The Baddest Bunny: 10 Reasons that Bad Bunny’s ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’ has held the most weeks at No. 1 since 2016

Bad bunny
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – SEPTEMBER 04: Bad Bunny performs onstage during 2022 Made In America at Benjamin Franklin Parkway on September 04, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Roc Nation)

Though knocked off its #1 perch on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart by BLACKPINK just this week (and, K=pop reign aside, that won’t last, trust me), Puerto Rican born Bad Bunny’s ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’ has held the most weeks at the No. 1 album slot since 2016. At any time that is an amazing feat – no artist, save for Taylor Swift in the 21st Century – can hold a buying public’s attention as such, even if we are talking the discount streams of Spotify sales.

So, why Bad Bunny?

Here’s some of the spiciest reasons that Bad Bunny’s ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’ has achieved such standing, beyond, you know, just being an amazing set of tracks.

One: Blame Cardi B.

The Bunny had been around for a minute before 2018, but his featured verse on “I Like It” with pal J Balvin by his side – at the exact moment when Cardi B’s trap-hop-pop fame was at its most assuredly cocky – put him front and center. Bunny’s “I spend in the club what you have in the bank/This is the new religion bang in Latino gang, gang,” nailed fame and fortune going forward.

Two: Blame Drake.

Drake might have gotten mixed reviews and lame sales for going house on his 2022 album, but in 2018, Drizzy could do no wrong. Smartly, Bad Bunny – still known then, primarily, for neo-reggaeton rather than the explosive electro-trap-Latin vibe he sold audiences wholesale on Un Verano Sin Ti – their joint track, “Mia,” put the Bunny’s name and sweeter side in people’s faces.

Three: Blame reggaeton.

The rhythmically steely, soca-inspired hyperactive vibe of Reggae en Español had been a thing in Panamanian dancehalls since the top of the 1990s, but began crossing over into the U.S. in 2004 with Latin artists such as (still my favorite) Tego Calderó, the recently retired Daddy Yankee (“Gasolina”, a song you still hear coming from every ATV roaring down your block), RKM & Ken-Y, Don Omar and Calle 13. Shakira collaborating with Alejandro Sanz to record “La Tortura” was big. So was Ivy Queen’s “La Mala.”

However, “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee, with a vocal remix featuring Justin Bieber broke the genre and the bank, reached over a billion views on YouTube in under three months. And opening the door for 2018’s, “Te Boté” which featured Nio Garcia, Casper Magico, Nicky Jam, Darell, Ozuna, and…. Bad Bunny upon hitting Number One on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. The more reggaeton opened itself up to hip hop, trap and pop sounds – without sacrificing its heat – the more Bad Bunny stood to benefit.

Bad Bunny
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – SEPTEMBER 04: Bad Bunny performs onstage during 2022 Made In America at Benjamin Franklin Parkway on September 04, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Roc Nation)

Four: Blame YHLQMDLG and El Último Tour Del Mundo.

Bunny’s personal success where Un Verano Sin Ti was concerned didn’t spring up in a vacuum. While his second solo album YHLQMDLG (2020) rose quickly upon release to become the then highest charting all-Spanish album, reaching number two on Billboard, Bunny’s fourth album, El Último Tour Del Mundo, and its rocking vibe, thrilled mainstream audiences enough to became the first all-Spanish-language album to reach number one on the Billboard 200. Rock albums rarely achieve such status in the 21st Century, and yet, a little dab did the Bunny right.

Five: Blame “Tití Me Preguntó”

Before Un Verano Sin Ti dropped, Bad Bunny released three singles, the best of which was his totally self-penned “Auntie Asked Me,” or “Tití Me Preguntó.” Highly influenced by the bachata groove of Dominican singer El Mayimbe (Anthony Santos), this was a more romantic sound filled with pop guitar kicks, something as yet untried by the Bunny. Plus, an interesting translation of Bunny’s chorus goes like this:

“I’m gonna take them all to the VIP, the VIP, hey/Say hello to auntie

Let’s take a selfie, say “cheese,” hey/Let the ones I already fucked smile

In a VIP, a VIP, hey/Say hello to auntie

Let’s take a selfie, say “cheese”/Let those who have already forgotten about me smile”

WTF?

