Alt.Latino

<Puerto Rico takes the field at the Bad Bunny Super Bowl

ANAMARIA SAYRE, HOST:

Felix, are you there?

FELIX CONTRERAS, HOST:

I am here. I'm back. I have been off for a little while, as you know.

SAYRE: You may not have been paying attention 'cause I know you've been disappeared.

CONTRERAS: And I was channel surfing. All of a sudden, and I'm like, hey, wait, that looks like Bad Bunny.

SAYRE: You're like, wait, is that Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl (laughter)?

CONTRERAS: Is that Bad Bunny on a football field?

SAYRE: (Laughter).

(SOUNDBITE OF DUSTY HENDRIX ET AL.'S "DOS MANOS")

CONTRERAS: OK. Since I've been gone, so who's going to do the intro?

SAYRE: I'm tired of doing it. Can you do it, please?

CONTRERAS: From NPR Music, this is ALT.LATINO. I'm Felix Contreras.

SAYRE: I'm Anamaria Sayre. And let the chisme begin. Felix, this may be one of our most chisme-packed episodes in a while.

CONTRERAS: It's so much chisme that we had to bring in help.

SAYRE: And everyone's going to be like, who? Who could it possibly be? Not the person who's been on for the past four weeks (laughter).

CONTRERAS: Welcome back, Isa.

ISABELLA GOMEZ SARMIENTO, BYLINE: Gracias. I never miss out on chisme, so thanks for the invite.

CONTRERAS: Isabella Gomez Sarmiento is joining us from Puerto Rico.

SAYRE: Puerto Rico. You have to say it like Benito does.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Puerto Rico.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BAD BUNNY: (Singing) Ey, Tití me preguntó si tengo mucha' novia'. Ey, mucha' novia'. Hoy tengo a una, mañana otra, ey. Pero no hay boda. Tití me preguntó si tengo mucha' novia'.

CONTRERAS: OK, we're going to talk about Bad Bunny and the Super Bowl halftime show. He just performed it last night. We're talking about this Monday afternoon. It's still fresh on our minds.

SAYRE: Isa, you're in Puerto Rico right now, the ground zero of the bad bunny operation, his homeland, the inspiration for all that he does. So I think it's only appropriate that you start us off.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: OK. Well, it's hard to overstate just how much it felt like San Juan was buzzing with excitement for this yesterday. I mean, all over the island - really all weekend, but especially all day Sunday, the day of the Super Bowl performance - it was, like, all anybody was talking about. Everyone was wearing their Benito Bowl shirts. I saw someone wearing a loteria shirt that had, like, an icon of Bad Bunny on it, and it said el halftime. I mean, it was just crazy all over the city, a million watch parties. I ended up at this spot in Santurce called El Gandul, which is like a gathering hub. They do plena nights, bomba nights, rumba nights. Sunday was rumba night. And after the first set of live music, it was like the air was thick with anticipation as people crowded into this bar, people dancing, singing, crying, hugging, perreando, abrazándose, all of the above.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) Me las vo'a llevar a toa' pa un VIP, un VIP. Ey, saluden a Tití. Vamo a tirarno un selfi, say "cheese". Que sonrían las que ya les metí en un VIP, un VIP.

SAYRE: Isa, I'm imagining this right now because I've been to, you know, rumba nights at El Gandul, and that space is - it's packed, it's hot and it's always people out of their chairs dancing. So I can only imagine the escalation watching Benito in California last night.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: No, it was just absolutely out of this world. Then we ran over to Esquina Watusi, a few blocks away, and it was just, like, every bar was showing it. People were on the streets. No one was paying attention to the football, to be completely clear. It was all about Benito for those 13 minutes. It was like the world stopped in San Juan, and all anybody wanted to do was listen to their nene on the screen.

SAYRE: You know, Isa, it's so lovely - I mean, unsurprising to hear that. But lovely to hear it because it feels like this really beautiful, circular moment for what we saw last night because really what it was was Benito, again, for the millionth time, speaking for and directly to Puerto Rico.

CONTRERAS: But this time, he had a worldwide audience. And what did he do? He recreated Puerto Rico for that worldwide audience on the football field.

