Dangerous Bunny has given Puerto Rico a ‘new affect’ on the world stage, proud followers say
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Throughout the first week of Dangerous Bunny’s historic residency, followers sported outfits impressed by Puerto Rican folkloric tradition, together with straw hats often known as “la pava” and conventional “jíbaro” apparel, reflective of rural Puerto Ricans who labored on farms till the nineteenth century.
The style selection is an announcement. It’s in step with the theme of his 30-show live performance sequence: “No me quiero ir de aquí,” which interprets to “I don’t wish to depart right here.”
The concert events carry to life the songs on Dangerous Bunny’s sixth studio album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos,” or “I Ought to Have Taken Extra Images,” which the artist has dubbed as his “most Puerto Rican” album but.
On it, Dangerous Bunny sings of his want to remain in Puerto Rico and cherish its folks and historical past. Many of the lyrics communicate to Puerto Rico’s political realities and cultural legacy.
And for Puerto Ricans within the U.S. territory in addition to those that dwell on the U.S. mainland, the deal with their beloved Caribbean archipelago is every thing.
“It seems like we’re house,” Ivy Torres advised NBC Information. She and her partner, Alexis, are among the many greater than 600,000 people who find themselves anticipated to go to Puerto Rico this summer season to see the present — which is the primary formal residency any singer has ever completed on the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot, the largest indoor leisure area on the island, seating over 18,000 folks.
“It’s an effective way to reconnect with your loved ones, associates and every thing we left behind,” Alexis mentioned.
The couple moved to Ohio from Puerto Rico a decade in the past in the course of the top of the financial disaster on the island. “It was laborious,” Ivy mentioned. “We didn’t wish to depart our household and associates, however we needed to.”
Dangerous Bunny sings about this sentiment in his tune “Lo que le pasó a Hawaii” (“What occurred to Hawaii”). The tune addresses fears across the erosion of Puerto Rican identification amid an inflow of rich folks from the mainland who’ve moved there following the passage of tax breaks, in addition to a latest rise in short-term leases that restrict reasonably priced housing alternatives for native residents.
Born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, Dangerous Bunny reached world success singing in Spanish, popularizing Puerto Rican slang the world over and placing a highlight on the plight of Puerto Rican folks.
‘He does his music for Puerto Rico’
That’s why for Puerto Rico resident Verónica González, it “means every thing having a star like Benito singing for us,” she advised NBC Information. “He does his music for Puerto Rico, and he thinks about us.”
The album and residency successfully take followers on an emotional journey that fuses modern genres like reggaeton and dembow with conventional rhythms comparable to bomba y plena and Nineteen Seventies salsa music.
Inside a restaurant in Outdated San Juan, Puerto Rican artist and painter Joabel Ortiz has been displaying an artwork exhibit devoted to Dangerous Bunny and his newest album.
Ortiz mixes conventional symbols of Puerto Rican tradition like “la pava” with photos of the celebrity — highlighting the by means of line that connects a present-day cultural phenomenon like Dangerous Bunny to the roots of Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rican officers estimate Dangerous Bunny’s residency may have an financial influence of greater than $186 million, producing greater than 3,600 jobs and leading to greater than 35,000 lodge evening bookings.
However to his followers, it’s Dangerous Bunny’s deal with the folks and the essence of what it’s to be Puerto Rican that resonates probably the most.
“We obtained a brand new affect to the world,” Ortiz advised NBC Information. “That new affect is about our tradition, in regards to the concepts we obtained within the island, and the way we do every thing, how we communicate, how we love, how we bear in mind who we’re.”
Daniel Rodriguez, José Díaz-Balart and Leslie Ignacio reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Nicole Acevedo from New York.
