Chants of “Benito! Benito! Benito!” erupted Thursday night as, one by one, 28 Bad Bunnies paraded through Tacolicious on Valencia Street.
It was Mission Lotería’s Bad Bunny Lookalike Contest, held on the cusp of the reggaeton legend’s Super Bowl LX halftime performance at Levi’s Stadium, during times so politically trying that it is difficult to even keep track of each successive outrage.
Arguably no crowd had ever been more ready for an excess of bunnies and badness.
Well before the pageant’s 6:30 p.m. kickoff, a line of about 500 people stretched down Valencia as live DJs spun hits like “El Apagón” and the crowd yelled its refrain, “Puerto Rico está bien cabrón!”
Juan Cavalleiro, left, and Nick Shideler, right, wait in line at Tacolicious ahead of the Bad Bunny look-alike contest on Thursday. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
About 300 of the hopefuls made it inside before the venue reached capacity.
Inside, contestants prepared to compete for a $100 cash prize, a Tacolicious gift card and the lifelong bragging rights of being crowned San Francisco’s Bad Bunny look-alike at this most historic moment in the career of Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, the global reggaeton star from the island of Puerto Rico, which is also a U.S. territory.
Only last weekend, Bad Bunny made history at the Grammy Awards when his 2025 album “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” became the first Spanish-language album to win album of the year.
Michelle Barragan, a competitor in the look-alike contest, poses for the crowd, mimicking Bad Bunny’s reaction after he won Best New Album at the Grammys. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
On Sunday, he is scheduled to make history again as the first Spanish-language artist to headline the Super Bowl halftime show.
Since the start of his career, the reggaetonero hasn’t let fame get in the way of calling out colonialism, with songs like “El Apagón” — which underscores how U.S. tax incentives are displacing Puerto Ricans — and “La Mudanza,” which sheds light on the criminalization of pro-independence views like the 1948 law that banned the Puerto Rican flag.
Nicolás U. holds a Puerto Rican flag while walking through the crowd during the Bad Bunny look-alike contest on Thursday. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
“I love what Bad Bunny stands for,” contestant Joey Sweiss said as he stood beside the bar. “I feel like he speaks from an anti-colonialist lens that a lot of us immigrant families understand from Latin America, to Palestine. You name it, we relate to it.”
“He’s always been unapologetically himself,” said Michael Gonzalez, dressed for the contest in a button-down white top tucked into trousers with a red sash tied around his waist.
“We’re still seeing that, as he’s in big spaces like the Grammy Awards“ (Before I say thanks to God,” Bad Bunny said at the ceremony, clad in a velvet Schiaparelli tuxedo, Grammy in hand. “I’m going to say ICE out.”)
Nearby, another Bad Bunny, clad in a tuxedo, held a sign reading “ICE OUT.”
Many eras of Bunny were on display. Josie Domingues-Chand wore a white skirt and white blazer with a drawn-on beard. “My outfit was inspired by the Harper’s Bazaar cover of Benito,” Domingues-Chand said. “He was the first solo artist to ever be on their cover so I just had to celebrate that.”
Emeric Lopez, 6, participates in the Bad Bunny look-alike contest with his mother, Marie Legrand, close behind. Lopez was, by far, the youngest contestant in the group. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
Six-year-old Emeric Lopez, lying on his mom’s lap, sported a fedora, white tank top and trousers. “Bad Bunny is tired,” he said. When asked why, he replied, “I had a long day. I’m practicing for the Super Bowl.”
The competition finally began at around 7:45 p.m. The crowd parted to form a central runway, and as each contestant paraded down the center aisle, and struck a pose, the crowd screamed, snapped photos, and waved Puerto Rican flags.
Vanessa Karel participates in the Bad Bunny look-alike contest at Tacolicious on Thursday. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
One Bad Bunny, Vanessa Karel, strutted down the aisle in a pink power suit, stopped mid-walk, and burst into “DtMF.”
“Debí tirar más fotos de cuando te tuve!”
The crowd shouted back, “Debí darte más beso’ y abrazo’ las vece’ que pude.”
Attendees at the look-alike contest dance and take photos as competitors walk the Tacolicious “stage.” Photo by Mariana Garcia.
Abdul Arroyave, a Colombian singer currently living in Mexico City, wore an unbuttoned red blouse, white trousers, a straw pava — a traditional hat symbolic of the jibaro, a Puerto Rican agricultural worker — and took home the crowning title.
“Thank you, me siento super cabron.” Arroyave told the crowd, hand over his heart. “Bad Bunny wins the Super Bowl, Bad Bunny wins the Grammys. Thank you, Mami. Thank you, Papi.”
Abdul Arroyave, the winner of the look-alike contest, walks through the Tacolicious crowd. Photo by Mariana Garcia.
Luis Quiroz, the event’s lead organizer, was beaming. “As a Latino in this country right now, it’s a really tough time, and it’s a hard time to feel like we can celebrate.”
But, he said, “we have to keep in mind that our joy is our resistance.” And, “This is an epic start to the Super Bowl weekend.”