In 2025 Bad Bunny has reclaimed his worldwide musical throne with an album in which he has used his global reach to revitalize the traditional genres of his island and the continent, in a path being taken by many other artists such as Karol G and Rauw Alejandro.
DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS’, which won the Latin Grammy for album of the year, mixes reggaeton with Puerto Rican native music such as plena and salsa, which has provided international exposure and exposure for new generations of these rhythms and Puerto Rican identity and culture.
Pa’l perreo, la salsa, la bomba y la plena’.
Thus, in ‘CAFÉ CON RON’, together with the group Los Pleneros de la Cresta, he presents something as popular on the island as the gastronomic route of the ‘chinchorreo’, to the rhythm of the tambourines of a genre that has its roots in the slaves, sugar cane workers and farmers.
For Erwin Carrucini, of Taller Toca Plena, who released his first album, ‘Miércoles a las 7’, in November, Bad Bunny’s involvement in his project is “very important and significant for the plena and the culture of Puerto Rico” because of its influence on young people who “perhaps do not feel very identified”.
“These young people who are growing up now say, ‘look, let’s listen to bomba, let’s play plena, which is our music, which is our identity and we carry it in our blood because of our ancestors,” Carrucini subrnadaaaaya to EFE.
The plena is a genre indigenous to Puerto Rico, as is the bomba, which Bad Bunny also included in his historic concert residency in San Juan, showcasing to the world the playing of the barrels and the traditional dance.
The Puerto Rican identity was also very marked in the song ‘PIToRRO DE COCOCO’, which presents a drink made with rum very popular on the island to the beat of the cuatro (national string instrument), while the salsa came from the hand of the hit ‘BAILE INoLVIDABLE’.
During the concerts of his residency in San Juan, Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio brought to the stage veterans such as salsa singer Gilberto Santa Rosa and troubadour Andrés Jiménez ‘El Jíbaro’, as well as iconic actor and filmmaker Jacobo Morales, through the short film ‘DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS’.
Bad Bunny makes salsa fashionable
Not only Bad Bunny has decided to open reggaeton and urban music to the origins. This ban was opened by Puerto Rican Rauw Alejandro with ‘Cosa Nuestra’, an album he released in November 2024, which was loaded with salsa and included a version of the classic ‘Tú Con Él’ by Frankie Ruiz, one of the greatest exponents of the genre.
The singer, in fact, made his tour a trip to the New York of the 80’s, the same that Benito evokes with his ‘NUEVAYoL’, and with mustache, suspenders and beret, has put timbales and a lot of dance to claim land and culture.
With other references but a similar intention came Karol G’s proposal in ‘Tropicoqueta’, an album released on June 20, 2025, which mixes salsa, romantic bachata and, defending its Colombian essence, cumbia and vallenato.
The song that gives its name to the album is an ode to the ‘guarachera’ music that sounds at any party, birthday or celebration in many towns in Colombia: “Where are the people of this party that came to dance, not to have a nap?
The paisa artist has also changed the image to a tropical one evoking the Latin vedettes of the last century, just like Rauw Alejandro and his ‘New York gangster’ style or Bad Bunny and the jibaro.
Neither Bad Bunny nor Karol G have abandoned perreo, but they have managed to place other rhythms, the ones they themselves grew up listening to and dancing to, and now they can also be heard in all corners of the world.
“This type of artists who resonate worldwide, who are famous, who have a large audience, the fact that they are playing this type of themes of identity, of culture, of reference to their countries is very interesting,” says the Puerto Rican Carrucini.
Behind these artists, other smaller artists have followed in the wake betting on these rhythms – ‘capaz (merengueton)’, by Venezuelans Alleh and Yorghaki, is the second most listened to song in 2025 in Spain on Spotify – and ‘La Plena – W Sound 05’, by W Sound, Béele and Ovy On The Drums, which fuses with Afrobeats, is one of the most listened to Latin tracks worldwide, reported Agencia EFE.
Find out more at ‘QueOnnda.com’.