SAYRE: I mean, that was almost guaranteed to happen, Felix. I mean, that's been like his core performance, kind of, like, tie it all together. He literally brings his house from Puerto Rico around the world on tour. That's what he's doing right now. So, of course, we expected to see La Casita. But there was a ton of other Puerto Rican imagery that we saw from literally the first seconds of the performance. I mean, Isa, what else was in there that you noticed?

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: I mean, I think, off the bat, part of what was so impactful was this representation of the sugarcane fields, the sugarcane plantation and just this nod to the very start of Puerto Rico's colonization. To the laborers, to the day workers, the Jíbaros, who, my understanding, I talked to a historian, Israel Meléndez Ayala. And, you know, he was talking about how this was an image that was really looked down upon for a long time in Puerto Rico. It was a word that was used in kind of a derogatory way. And here's Bad Bunny just completely reclaiming it, reclaiming the power of Puerto Rican and Caribbean and Latin labor on this giant global platform.

CONTRERAS: What was fascinating to me was how, like, it was a time travel experience because, Isa, you were talking about, you know, the earliest days of the island being a colony. But, you know, then all of a sudden, we're in modern times, you know, or at least semi-modern times, people playing domino right there on the table. They're selling the ice water. They're selling all kinds of stuff. Like, all of a sudden, people start populating beyond the sugar cane, and we're moving through this whole period. There's a reference to the social club in New York to acknowledge the diaspora. It was just really amazing sort of time travel.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Yeah. There's all these touchstones in just a matter of seconds. It's like layers upon layers of references of Puerto Rican life, diaspora life, Latino life at large.

SAYRE: And I think that's what we see - right? - as he opens the performance with kind of this barrage of image, image, image, image. Like you said, it's the laborers, it's the boxers. It's, you know, all of these things that we could spend 30 minutes just decoding those first few seconds or minutes. And then what I loved is we break into a longer New York sequence, we break into then that longer wedding sequence. He kind of takes us to a place where we get to breathe around the storytelling a little bit. And that's where he really hits us over the head with those, like, so quintessential, not only very Puerto Rican things, but, like, very Latino things. Like, to me, that wedding scene could have been Venezuela, it could have been Mexico. It could have been Panama. Like, you name it. And I don't think there was a Latino who couldn't feel identified with, you know, the dancing and the kid falling asleep on the chairs, which is maybe the most number one supreme Latin image of all time. That to me was where he really...

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Quintessential.

SAYRE: Quintessential. That to me is where he really hit it out of the park in terms of taking the specificity of Puerto Rico visually and making it not only feel pan-Latin, but really, like, universally, I mean, human, is it fair to say?

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Absolutely. And he starts creating these through lines, too, like this focus on the young people, on the youth. As the music is changing, I think, also trying to keep it grounded in where it comes from, we have this breakout into reggaeton and he - you know, he shouts out, esta música de los barrios, de los caserios. Like, keeping the music very rooted in where it comes from, but showcasing how it's something that everybody can celebrate, no matter where you come from or what language you speak.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BAD BUNNY: Estás escuchando música de Puerto Rico. De los barrios y los caserios. Ella viene por ahí.

SAYRE: And, I mean, I think one of the - well, I say one of because there were some really, really striking visual and musical moments. But one of the most striking moments, to me, that really encapsulates kind of what he has done and what he has now - how he's shifted is the el apagón moment. So we see him, you know, he moves through kind of this party sequence, the wedding. It's sweet. It's fun. And then we get to this more musically intense moment. The energy mounts, and you see him quite literally climbing up these light poles that I think are a pretty clear reference to the Luma Energy light poles that you'll see all around Puerto Rico. Now, I think it's important to note here that Luma Energy is the electrical company that basically controls the entire power grid and electrical infrastructure in Puerto Rico. Important to note that because that is one of the most hot-button, really important, difficult issues on the island, the issue of blackouts, of apagones. And so he gets on top of that pole, and he emphasizes this one line that says, todo mundo quiere ser latino pero le falta sazón, batería y reggaeton.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BAD BUNNY: Ahora todos quieren ser latino. No, pero le falta sazón, batería y reggaeton.

