Bad Bunny is everywhere.
The Puerto Rican superstar, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, just made history at the Grammys with his Album of the Year win for Debí Tirar Más Fotos.
It was the first Spanish-language album to win in the major category.
He also won in two other categories, including Best Global Music Performance and Best Música Urbana Album.
Grammys aside, Bad Bunny is the most-streamed artist on the planet, beating out music giants like Taylor Swift, all while refusing to sing in English.
He is also about to play the Super Bowl halftime show and embark on a world tour, which will include shows in Sydney and Melbourne.
While it may seem like he came out of nowhere, the singer has been building to this height for years.
Let’s take a look back at how Ocasio became the international superstar known as Bad Bunny.
Humble beginnings
Before selling out stadiums, Ocasio was bagging groceries at a supermarket while studying at the University of Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rico is an island territory of the US located in the Caribbean. Residents who live there are self-governed, but they are considered US citizens.
While studying, he was uploading music to SoundCloud under his stage name ‘Bad Bunny’.
The moniker was inspired by a childhood photo in which he was dressed in a bunny outfit against his will, looking visibly upset – making him the “bad bunny.”
In 2016, his track Diles started gaining traction on the platform and beyond, catching the ear of DJ Luian, who signed him to the label Hear This Music.
From ‘King of Features’ to a new era
By 2017, Bad Bunny was known as the King of Features in Latin America, as almost all of the Latin songs charting in 2017 featured him.
In April 2018, his success in Latin America translated into the US when he scored a feature on Cardi B and J Balvin’s tune I Like It.
The song hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, proving Bad Bunny he had appeal beyond Latin America.
That same year, he got fed up with being known for features so he went independent and dropped his own album, X 100PRE.
It debuted at #1 on the Latin Charts and hit #11 on the US Billboard charts.
It included the track Mia, featuring Drake, which reached No. 5 on the US charts.
The album’s release is when the world started paying attention to Bad Bunny.
Hitting the stratosphere
When the rest of the world went into lockdown, Bad Bunny released three albums in 2020: HLQMDLG, Las que no iban a salir, and El Último Tour Del Mundo.
El Último Tour Del Mundo made history as the first all-Spanish album to reach #1 on the Billboard 200.
Between 2020 and 2026, Bad Bunny’s career success reached a level he had never seen before.
In 2022, he released Un Verano Sin Ti, which became the most-streamed album in Spotify history – a title it still holds.
The tracklist was described as a love letter to the Caribbean, blending reggae with indie-pop.
The following year, he became the first Spanish-speaking artist to headline Coachella.
He embarked on an area tour in 2024, which grossed $US211 million ($300 million).
A cultural reset
After all his success, there was nowhere else to go but up for the Spanish speaker.
In early 2025, Bad Bunny released Debí Tirar Más Fotos, which he wrote as a love letter to his home island of Puerto Rico. It won him Album of the Year at the 2026 Grammys.
The record was an immediate hit, and Bad Bunny was quick to announce a live tour that was anything but traditional.
The singer avoided mainland America altogether in an unheard-of move.
Instead, he held a 31-day residency at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico, in Puerto Rico, forcing fans and stars like LeBron James to fly to the island to see him perform.
The move generated an estimated $US733 million ($1 billion) in revenue for the local economy.
Come 2026, Bad Bunny won the Grammy for Best Album of the year, making history as the first Spanish-language album to win in a major category.
He also has arguably the biggest performance of his career coming up, as he is headlining the Super Bowl LX Halftime show, which is watched by over 125 million people worldwide.
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