Bad Bunny becomes the world's most-streamed artist
The Puerto Rican superstar's dominance signalled the global ascendancy of Latin and Spanish-language music.
Bad Bunny, the Puerto Rican superstar, cemented his status as a global phenomenon this year, becoming the most-streamed artist in the world and signalling the extraordinary ascendancy of Latin and Spanish-language music on the international stage.
Performing almost entirely in Spanish, Bad Bunny had built a colossal worldwide following by fusing reggaeton, Latin trap and a restless array of other styles with an irreverent personality, a distinctive voice and a willingness to defy genre and gender conventions. His success came without any concession to recording in English, long considered a prerequisite for global pop stardom.
His album this year was a sprawling, summery record that topped charts around the world and produced numerous hits, and it became one of the most-streamed albums globally, while his record-breaking tour drew enormous crowds.
Bad Bunny's dominance reflected the broader global surge of Latin music, powered by streaming, which had erased many of the barriers that once confined Spanish-language music to regional markets. Reggaeton and its offshoots had become some of the most popular sounds on the planet.
His rise marked a genuine shift in the geography of pop, with a Spanish-singing artist from Puerto Rico sitting atop the global charts and commanding one of the largest audiences in the world. Bad Bunny had become not just a star but a symbol of a more diverse, multilingual and interconnected global music culture, and a sign that the center of pop gravity was no longer solely English-speaking.