Music

Bad Bunny’s Grammys Performance Highlights Caribbean Music

Lead Photo: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 05: (FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Bad Bunny (C) performs onstage during the 65th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 05, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 05: (FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Bad Bunny (C) performs onstage during the 65th GRAMMY Awards at Crypto.com Arena on February 05, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)

Bad Bunny opened the 2023 Grammy Awards tonight (Feb. 5) with an unforgettable performance. The Puerto Rican superstar proudly represented the music of the Caribbean alongside the band of Dominican artist Dahian El Apechao.

When the nominations for this year’s Grammy Awards were announced in Nov., Bad Bunny made history with his Album of the Year nod. His blockbuster LP Un Verano Sin Ti became the first Spanish-language release to be up for the top award. 

For this year’s ceremony, Bad Bunny opened the awards with a few songs from Un Verano Sin Ti. He started out in the crowd singing a few lines from “El Apagón,” his anthem to his homeland of Puerto Rico. He was joined by a few bomba y plena dancers, and even brought out cabezudos from his Puerto Rican culture into the audience. Among the big-headed figures were icons from his island, like Tego Calderón, Andy Montañez, Tite Curet Alonso, Julia de Burgos, and Roberto Clemente. 

Bad Bunny turned the Grammy Awards into a dance party when the song changed to “Después De La Playa.” A curtain lifted to reveal Dahian El Apechao on the keyboard with his band. Dahian El Apechao composed the merengue music on the genre-bending hit. More dancers appeared and filtered into the audience to get people on their feet. A video of Taylor Swift has gone viral where she is seen dancing to merengue beats. Jack Harlow was also spotted grooving to Bad Bunny’s performance.

Many of Bad Bunny’s Latine fans were proud to see him represent the music of the Caribbean with his explosive performance. “Bad bunny brought out bomba dancers and have a spotlight to Afro-Ricans on el apagón (song that raises awareness of what’s happening in p.r while beautifully tributing the culture). He also repped DR with ddlp!!!!! What a man,” shared one fan on Twitter. “LITERAL GOOSEBUMPS. Our sound, our culture, merengue performers OPENING the #GRAMMYs,” wrote Remezcla’s Editor-In-Chief Thatiana Roman, with Dominican Republic flag emojis.

 

Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti won in the category for Best Música Urbana Album. With that victory, he now has won three Grammy Awards throughout his career.