3 weeks ago
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Between his big Grammys win, his Super Bowl half-time performance, and his first ever local tour, it’s officially Bad Bunny month in Australia.
But, here, where his streaming dominance has lagged behind the rest of the globe, many people still don’t get what the singer – real name Benito Martinez Ocasio – is all about.
Here’s Bad Bunny’s best songs ranked. If you’re new to his oeuvre, think of it as a primer. If you’re well-versed, take to the comments section and let the arguments begin.
30: Estamos Bien
A bouncy celebration off his trap debut X 100pre, Bad Bunny made its prickly undercurrent explicit during his first appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s Late Show in September 2018, when he called out Donald Trump’s miserable response to Puerto Rico’s Hurricane Maria tragedy.
29: Me Porto Bonito
Over a pounding reggaeton beat, Bad Bunny (alongside Plan B’s Chencho Corleone) promises to behave himself for his girl. The song gave us his iconic couplet “Tu no eres bebecita, tu eres bebesota”, some silly-meets-genius wordplay celebrating strong, empowered and, uh, oversized, femininity.
28: Vuelve Candy B
Alongside his church-goading Baticano, this one’s the highlight from Bad Bunny’s maligned “real-rap” reboot, 2023’s Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Manaña. Named after a champion Puerto Rican thoroughbred racehorse, it’s Benito in full-flight emcee mode. Over a regal trap beat he mocks his haters, boasts about his friendship with Al Pacino, and suggests he’s so bored with the music industry he might retire at 33. That’s next year.
27: KLOuFRENS
The title of this emotional reggaeton from Bad Bunny’s Grammy-conquering masterpiece Debi Tirar Mas Fotos is phonetic for “close friends”, the singer lamenting being stuck at Instagram’s reach with an ex-lover who left him “hypnotised” and “colonised” (sure, it could be Kendall Jenner). The lilting melody in the bridge is utterly deflating; no one since Robyn’s expressed pop heartbreak so purely.
26: Solia
Among the songs that cemented Bad Bunny’s reputation as a feminist ally in a genre known for its machismo is this character study where Benito, like a tipsy Nick Carraway, watches a girl out at the club alone as she drowns her sorrows in booze and music, a temporary escape from her deadbeat lover and the other dumb guys trying to get her attention.
25: Despues de la Playa
A precursor to his traditional flex on Debi Tirar Mas Fotos, this fan favourite – titled “After the Beach” – finds Bad Bunny going full mambo to riotous effect. The horns are loud, the congas are frantic, and Benito’s vocals are so raw that when he starts chanting “estoy borracho!” (“I’m drunk!” ), I believe him.
24: El Club
It’s a familiar Bad Bunny scenario – he’s drunk in the club, high on pills and dead inside like he’s Latin Future, thinking about his ex and wondering if she’s found a new man yet – but sonically, this one soars. The thumping house beat gives way to traditional instruments, fusing Benito’s internet-age sadness with campesinos who’ve sung the blues for generations.
23: Dakiti
The song that sent Bad Bunny global, creating a streaming juggernaut and, thanks to the skirt he wore in the music video, a boundary-pushing superstar. Over a spacious beat that blends reggaeton with electronic music, he trades verses with fellow Puerto Rican rapper Jhay Cortez, making sly come-ons to a studious girl in medical school who prefers watching guys doing wheelies on their motorbikes. Ah, that ol’ story.
22: Andrea
Bad Bunny’s Roxanne but, like, good. Over a sultry reggaeton beat and a flow that’s closer to spoken word poetry, he paints a sensitive portrayal of a sex worker trying to make ends meet. It’s this respect for society’s outcasts that’s made Bad Bunny a folk hero in the mould of early ’Pac.
21: EoO
Taking its title from Bad Bunny’s own drawn out elocution of the last syllable of “perreo” – a bass-heavy subgenre of reggaeton, and the dance closely associated with the genre – this one’s a pure dancefloor banger, with a fat beat from producer Tainy that samples Latin trap pioneers Hector y Tito’s Perreo Baby and Bad Bunny’s own classic Solo De Mi. The EDM breakdown in the middle is cool, but that moment when the reggaeton beat drops again is pure ecstasy.
