On the penultimate night of his sold-out 31-show residency in San Juan, a visibly emotional Bad Bunny stood in front of the towering “mountain” he had ordered erected on the floor of the Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot and delivered a message of love.
“Value every minute, every second that life and God gifts us,” he told the crowd of 15,000, his voice shaking at times. “Thank you, thank you. And to those who one day left Puerto Rico dreaming of coming back, and to those of us who are still here, I don’t want to leave!”
“I don’t want to leave” — No Me Quiero Ir de Aquí — the name Bad Bunny gave his Puerto Rican residency, is intrinsically tied to his album DeBÍ TiRAR Más FOToS (I Should Have Taken More Photos), a love letter to Puerto Rico and the island’s music that Bad Bunny dedicated on its back cover “to all the Puerto Ricans around the world.”
It may as well have said, “To all the world around Puerto Rico.” Since the album’s Jan. 5 release (on the eve of Three Kings’ Day, a significant holiday on the island) and since the July 11 launch of the residency, “No me quiero ir de aquí” has become a rallying cry of pride for both Puerto Ricans and the multicultural global diaspora that has seen itself reflected in Bad Bunny’s most autochthonous songs.
Read the full Q&A between Bad Bunny and Residente here, part of Billboard’s new Bad Bunny cover story.