SAYRE: Which translates to everyone in the world wants to be Latino, but they don't have seasoning, drumming or reggaeton. I mean, that is one of those lines that it's like, it doesn't matter what part of the continents you are from, that hits you in a certain way, that moves you to sing in a certain way. And for him to stand not on some grand, you know, beautiful ornate stage or some kind of pedestal, to stand on the literal symbol, of a broken infrastructure, of something that makes Puerto Rico seem weak or broken or all of the things that have been commented in recent months leading up to this, to stand on that to proclaim the magnificence and the brilliance of what it is to be Latin American right now, I mean, that felt really significant to me.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BAD BUNNY: Cuida'o con mi corillo, que somo' un montón. Welcome to the Calentón.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Yeah. I just want to say watching that imagery from San Juan, it was so striking to be with people who were watching their lived reality be reflected on screen. So, like, for context, we were talking about how I was at El Gandul and the owner, Carmen Osorio Morales, she told me how much it meant to her to see the electricity grid issue represented because the day before the Super Bowl, El Gandul had three separate power outages, and they thought maybe they weren't going to be able to show the halftime show at all.

CARMEN OSORIO MORALES: Pues, tengo para decirte que nosotros hemos sido ¿verdad? Víctimas de - Ayer hubieron 3 apagones, y hoy fue un reto poder hacer la transmisión.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: So I think for a lot of the people I talk to, it seems like this sort of dissonance of being able to show the beauty of Puerto Rico, but the difficulty and the struggle of Puerto Rico openly was what really resonated with them the most.

SAYRE: You know, apagones obviously have been specifically an issue, a struggle that we've come back to again and again when talking about Puerto Rico. But really, I mean, struggle with infrastructure, a lack of great governmental oversight. All of these things are something that I think are pretty universal in many ways, in a lot of parts of Latin America. And that's the part where we start to see last night this opening up of Benito. And I think we've discussed this a little bit in last week's episode, Isa, and even the last year, where there's this shift happening that I think we're all currently witnessing, where Benito is really starting to assume, you know, this helm, this role as Latin American speaker at large.

And that's not something I think that he necessarily intended to do. I think there were a lot of expectations placed on last night. I saw things saying that this was going to be, like, the Latino State of the Union. I don't think that that - he's still an artist. He's still expressing personal experience and love for his own home, but I think we have seen him a little more willingly assume some of that position. It's in how he's spoken, some of the language. He said he's speaking, you know, to everyone who's ever had to move last week at the Grammys. He's speaking to all of America Latina, all the Latinos. He said this a couple of times.

And then what we see, he mounts the stage. He gives this very big proclamation about, you know, how everyone wants to be Latino. And then he shifts into this incredible, I mean, visually stunning scene, where you see people, all - a whole mass of people, dancers running down the field, and he takes the football, and he says, God bless America. And then he says o sea, and he starts to name every single country in the Americas. And we see this whole barrage of these beautiful color of every flag that's in America, including flags from Jamaica and Guyana and all of these countries that aren't necessarily Spanish-speaking or Latino, including Canada, including the United States. He wants to make, it seems, this very clear statement about what Americanness is.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

BAD BUNNY: God bless America, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru. Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, Republica Dominicana, Jamaica, Haiti, Antilles, United States, Canada and my motherland, mi patria, Puerto Rico.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: And I think this reclamation of America, especially on a platform like the Super Bowl, where so much of the way we talk in the U.S. equates America to just this country in particular, the borders of this country and the identities of the people who live here and who gets to occupy and who doesn't get to occupy. So him explicitly running down the list of countries, showing the flags, I mean, I can't imagine a more powerful political statement. And I can't imagine a time that this sort of reframing of who is American and what does America look like? I don't know that we've ever seen someone expand it so quickly and in such a vast and meaningful way.

CONTRERAS: Well, there is a precedent for that, not in a live performance, but there is a precedent on record, one of the early Rubén Blades records, where at the end of the song, he started shouting out Latin American countries as a reminder of just who the Americas are, that's the entire continent, or at least the hemisphere. So there is a precedent on record, but to see it live, just as we experienced it when we went to see the show during the residency, for me, that was one of the most powerful parts of the residency is all the flags that came out during that time. And to see him recreate it last night, I got a little teary-eyed, I got to say.