Six: Blame “Moscow Mule”

My favorite alcoholic cocktail served in a copper mug must also be the Bunny’s as the rippling rhythms and the lyric “Two drinks and you know I get horny/We’re not a thing, but we’ve been entangled for a while” caught everyone’s imagination. And surely lifted sales of ginger beer and vodka, mightily.

Bad Bunny
PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA – SEPTEMBER 04: Bad Bunny performs onstage during 2022 Made In America at Benjamin Franklin Parkway on September 04, 2022 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Roc Nation)

Seven: Blame Bullet Train

Around the same time that Un Verano Sin Ti’s first singles were released, the saturated colors, Anime action and comic adventure of Bullet Train’s trailers – starring Brad Pitt – began to drop. Why was that a big deal? Because one of Pitt’s principle foes in the film was Bad Bunny in his first filmic role, one where he was majorly highlighted in kinetic, violent action while wearing his trademark sunglasses, a white Nudie suit and wildly curly hair. Even if the film wasn’t a big deal at first (it only just crossed the $100 million mark), everyone loved the Bunny and the Pop Art bloodshed.

Eight: Blame Bad Bunny music videos

While the video for “Tití Me Preguntó” was shot in New York City from the penthouse to the pavement, the cinematic travelogue for “Moscow Mule” goes from Miami to Puerto Rico in a flash, and look as great as Bullet Train did. There’s a reason that BB won the MTV Video Music Awards a month ago where they moved off set to his sell-out show at Yankee Stadium and a same-sex kiss.

Nine: Blame the Summer

There is nothing like a Summer anthem to make an artist’s reputation, let alone fill one’s bank account. Whether you’re going back to the days of the 1960s, the Beach Boys and barbershop harmony-driven pop to Prince’s “When Doves Cry” to “Old Town Road” from Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, a summer song lasts all year long. Fact is, the brightly colored pop and positivist reggaeton was written intentionally and designed purposefully to be an uplifting experience perfect for lawn chairs and shorts wearing. Fact is, B-Bunny said that he created the whole of Un Verano Sin Ti to be “a record to play in the summer, on the beach, as a playlist.” The Bunny is no dummy.

Ten: Blame this moment in time and the United States rise in Latino populations

“Made in America, Latinos make America,” Bad Bunny told the audience at Jay-Z’s Made in America, as that music festival’s first ever headliner. “it’s important that we remember that.” Starting alone on stage with the rich, reggaeton vibes of “Moscow Mule,” while bouncing on his heels, Bunny’s set blossomed to including dancers and a sonic booming soundtrack featuring squelchy electronica that would’ve made Depeche Mode green with envy, heavenly house music, and traditional Latin grooves with syncopated pianos. From the jumping pulse of “Un Coco” and “Party” to the deliciously flavorful “Yo Perreo Sola” – all rap-sung in his sweet round baritone – Bad Bunny proved himself to be a multi-genre, multi-ethnic pleasure to behold, no matter who beheld him – brown, Black and white, one nation under a groove. But, make no mistake, the Latino/Hispanic population has been grown exponentially within the United States since the last census, now represented by those identified as white Latinos, Afro-Latinos, mixed-race Latinos and Indigenous Latinos and 100 million citizens strong.

And to paraphrase another sharp dressed man with great hair and classic music like Elvis Presley, 100 million Bad Bunny fans can’t be wrong.

    • A.D. Amarosi's Headshot

      A.D. Amorosi is an award-winning journalist who, along with working for the Philadelphia Weekly, writes regularly for Variety, Jazz Times, Flood and Wax Poetics, and hosts and co-produces his own SoundCloud-charting radio show, Theater in the Round for Pacifica National Public Radio station WPPM 106.5 FM and WPPM.org.

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