there\u2019s so much rich political and historical content,\u201d D\u00edaz adds. \u201cThis album is historic even without a Grammy win.\u201d<\/p>\n

But if Bad Bunny does win, D\u00edaz says, it will be \u201cakin to Halle Berry being the first Black woman to win an Oscar. That was a watershed moment. Or Rita Moreno being the first Latina to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond that, Laguna says the politics of the album are not exclusive to Puerto Rican or even Latino identity \u2014 \u201cthe lyrics on this album align with global struggles,\u201d he says. Take, for example, \u201cLo que le pas\u00f3 a Hawaii\u201d (\u201cWhat happened to Hawaii\u201d), a rallying cry for cultural autonomy<\/a> in an era of neocolonialization. <\/p>\n

The album\u2019s multigenerational appeal<\/p>\n

Rivera-Rideau says one of the reasons \u201cDeb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos\u201d has resonated is not just the political implications of using folkloric music in addition to m\u00fasica urbana, but its sound. The traditional genres are \u201ca lot more digestible\u201d to listeners who embrace the antiquated taboos surrounding Latin trap and scoff at reggaet\u00f3n\u2019s sexuality. As a result, the combination of sounds makes for an album that is \u201cpopular across generations,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

But it only works because it is \u201cmusically really interesting. If it was just traditional music, and that\u2019s only what people cared about, it wouldn\u2019t have done as well as it did,\u201d she explains. \u201cMusically, it is super innovative and makes accessible a lot of these older genres that people in Puerto Rico listen to, but he\u2019s been able to globalize these very local genres in a way that no one else has.\u201d<\/p>\n

That intergenerational appeal was a feature of Bad Bunny\u2019s landmark Puerto Rican residency,<\/a> with the age and global diversity of its audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people feel like this is a tense moment, it\u2019s a difficult moment. And here\u2019s someone giving us a sonic language in which to narrate this complex present,\u201d Laguna says. \u201cThere\u2019s pleasure, in political critique, that the music makes possible in a beautiful way. And I think that\u2019s very much welcomed.\u201d <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The 68th Grammy Awards will be held Feb. 1, 2026, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. The show will air on CBS and stream on Paramount+. For more coverage, visit https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/grammy-awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 The Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny has redefined what it means to be a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[114709,22751,19221,969,93,1595,21947,7137,54216,61,60,19144,278,44262,54220,114708,5996,1596,268],"class_list":{"0":"post-221949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-albert-laguna","9":"tag-bad-bunny","10":"tag-central-america","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-general-news","14":"tag-grammy-awards","15":"tag-hawaii","16":"tag-hispanics","17":"tag-ie","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latin-america","20":"tag-music","21":"tag-puerto-rico","22":"tag-race-and-ethnicity","23":"tag-rita-moreno","24":"tag-trending-news","25":"tag-u-s-news","26":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}