A win would be historic.<\/p>\n
But the nominations \u2013 it\u2019s the first time work in Spanish has been simultaneously recognised for best album, best record and best song \u2013 are meaningful all the same, said Petra Rivera-Rideau, an American studies professor at Wellesley College whose research focuses on Latin music and racial politics.<\/p>\n
Bad Bunny\u2019s success is particularly poignant as US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration carries out a hardline immigration crackdown that in part targets Latinos.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have ICE raids, we\u2019re watching videos every day of people being profiled for speaking Spanish, whether or not they\u2019re US citizens,\u201d Rivera-Rideau, co-author of P FKN R: How Bad Bunny Became the Global Voice of Puerto Rican Resistance, told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current political moment just kind of ups the ante of what is already a profoundly significant thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inherently political<\/p>\n
Bad Bunny, 31, grew up near Puerto Rico\u2019s capital San Juan, honing his vocal skills in a church children\u2019s choir before developing into a pre-teen who loved creating beats on his computer.<\/p>\n
He went viral on the DIY platform SoundCloud \u2013 and thus began his rapid ascent to the top of global music.<\/p>\n
But even as his star rose, Bad Bunny remained firmly rooted in his heritage.<\/p>\n
Both at the Grammys and the Super Bowl, his mere presence is \u201cdeeply political\u201d, said Jorell Melendez-Badillo, a University of Wisconsin-Madison historian who collaborated with Bad Bunny on visual elements of the latest album.<\/p>\n
The artist is a US citizen: Puerto Rico is a Caribbean territory under US control since 1898.<\/p>\n
But, Melendez-Badillo says, he\u2019s also a colonial subject \u2013 a reality explored on Debi Tirar Mas Fotos, which features an ingenious melange of traditional sounds including salsa, bomba and plena, with infusions of reggaeton.<\/p>\n
Bad Bunny\u2019s commitment to singing in Spanish in a music industry that has historically marginalised Latino voices makes his mammoth success even more emblematic.<\/p>\n
For Melendez-Badillo, language has become \u201ccoded for the broader sort of racialised understandings of immigrants and immigration … this sort of nationalist idea of who gets to belong in the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n
Multi-generational appeal<\/p>\n
Since 2000, the Latin Recording Academy has celebrated Spanish and Portuguese-language music at the Latin Grammys.<\/p>\n
The Grammys also honour Latin music in specific categories.<\/p>\n
Both are important for ensuring representation, but they have also enabled Recording Academy voters to ignore Latin music\u2019s mainstream popularity.<\/p>\n
This year, Latin Recording Academy voters are eligible to vote for the main Grammy winners as well, a bid to create a more globally representative pool.<\/p>\n
That could make a significant difference for the likes of Bad Bunny \u2013 but even then, Rivera-Rideau said, it\u2019s complicated.<\/p>\n
Much like Grammy voters long overlooked hip-hop, Latin Grammy voters have long sidelined the influence of reggaeton and Latin trap \u2013 hugely popular genres Bad Bunny came up in.<\/p>\n
But his latest album has found multi-generational appeal, and that could improve its chance, as it is \u201cmore digestible\u201d to Grammy voters, Rivera-Rideau said.<\/p>\n
Super Bowl-bound<\/p>\n
One week after the Grammys, Bad Bunny will reach yet another milestone as the headliner of the National Football League\u2019s Super Bowl halftime show \u2013 a booking that prompted hand-wringing especially from conservatives over the \u201cwoke\u201d choice.<\/p>\n
But the Super Bowl is among the world\u2019s top broadcasts and its halftime presentation is for massive stars.<\/p>\n
Clearly, Bad Bunny fits that bill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe NFL wants to go global,\u201d Melendez-Badillo said, citing games held in Europe and Brazil. \u201cBenito sells tickets. Benito draws crowds.\u201d<\/p>\n
And of course, Bad Bunny is hugely popular across the United States, which has among the largest Spanish-speaking populations globally \u2013 so why wouldn\u2019t he take part in one of the country\u2019s cultural touchstones?<\/p>\n
\u201cIn that context, it\u2019s just incredibly meaningful,\u201d Rivera-Rideau said.<\/p>\n
– Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A win would be historic. But the nominations \u2013 it\u2019s the first time work in Spanish has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260479,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[24752,1628,1975,15435,149541,51237,15436,149542,81934,135787,156,39275,2082,21726,4745,6628,157,111,139,69,149540,2847,101263,1551,27043,313,102,87539,1530],"class_list":["post-260478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ago","tag-artist","tag-at","tag-bad","tag-bagging","tag-bowl","tag-bunny","tag-commands","tag-contrast","tag-cosmic","tag-entertainment","tag-fame","tag-for","tag-grammys","tag-groceries","tag-historic","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-onetwo","tag-only","tag-punch","tag-set","tag-shocking","tag-super","tag-with","tag-worked","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260478\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}