SAYRE: Well, and Felix, I don't know if I would call that precedent. I think we have a couple other examples of that. I mean, I think of, like, songs from Calle 13, from René, about America Latina united. I think about Ana Tijoux and her song about, you know, Latin America united as well. But to release a song listing off different Latin American countries or talking about America Latina united - libre, lo que sea - beautiful sentiment. Beautiful. That art is amazing.

But there is something so distinct and unprecedented - notably and importantly unprecedented - about Benito standing on a stage with what it appears - at least numbers we have right now - maybe looking at least for the whole game as looking like it's maybe 135 million people watching. Something around there. On a very charged, conflicted United States stage, to take that moment to decenter, really, the United States and redefine, or at least reaffirm in his eyes, in his vision, what America really means, I mean, that's bold. That's not just talking on your record about what America is. That's going to be an affront to a lot of people. And it was. I mean, President Trump pretty quickly after the show - you know, spoke on Truth Social, saying that he thought it was a horrible performance and something like an affront to what the greatness of this country is.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Well, and I think what's interesting about this decentering, is that he's been preparing us for this for months. I think the fact that he didn't tour the U.S. as much as - you know, he said in that interview with Suzy Exposito that part of it had to do with the ICE raids. But I think it's part of this larger message of him showing that being a global superstar is no longer defined to how successful you are within the U.S., and that success outside of the U.S. is just as valid, if not more valuable, to an artist like Bad Bunny.

CONTRERAS: Yeah, and that's an excellent point. And I think that it goes along with the point that Ana made of how, while Rubén Blades and other artists may have done it before, in Bad Bunny's hands, and in particular in last night, it elevates that to, like, levels like we've never seen before. Yeah, I'd agree.

(SOUNDBITE OF BAD BUNNY SONG, "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAII")

CONTRERAS: Certainly lots more to talk about, but let's take a break real quick. We'll be right back.

(SOUNDBITE OF BAD BUNNY SONG, "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAII")

SAYRE: OK, we're back from break, but before we keep going, I do - I'm curious. Like, how did we all feel sitting there watching this performance? 'Cause, I mean, Felix, you and I, we were texting a lot while it was happening...

(LAUGHTER)

SAYRE: ...As per always. I think when Lady Gaga came out, I said, what? - all caps.

(LAUGHTER)

CONTRERAS: You know, it's one of those performances that I have to sit on because it was just - there was so much there. And I go back to a lot of performances, you know, because of the existence of YouTube, thank goodness, that we can see some of this old stuff. But, like, I go back to these things, like, some of these performances, like, going back to Live Aid in the '80s, right? I mean, there's so many iconic live performances. This is one of those performances that's going to last forever and there's going to be always a reason to go back to it and be inspired by it. And I'm still processing it. I'm still - literally still thinking about all of the things that happened, what we saw. And I'm trying to sort out my feelings, other than I was inspired by it. It didn't surprise me. I'm not fully developed yet.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: I would agree with that. I mean, I was running around reporting, so it was, like, my focus wasn't - I was just...

CONTRERAS: Yeah.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: ...Trying to make sure I had good tape and I was getting people's reactions.

(LAUGHTER)

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: But I feel - I mean, I've been in Puerto Rico for a week now, and I feel so incredibly humbled and privileged to be able to get a little bit more of the context behind where this music comes from, how political it is, how resilient and resistant it is. And also just to understand, as someone who's not Puerto Rican - I'm Venezuelan. I identify as Caribeña - and sort of understanding how much we all have to learn from what Puerto Rico and Bad Bunny is doing, but also just how much we all have to help and encourage each other. I mean, Ana, you've said this before, but being here, just, like, the reality of the mutual aid in every aspect of the music, the culture, the survival of being Puertorriqueño, and just how much I think Bad Bunny is now positioning that to be a relationship and a sort of holding hands across the entire continent. I mean, it's really beyond what I can describe in words.

SAYRE: It's the drug of the island, Isa. But really, I mean, that is something that I have actually literally said multiple times. I look at Puerto Rico - and yes, I am on the record, like, obsessed with Puerto Rico, but for a reason - that I look at Puerto Rico and I see them. I see boricuas as an example for how we all should be. I mean, in the face of obstacles, in the face of challenge, what I have seen again and again is meeting that with love and with community and with mutual support and with family and appreciation. And that's something that I just - I actually feel quite comfortable generalizing that about the island because I - it's just been confirmed and confirmed and confirmed.