20: Vete
Proof that Bad Bunny is one of pop’s greatest emoters. Vete, meaning “leave”, is a cruel good riddance – he’s sending his lover away and he’s not conflicted about it at all, he swears. He might be wallowing in self-pity, but that descending singalong chant in the chorus will make you cry.
19: Weltita
A stellar example of the modern-meets-tradition thesis of his Grammy-winning Debi Tirar Mas Fotos. Featuring vocals from Puerto Rican indie band Chuwi, this track – in which Benito just wants to take his girl for a romantic stroll around his island home, where the “sun shines like bling bling” – peaks midway when the traditional salsa takes over.
18: Caro
An underrated cut in Bad Bunny’s catalogue. It’s minimal and spacey, but don’t be fooled: this anthem’s punk as f---. “The rules I break and build them up again,” he sings, citing the critiques he copped for wearing skirts, painting his nails, and supporting the LGBTQ community. He interrupts the flow mid-song to let Ricky Martin, who came out publicly a decade prior, sing the touching refrain: “Why can’t I be like this? How am I bothering you? I’m just trying to be happy.”
17: Pero Ya No
You know you’re in for a good time whenever Benito starts a track with a mournful “ya ya ya-ya”. There’s so much to enjoy in this icy kiss-off to an ex-lover: the weird piano loop, the clanging trap beat, the way Bunny goes ham in the second verse as he’s smoking hookahs by the beach, thanking his ex for the “follow” and the “like”, and telling her no one will catch him ’cause he’s no Pokémon.
16: Enseñame a Bailar
The Caribbean in a pop song. In this exceptionally romantic tropical jam, Bunny’s drunk at the club at 3am and trying to convince a girl to teach him how to dance and then stay up to watch the sunrise together. By the time the track ends with a dancehall hook and the ocean tides lapping, I swear I can smell coconut oil.
15: Te Deseo Le Mejor
The highlight from Bad Bunny’s rock album, 2020’s El Ultimo Tour Del Mundo – along with Yo Visto Asi, his bratty Avril-esque anthem where he fights for his right to dress like “a panda like Jack Black” – is so emo it hurts. Titled “I Wish You the Best”, it opens with post-punk strums and pained vocals, before turning reggaeton like Post Malone went Latin. More proof that Bad Bunny does whatever he wants.
14: Moscow Mule
The lead single off Bad Bunny’s opus Un Verano Sin Ti is forlorn reggaeton, escapist in both vibe and execution, but it’s the lusty situationship with one of his WhatsApp hook-ups, and those yearning vocal melodies, that drive this track. My favourite part is when Benito offers to sweep her away to Bali, restoring some romanticism to its reputation after all the damage done by our bogan economy.
13: Yo Perreo Sola
Translated as “I twerk alone”, this smash sparked a thousand thinkpieces and positioned Bad Bunny as pop’s most enlightened male star. Over a thudding reggaeton beat, and written partly from a woman’s perspective (sung by Nesi), he demands the club be a safe space where women can get as wild as they want to, free from the harassment of obnoxious men. He performs in drag in the song’s viral video, making a mockery of toxic machismo.
12: Neverita
Here’s Bad Bunny at his most mopey: he’s after a girl who’s completely indifferent to his advances and it’s driving him crazy (“I feel like the sun when you wear sunblock,” he sings). But between the bouncing house beat, the reverb-heavy guitar-wash, and his yearning vocals, this is the aural equivalent of being dumped beside an orange-and-purple island sunset. Stomp on my heart, I don’t even care!
11: Tenemos Que Hablar
An early showcase of Bad Bunny’s sonic adventurousness, on Tenemos Que Hablar (“We Need to Talk”), off his 2018 debut X 100pre, he traded Latin trap for Strokes-ian guitars and the bratty snarl of Blink-182. Somehow, it works.
10: Solo De Mi
You could interpret this emotional masterpiece, in which Bad Bunny testifies for his own independence (“I’m not yours or anybody else’s, I only belong to me”), as a break-up song or a song about the guiding principle of his singular career. But, as its video makes explicit, it’s also a song decrying domestic violence. It’s sublimely crafted, especially when that understated beat switches into a perreo grind that’s buoyantly defiant.
