After trending worldwide on Twitter at No. 1 for the past few days, Bad Bunny lived up to the hype of his first live concert in this era of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. He elevated the art of the virtual concert to new heights on top of a trailer driving around New York City.
El Conejo Malo dodged traffic lights and bridges while performing the hits from his latest album YHLQMDLG. In a trailer styled after a subway car, he was first driven around the South Bronx, specifically Grand Concourse Avenue, in his own motorcade. In a very Beatles-esque moment, fans were chasing after the car. Benito treated us to his own NYC perreo parade.
While this year’s advent into virtual concerts has artists performing at home or studio lots, Bad Bunny took his live show to the NYC streets in a nod to where he says his career first started and blossomed. He jumped around the top of that trailer to songs like “La Difícil” and “Si Veo a Tu Mamá.” The way Benito wailed out “el maldito año nuevo” was relatable considering 2020 so far. The most impressive performances were Bad Bunny’s live duets with Sech, who was in Panama, for “Ignorantes” and Mora, who was in Puerto Rico, for “Una Vez.”
In a transition to the second part of his set, Bad Bunny took a moment to shine a light on his native Puerto Rico and the third anniversary of Hurricane Maria that devastated the area. P.R. is still in recovery he mentioned. As the sun went down, Benito tore through the hits from his first album X 100pre like “Ni Bien Ni Bien,” “Sólo de Mí,” and “Romana” (sans El Alfa). He also performed a few of his collaborations like the “No Me Conoce” remix without Jhay Cortez, the “Soltera” remix without Lunay, and the “Te Boté” remix without the all-star cast.
For the third act of his set, Bad Bunny pulled out another incredible virtual duet with Colombian reggaetonero J Balvin for their sad boy anthem “La Canción” from last year’s joint Oasis album. That was Balvin’s first performance since he recovered from COVID-19. Benito encouraged the world to move with him as he closed out the show with his perreo de résistance “Yo Perreo Sola” (sadly sans Nesi). The trailer parked for the grand finale and the crowd got a chance to perrear around Bad Bunny with their masks on.
The Latinxcellence jumped out, especially during Latinx Heritage Month. Bad Bunny followed and promoted social distancing guidelines while putting on the greatest live concert of the COVID-19 era. Over 1.4 million people tuned into Bad Bunny’s YouTube channel for the free, nearly two-hour show. Uforia served as the host of the event.
You can rewatch the full show here.