And what we see with Bad Bunny every single time, and we saw it so plainly last night, is that he just - his strength is that he just embodies that. Like, he embodies those messages of love and unity. Like, to me, his art and what we saw, it's not his invention, this idea that love is more powerful than hate or that we're stronger together or that what is difficult makes us more powerful. It's just that that's what he was raised on. On the island, that's what you're taught. And so I think he just communicates that really well musically, visually, in what he chooses to say and when he says it. He's just a brilliant vessel for that. And that was what - I mean, talking about feeling - I mean, I'm still - I, too, Isa, didn't really have time to properly process 'cause I was downloading into writing right away, but...

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Right.

SAYRE: ...I need to after this take some time, eat an ice cream and think about the world. But the point is is that that's - it's exactly that same thing. I think it's just that he channels being Puerto Rican so, so well.

CONTRERAS: And I will add this - I mean, like, I'm privileged. I've seen - I - what I consider the greats. I've seen Prince. I've seen Springsteen. I've seen James Brown. I've seen Celia Cruz. The artists like that, they have it. They have that thing where they communicate with their fans at almost an existential level. It's just so profound. And that's what I saw. I've watched him grow. Like, we covered his first record, Jasmine Garsd and I. We talked to him back then. We've watched him grow and become this entertainer, this musician, this persona, this live entity. When he does - when he performs, it's - like, it's white-hot. And that, I think, is what really struck me.

One of the things that struck me last night is, like, he's - we all know that. We all knew he had it. But I really - and, like, I put him in that category. And especially when it comes with the Super Bowl because one of my favorite Super Bowl performances of all time was Prince, which a lot of people consider the greatest Super Bowl performance of all time. It's on that level now, man. That's where he is.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: And yet he still manages to surprise us. I mean, I don't think anybody...

CONTRERAS: Exactly.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: ...Expected the guests that he brought out last night.

SAYRE: I mean, as aformentioned, Lady Gaga, to me, was, like, not in my wildest dreams, and I feel like, at this point, I could write five textbooks about this man.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

LADY GAGA: (Singing) Ooh, lost - lost in the words that we scream. I don't even want to do this anymore.

SAYRE: I mean, at first it was almost like, who? And then it was like, Gaga? I wasn't sure. I was like, who's the blonde lady singing (laughter)?

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Exactly. Exactly. And I think a lot has been written already, and I'm sure more will be written about how maybe a lot of people assume Lady Gaga was there in a way to pander or appeal to an Anglo pop audience, a more mainstream white pop audience. Honestly, to me - and this feeling only kept building as then later Ricky Martin came out, which we can discuss more about that in a second. But, like, there was a very strong, queer subtext to me that these were the two guests that he picked. And I think with Gaga, in particular, like, I immediately thought back to when she did the Super Bowl in 2017, and she did "Born This Way." And it was such an important moment for the LGBTQ community. And I think that Gaga, like, her ascent to stardom was loaded with so much gender interrogation. I mean, Anderson Cooper literally asked her about the biology of her body because there were so many rumors about her biological sex and her gender.

And I think that she - what she represents to queer communities and what she has represented as a pop star for so much of her career, it felt to me a little bit like, A, I think Bad Bunny is a documented fan of Lady Gaga, so I think he kind of just brought her because he likes her, but B, also a nod to the fact that some of Bad Bunny's earliest fans were part of the queer community who embraced him when he wore skirts and painted his nails. And there was all of this homophobia sort of charged at him from Latin America. I think now we talk about Bad Bunny so much in the context of Puerto Rican politics and immigration and ICE. But at the beginning of his career, a lot of his most political statements were about gender expression and sexual fluidity, and Lady Gaga is sort of one of the foremothers of that in contemporary pop music.

SAYRE: And I would jump in here also as a Lady Gaga defender and as someone - I'm actually not really much of a fan of her music, generally, but of this specific choice to include her because there is a power, I think, a very apparent power to choosing to bring someone on so that they can cross over to say, hey, here's your hit song, but guess what? I'm going to show you. I don't have to say it. But I'm going to show you how it sounds better in salsa.

CONTRERAS: (Laughter).

