Bad Bunny

 

Who would've imagined that the son of a truck driver and a school teacher from Puerto Rico would end up being one of the biggest artists of the decade so far? Humble beginnings in 2013 by publishing his songs to Soundcloud, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, known by his stage name, Bad Bunny rose to prominence in 2016, and hasn't looked back since. Releasing his critically-acclaimed debut solo studio album X 100pre in Christmas Eve 2018, and Qasis with J Balvin in 2019, Bad Bunny walked into the 2020s as an already established star in Latin music, and it was only uphill from here.

Kicking off 2020, Bad Bunny released his second solo and third studio album YHLQMDLG (Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana (Spanish for "I Do What I Want")). The album debuted at #2 on the US Billboard 200, becoming the highest-charting all-Spanish album ever at that time. It also became the most streamed album of 2020 on Spotify, along with Bad Bunny himself being the most streamed artist of the same year, becoming the first non-English music artist who had achieved that feat. The album even received the Grammy Award for Best Latin Pop or Urban Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. However, it seemed like everything was coming to a close in the chapter for Bad Bunny as in the final song of the album "<3", he announced his intention to retire after releasing one more album nine months after the release of YHLQMDLG, and retire calmly like Miguel Cotto, a Puerto Rican boxer, citing stress from fame impacting his mental health negatively. Sure enough, almost exactly 9 months later, Bad Bunny released his third solo studio album El Último Tour Del Mundo (Spanish for "The Final Tour of the World"), which refers to how Bad Bunny imagined what his last concert tour would look like, as he imagined his final tour in the year 2032. The album debuted at #1 on the US Billboard 200, making it the first all-Spanish album ever to achieve that feat. The album received Best Urban Music Album at the 22nd Annual Latin Grammy Awards, as well as the Best Música Urbana Album at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. To promote the album, Bad Bunny embarked on a concert tour with the same name. For the 2nd year in a row, Bad Bunny had become the most-streamed artist of the year in 2021.

While originally planning to retire there, even venturing into professional wrestling, wrestling at WWE's flagship WrestleMania 37, a sudden change of heart led to the release of his fourth studio album Un Verano Sin Ti, being his most successful to date. A critical and commercial success, Un Verano Sin Ti debuted atop the US Billboard 200, marking Bad Bunny's second number-one album and the second all-Spanish language album to top the chart. It spent 13 weeks atop the chart and topped the Billboard 200 Year-End Chart as the best-performing album of the year, the first Spanish language album to do so. It was also the first album by a Latin artist to reach 10 billion streams on Spotify. At the 23rd Annual Latin Grammy Awards, the album won Best Urban Music Album, while at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards, it became the first Spanish-language album to earn a Grammy nomination for Album of the Year. Un Verano Sin Ti ended up being the world's best-selling album of 2022, making Bad Bunny the first Latino to have won an IFPI Global Chart Award. Bad Bunny ended up becoming the most streamed artist of the year for 2022, for the 3rd year in a row, making him the only artist to achieve that feat three times.

These last 3-4 years have proven that Bad Bunny is not going anywhere, in fact he's bigger than ever, and has even become a mainstay in the music industry. Already taking over the streaming world, and being among the most streamed artists ever on Spotify, who knows what's next.