Bad Bunny is the stage name of Puerto Rican singer Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio – whose genre-bending songs and convention-flouting lyrics have made him a global star.
Since 2020, he’s been the most-played artist on Spotify in four separate years (a clean sweep that was only broken by Taylor Swift).
With his doleful singing voice and a prolific work rate, he’s transformed the sound of música urbana, combining elements of trap, hip-hop and R&B with the traditional sounds of Latin pop.
He got his start singing in a church choir at the age of five, and earned his nom de plume from a childhood photo of him scowling in a bunny costume.
As a teenager, he studied audiovisual communication at the University of Puerto Rico; and worked as a bagger at a grocery store to pay for recording sessions.
One of his early songs, Diles, caught the ear of DJ Luian, who offered him a record deal.
Audiences instantly fell for his sound, where hard hitting beats and boisterous music contrast with the star’s low-key delivery.
By the time Western audiences discovered him – via a guest verse on Cardi B’s 2018 hit I Like It – Bad Bunny had already racked up 16 Top 40 hits on the US Latin charts.
He released his debut album, x100pre, on Christmas Eve 2018, to universal acclaim.
Showcasing his versatility, its songs ranged from the pop-punk of Tenemos Que Hablar to the reggaeton ballad Si Estuviésemos Juntos and the avowedly political Estamos Bien, which became an anthem for Puerto Rico after it was devastated by Hurricane Maria.
In 2020, his third album, El Último Tour del Mundo, became the first number one on the Billboard chart to be completely recorded in Spanish. Every subsequent album has also topped the US charts.
Along the way, he established a reputation for colouring outside the lines.
Instead of singing about seducing women, he talked about empowering them. He dressed in drag and wrestled in the WWE. He was a prominent figure in protests that led to the resignation of Puerto Rican governor Ricardo Rosselló, and he’s been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.