A Dispatch From Bad Bunny’s San Juan Residency

Home is a feeling. Home can be a mountain, an island, a stranger’s home where you’re welcomed like family.

Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, better known as Bad Bunny, decided he’s homebound for the summer, and for him, home is Puerto Rico. During prime festival and touring season, the megastar—whose latest album Debí Tirar Más Fotos (I Should Have Taken More Photos) hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts, his fourth album to do so—leveraged his celebrity to manifest one of the underlying purposes of his art. After spending years bringing Puerto Rico to the world, his homegrown show at San Juan’s famous Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot (El Choli, if you’re local) was designed to bring the world to the island.

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Aptly named No me quiero ir de aqui (I Don’t Want To Leave), Bad Bunny’s completely sold-out summer residency is an unabashed love letter to Puerto Rico. Entering the arena, the floor is flanked by two stages: a mountain that feels uprooted straight out of El Yunque National Forest, vaguely shaped like a cemí (a Taíno nature spirit), and a pink casita whose interior doubles as a VIP area. Anyone who sees the small house up-close can attest to the fact that the little house is authentic Caribbean architecture, the kind of space that could belong to any tía out in Fajardo or Ponce or Bayamón.

The spectacle opens theatrically: At center stage, a woman searches for a camera. At the same time, a man finds a blanket covering drums used for plena, a traditional Puerto Rican genre. Slowly, out of the mountain, dancers emerge donning traditional jíbaro garb worn in Boricua folk tradition, some complete with pava straw hats (an unofficial symbol of this era that doubles as a show of Puerto Rican pride). The man of the hour subtly appears stage-left, kicking off the night with new song “ALAMBRE PúA”.

No me quiero ir de aquí is split into three of the island’s key genres: plena, perreo, and salsa. Bad Bunny adapted his songs to each, plena drums replacing the dembow rattle on beloved hits like “La Santa” (originally recorded with Daddy Yankee) and “Vete.” When he appeared at la casita for the reggaeton-heavy section of the night—which included YHLQMDLG-era opus “Safaera” (recorded in 2020 with Jowell & Randy, and Ñengo Flow) and Un Verano Sin Tí’s “Titi Me Preguntó”—he comfortably waltzed between the roof and the front porch. His transition back to the mountain was soundtracked by local plena collective Pleneros de la Cresta, who thanked the audience after a lively jam out to “Café Con Ron”: “Thank you for getting the world to hear plena puertorriqueña!”

One of the residency’s biggest draws is the rotating cast of guests. For its 19th iteration,  Lorén Aldarondo Torres of Puerto Rican indie band Chuwi sang her “Weltita” verse from the mountaintop. Later, when the casita was transformed into a party de marquesina like the ones where reggaeton was born, the soundtrack was none other than Ivy Queen herself. The undisputed Queen of Reggaeton held court over the stadium from the casita’s entrance with a medley of her hits, snarling signature song “Quiero Bailar” like it was the last time she’d sing it. Before going back to the mountains, Bad Bunny tried bending the audience to his will again, encouraging everyone to turn off their phones and be in the moment. Most of the arena followed suit, and the audience presence was palpable.

Before switching to salsa, a video about the genre’s African roots was played, and Benito emerged in a suit. Backed by Los Sobrinos, he reinterpreted “Callaíta” with timbaleros and bongos. If he wasn’t already, Bad Bunny was fully in control of the audience for “Baile Inolvidable”, the salsa standout from this era. Arguably the show’s biggest moment after his sobering rendition of “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii” right before, it was a tremendous show of artistic growth, one where Bad Bunny channeled salsa legends like Héctor Lavoe and Willie Colón while remaining more himself than we’ve ever seen him.

It wasn’t until the end that I realized three hours had flown by. I was ready for more, almost disappointed that there wasn’t. That feeling was a shock: A big-budget arena show can often drag. Bad Bunny’s generosity as a performer is on full display from the moment you approach El Choli to the second you leave, an eternal moment frozen in the endless summer of the Caribbean heat. It’s something that can only exist here, something Bad Bunny did well to remind us when he first popped out of la casita, right as the initial electric guitar chords of house-influenced banger “Neverita” reverberated through the arena: “Summer ended in most of the world, but we’re in PR.”

All quotes have been translated from Spanish.

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