No artist had a bigger year in 2020 than Bad Bunny. In February, the Puerto Rican superstar released his acclaimed second album, YHLQMDLG, filled with nods to the old-school reggaeton he grew up listening to back home. The world shuttered shortly after that, but he still found a way to keep his career — and his fans — moving. In May, he dropped an LP of outtakes, Las Que No Iban a Salir, and in September, he came to New York for a spectacular, Covid-appropriate mobile concert, where he rode through the Bronx, Washington Heights, and Harlem on the flatbed of a truck and got a hero’s welcome. The grand finale to his year came in November, when he shared El Último Tour del Mundo, a defiant industry game-changer lit up by streaks of rock guitar.
El Último Tour del Mundo made history as the first all-Spanish-language LP to top charts such as Rolling Stone’s Top 200 Albums, and around the same time Spotify named Bad Bunny its most-streamed artist of the year. Still, music’s 26-year-old king of surprises isn’t letting those achievements go to his head. “The truth is, I enjoy [making music]; it’s what I like most,” he says in Spanish. “If there’s recognition that comes with that, it’s extra. I’m satisfied just with getting to do what I do and having people around me who listen and support my ideas. But obviously, it feels great and makes me proud.”
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Your new album imagines the last tour on Earth. When the world opens up again, what are your shows going to be like?
The best in the world, the best in history — I swear that’s how I feel and what I want. Just before the pandemic and lockdown, we were getting all the details and experiences down for the next tour, and it had been incredible to see everything coming together. Now, with all that’s happened, the feeling is different. When we do finally get onstage, it’s going to be a totally new energy. It’s going to feel really special, I think, taking everything we had already planned and adding what we’re thinking about now.
If you actually had to plan your last show, what would it be like?
It would be in Puerto Rico. There’s no other place on Earth. That’s where the first one was — that’s where the last one will be.
The album shows some alt-rock influences. What kinds of bands were you into as a kid?
Honestly, I have so many, and I don’t want to name people so I don’t leave anyone out. Since I was a kid, I listened to so many styles of music. With my dad, I listened to one thing; with my mom, I listened to something else; with my grandparents, another thing; with my cousins, another. And then as you get older, sometimes you want to try completely new genres. There are way too many artists, bands, groups that have inspired me. I actually came to this conclusion the other day: Even the artists whose names I can’t remember, they’re part of my influences. All of these songs from special moments and experiences I’ve lived through have shaped what I do now.
Were you into other things associated with rock and punk growing up? The video for “Yo Visto Así,” for example, features an homage to skateboarding. Were you ever into that?
No, no, no. Zero kind of activities that require motor action whatsoever [laughs]. I can stand on a skateboard for about five seconds, and that’s it. But the attitude and the energy, I’ve definitely always identified with that.