9: El Apagon
The track that cemented Bad Bunny’s political bona fides and status as a people’s hero. Named for the recurring blackouts that plagued Puerto Rico’s privatised power grids, it’s a love letter to his home during troubled times, protesting government mismanagement, gentrification and overtourism. He’d revisit these themes on Debi Tirar Mas Fotos′ Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii, but El Apagon does it with aplomb, moving through traditional bomba, electro-house and Bomb Squad-style sonic overload with righteous fury.
8: Nuevayol
The track that opens Bad Bunny’s Grammy-winning Debi Tirar Mas Fotos, Nuevayol – a Spanglish-mangling of “New York” – is the ultimate scene-setter, a celebration of the Puerto Rican diaspora’s cultural legacy in the city, that twists a sample of El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico’s 1975 salsa Un Verano En Nueva York into a dembow smash. You can feel the smirk when Benito asks: “How’s Bad Bunny gonna be the king of pop? With reggaeton and dembow!” It’s certainly been an accomplishment.
7: Callaita
There’s a reason why this fan favourite’s earned over a billion plays on YouTube, it’s Bad Bunny at his most transportative. A sensitive character study about a quiet girl with a wild side (she takes her studies seriously but also sex, booze and marijuana), producer Tainy’s collagist soundscape folds seagulls and ocean tides into this dreamy, humid reggaeton.
6: Yonaguni
Like Drake, whose cosmopolitan prowess has seen him tap sounds from Africa to the Middle East, Yonaguni felt like Benito sidling into his global star status. He didn’t stick with it but this outstanding artifact, where he even raps in Japanese, remains. Over an evocative reggaeton beat, he’s drinking, smoking and getting so caught up in memories of an old flame that he’s promising to fly to the ends of the earth – in this case, a beach in Okinawa – to be beside her. The good life has never sounded lonelier.
5: Safaera
“Safaera”, Puerto Rican slang for going wild, sums up the experimental spirit of this bonkers epic. Produced by Tainy and DJ Omar and featuring Puerto Rican reggaeton pioneers Jowell & Randy and Ñengo Flow, it cycles through a suite of Latin club sounds and around a dozen beat changes and countless samples, most notably Missy Elliott’s Get Ur Freak On, over which Bad Bunny does just that. I’d translate it for you, but I’d go to prison for indecency.
4: DtMF
The wistful title track from his Grammys-conquering opus finds Bad Bunny back in San Juan and in his feelings about all he left behind, wishing he’d taken more photos of his family and friends, and praying those who remain never move from the island. It’s so emotionally affecting, it sparked a viral trend where TikTok kids shared photo montages of themselves with their long-gone abuelos and abuelas. Bad Bunny, uniting generations.
3: La Cancion
A sultry reggaeton ballad made for smoke-filled bedrooms. Taken from Oasis, Bad Bunny’s 2019 side project with friend J Balvin, before the pair had a falling out (they recently hugged it out on stage in Mexico City). Our narrator thought he’d gotten over his ex, but then someone played their song and now he’s reeling. Which begs the question: what’s the song? For a lot of people now, it’s probably La Cancion. I call this “La Cancion Inception”.
2: Baile Inolvidable
If your local salsa class has suddenly seen its membership spike, this song’s the reason. The ultimate expression of Debi Tirar Mas Fotos′ old-meets-new premise, the song builds from lonely synth jabs into a full-scale salsa rave-up with percussion skittering and horns blaring. “Life is a party that one day ends, and you were my unforgettable dance,” sings Bad Bunny, hip-shaking the pain away.
1: Titi Me Pregunto
Let’s all thank Benito’s auntie for questioning his life choices, because the result is this enduring masterpiece. Over a fantastic 808 bounce that turns to pounding dembow and back again, he responds with bratty exuberance, boating about selfies in the VIP lounge and listing all his girlfriends across the Latin diaspora. Of course, this is Bad Bunny, lifelong sad boy, so we’re not escaping without spiritual conflict. When the song breaks into an icy trap beat, his self-loathing takes over: “I don’t want to be like this,” he pleads, subtly condemning the macho culture that raised him. Never change, Benito.
Bad Bunny will perform the Super Bowl Halftime Show on Monday. His world tour hits Sydney’s ENGIE Stadium on February 28 and March 1.
