The present is Latin, he sings in Spanish and this Saturday he left an unforgettable and conciliatory dance in Madrid, eventual meeting point of many Ibero-American cultures, at the beginning of a historic Bad Bunny residency with Myke Towers as inaugural guest.
The first 64,000 of the 640,000 people who will attend these ten concerts at the Metropolitano stadium in the Spanish capital have already enjoyed the tremendous energy of the tour of ‘Debí tirar más fotos’, which has already set unique records, such as the first Grammy for “album of the year” for a Spanish-language album.
“My first night in Madrid in a long time and I want to enjoy it to the fullest with you, we are going to make it worth it, if you leave here without having perreado you can’t say that you have come to a Bad Bunny concert and I want to see Madrid perreando!”, proclaimed the Puerto Rican artist in one of the many highlights of this “show”.
It’s been six years since the “bad bunny” last stopped by, a period in which he has grown to become such a defining figure in global music that, when the 20s of this century are remembered in the future, he will be inextricably linked to them in the same way as Michael Jackson was to the 80s or Nirvana to the 90s.
The uniqueness of such occasions can be felt from the very entrance to the venue in the transversality of the audience, many young people, yes, but also from other generations and all kinds of social backgrounds in search of one of the artists who is setting the tone of the present in musical and social terms, hence quite a few wearing a pava, the straw hat of the peasants of his country that he popularized with his performance at the Super Bowl.
The clock struck eight o’clock in the evening, still in good light, when, stimulated by a previous video, the audience joined the invocation of the artist using the first verses of ‘La mudanza’, those of “Benito, hijo de Benito, le decían Tito”.
There the artist emerged in his pristine beige suit in the middle of the dance floor, eyes closed behind his translucent glasses until he opened them and a smile appeared on his face to the general acclaim, “Benito, Benito!”, to start the long show of almost three hours and more than thirty songs.
Although the review of his career is extensive, the protagonism falls on the side of ‘Debí tirar más fotos’, an exploration of his musical roots as a counterweight to the pernicious consequences of globalization and the most radical capitalism, which is one of the most positive aspects of this show that welcomes several traditional musical groups of his country, such as Chuwi or Los Sobrinos.
Approximately 40 years after salsa burst with force in Spain thanks to Juan Luis Guerra, this Puerto Rican has managed to get a new batch of kids to vibrate with the excuse of urban music of Caribbean roots, its brass, timbales and maracas.
In this first section in which he performs ‘La mudanza’, ‘Callaíta’ or ‘Weltita’, among other songs, his interpretation of ‘Baile inolvidable’ is especially applauded. For the memory, the shot of the big screen, with the artist ahead and supported by fifteen musicians who burst in with all their tropical arsenal, to which they give continuity with another recent hit, ‘Nuevayol’, and dozens of dancers on the dance floor.
“This show is about enjoying the little things in life like singing, dancing, sweating, laughing and having a good time. You are the only ones with the power to turn this into a magical day that we will never forget. Madrid, sing and love without fear!” he summed up.
Actresses Ana de Armas and Ester Expósito, members of the band Rawayana, and soccer players Isi Palazón and Sergio Camello, from the humble but worthy of continental prowess Rayo Vallecano, were waiting for him at the now iconic “casita”, the alternative stage which, to tell the truth, is the real stage of this tour.
It is there where perreo rules and songs like ‘Si veo a tu mamá’, ‘Bichiyal’, ‘Safaera’ or ‘Tití me preguntó’, another apotheosis of this “show”, and it is also where that special moment when Bad Bunny performs an exclusive song that will not be played again on the tour. Tonight’s was ‘Adivino’, with his compatriot Myke Towers as a guest.
It is also there where another band from his country, Los pleneros de la cresta, in charge of giving life to ‘Ábreme paso’, speak of those “silenced voices that today, thanks to you, are being heard”.
And it is also the place where he devotes many minutes to his followers, a somewhat anticlimactic segment were it not for the appearance of a disconsolate young follower whom he ends up hugging and who is one of those chosen to launch his traditional battle cry: “Acho, PR is something else!
In fact, the numerous cut-off moments were the only negative note of this concert, along with the usual muddy sound of the Metropolitano stadium, which made it even more difficult to decipher Bad Bunny’s already closed phrasing, not for his faithful, who chanted every lyric with the clarity and vehemence with which others recite the Bible.
The main stage resumes the pulse for the last section, in which cuts like ‘Ojitos lindos’, ‘La canción’ that he did with J Balvin or, above all, ‘Dákiti. It is also the place for ‘El apagón’, ‘DtMF’ and ‘EoO’, in a finale that, according to Agencia EFE, led some to outline that this could be the best concert ever seen at the Metropolitano.
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