SAYRE: And that, to me, is, like, such a key tenet - right? - of what he does. It fits so neatly into his thesis where he's like, I'm not going to worry about what other people are saying that I can't do or what we as Latinos can't do. I'm going to show you what we can do and that actually we make it better. We do it with sazón. We do it with, you know, this extra energy. And that fit also really nicely into this wedding scene, right, which the theme of this hit song at the end of the day - of Lady Gaga's hit song - is this idea of the fleetingness of life, of always, you know, staying close to the people you love. And I think that that is just generally something that is prevalent in Latin America.

I mean, Latin American life is not easy, and it's definitely not guaranteed. And it's - in some pretty, like, confronting and scary ways, at times, it feels fleeting. And I think that's why we have such, you know, a love for family. And take - I mean, Puerto Rico is like the preem example of this. You take any excuse to party on the island when you can, I mean, in the most beautiful ways. And so I think that really what she says in that song, actually, it almost feels Latin in its text, in its subject matter more than even in the salsa arrangement. I thought that was a really actually intricate, smart way to show that we're all more aligned than maybe we think we are.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: And honestly, that was the only way that I could pass that song because I am a big Lady Gaga fan, and that is the one song on that album that I just can't stand. And this arrangement and that sort of...

CONTRERAS: (Laughter).

SAYRE: But everything sounds good...

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: ...New life really worked.

SAYRE: ...In salsa, Isa.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Well, not everything, but it sounded better.

SAYRE: (Laughter).

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: I'll say that. And I thought it was so cool of Gaga to be there.

SAYRE: Yes, absolutely.

CONTRERAS: And Ricky Martin?

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: I mean, I could write a thesis. I think...

(LAUGHTER)

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: So the thing about Ricky Martin that really - I mean, part of it is, like, you know, Ricky Martin has been a Bad Bunny supporter from the beginning. He did uncredited vocals on his very first album on the song "Caro," which was a very queer music video, and it was a hook about, like, being happy and not causing harm to anyone by expressing yourself. But I think what really stood out to me about Ricky Martin doing "LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii" is that Ricky Martin, in so many ways, is the face of a colonized pop star to me. He was the face of a Puerto Rican artist forced to crossover. And so to have Ricky Martin get the chance to sing an anticolonial anthem en Español at the Super Bowl, it was just, like, allowing him to reclaim.

SAYRE: Oh, my god. You're going to make me cry. Yeah.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: It was one of the most powerful things I've ever seen at the Super Bowl for sure, but maybe just in pop culture, period.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RICKY MARTIN: (Singing) Quieren quitarme el río, y también la playa. Quieren el barrio mío, y que abuelita se vaya. No, no.

SAYRE: And I think it's really important to note that a week ago - just about a week ago, right after Benito won Grammy album of the year, I mean, he published an op-ed in El Nuevo Día, saying, effectively, he - actually, he said, this achievement is for a generation you taught that their identity is nonnegotiable and that success is not at odds with authenticity. I mean, what a beautiful sentiment coming from, like you mentioned, Isa, a man who was pigeoned into a hole of what was considered widely consumable. It's really beautiful that, you know, he's speaking, oh, yes, to a generation. But it's clear that he's receiving that message himself. And then we get to see him actually act on that feeling, on that example last night. That's - I mean, it's beautiful.

CONTRERAS: OK. I was on social media this morning, and I saw a friend of a friend was the person who contracted all the pleneros, and he had posted on Facebook he was so beside himself, so proud that he was able to be part of that. And he had - there were 30 pleneros in total sprinkled out throughout the performance. And I thought, man, and it hit right at the right time.

SAYRE: I mean, when you think, Felix, about how he's been using this imagery of plena and los pleneros, which, you know, that refers to the specific band or the group Los Pleneros de la Cresta that he's had with him throughout all of his shows for this album, the residency and now the tour, obviously, he expanded that. And that felt like a really beautiful encapsulation, Felix, of what he did last night, ultimately, which was take something really, really Puerto Ricanly (ph) specific, something really local, which is plena - I mean, you can't get more local to Puerto Rico - and he used it as a vehicle to make it the most global and inclusive moment in the set.

Because when you think about, you know, how he's been using Los Pleneros on tour, they're always the ones who come out and say the most resistant things, or they come out and they do the most, you know, culturally specific homages. Like, in Mexico, they were the ones who sang Cielito Lindo, though they've done similar things in other countries. And then they'll make comments about, you know, united Latino America. Like, he kind of uses them as those voices of, like, the greatest voices of resistant (ph), the most forceful and explicit voices. And so to then bring out all these pleneros as he's simultaneously bringing out all these banderas, he's showing American - overall American unity, felt like this really, like, brilliant and intricate way to say, hey, Puerto Rican resistance, it's actually so perfectly applicable for American resistance at large and for this redefinition of America that I'm doing here.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Absolutely. And I think, you know, something that's been interesting from the island point of view of all of this was, like, I've been going to plena workshops and plenazos all week. And, I mean, this doesn't even begin to scratch the surface. But not only is it one of the most political genres, but it's also - a lot of the classes I went to, it was like a lot of young women, a lot of queer people. Like, it really captures the sort of changing social norms. So for him to employ it in this moment of, like, expanding from being a Puerto Rican leader to being an American leader, expanding that definition in real time through the plena, through the imagery, I mean, it really captures the essence of what the music is and what it stands for.

CONTRERAS: As we said, everybody's talking about it today in so many different ways. And I suspect we'll be talking about this for a very, very long time. It was that kind of performance.

SAYRE: And, I mean, we can't leave without saying, guys, he wiped his Instagram last night. There's a new era loading.

CONTRERAS: Dare I ask you guys at all, like, what do you think he's going to do next? 'Cause think about the year that he's had. I mean, the drop the record. He did the Tiny Desk. He did the residency, the Grammy, the Super Bowl. Like, what does he do next, man?

SAYRE: Retire and move to the montaña.

CONTRERAS: (Laughter).

SAYRE: That's what I'd do.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: He's been threatening that for so long. But, you know, I think what's so awesome about Bad Bunny is that it's impossible to predict what he does next. Like...

CONTRERAS: Exactly.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: ...He always keeps us on our toes. You know, we've been listening to this guy for 10 years, and it's like every year, we're having this conversation of, oh, my God, what could he possibly do to surprise us next? And yet, he always delivers something. So, you know what? I'm just - I'm excited to see what it is, whenever it is. I hope he takes some time, though.

SAYRE: I don't even try anymore. I just - I come completely submitting to whatever it will be. I don't even need to know. I'm just excited to see what it is.

CONTRERAS: I like to think that he would be, you know, lifted up into the sky on a - like a sea of butterflies, like a...

SAYRE: You mean Jesus?

CONTRERAS: No, like a García Márquez character, right? Some kind of magic realism moment where he just, like, is lifted up.

SAYRE: Felix, this is just you imagining him at the Sphere.

CONTRERAS: At the Las Vegas thing. Yeah.

SAYRE: I already know what this is.

CONTRERAS: Yeah. Yeah. No, just...

SAYRE: You're like, and he could take on this new thing, like Bad Bunny-Dead...

CONTRERAS: No.

SAYRE: No (laughter).

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: And he's going to keep the Grateful Dead American Song going for the next couple of years.

CONTRERAS: Yeah, like the crossover. The crossover.

SAYRE: (Laughter).

CONTRERAS: Yeah, I agree. Like, there's no way to know, and it's one of the great figures to watch and try to anticipate and just enjoy, man. That's the whole thing about this. It's like, just enjoy what he brings.

(SOUNDBITE OF DUSTY HENDRIX ET AL.'S "DOS MANOS")

CONTRERAS: You have been listening to ALT.LATINO from NPR Music. Our audio editor is Noah Caldwell.

SAYRE: The executive producer of NPR Music is Suraya Mohamed.

CONTRERAS: The executive director of NPR Music is Sonali Mehta. Special thanks, as always, to Isabell Gomez Sarmiento for blessing us with her presence and her ideas. Thank you, Isa.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: Los quiero mucho, mucho.

CONTRERAS: (Laughter) A tí, a tí.

SAYRE: Isa. Isa.

CONTRERAS: I'm Felix Contreras.

SAYRE: And I'm Anamaria Sayre.

GOMEZ SARMIENTO: And thank you for listening.

(SOUNDBITE OF DUSTY HENDRIX ET AL.'S "DOS MANOS")

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