Last week, the NFL announced that “3x GRAMMY Award-winning global recording artist Bad Bunny will perform at the Apple Music Super Bowl LX Halftime” this coming February. The press release noted that Bad Bunny is one of the “most influential and streamed artists in the world” and was a natural choice for the show.
Today, let’s talk a little bit about how Bad Bunny has impacted the music industry and the place where he is from, Puerto Rico.
A surging sensation
Bad Bunny was born and raised in Puerto Rico as Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio. He got his start in music rapping in the Latin music scene, and it wasn’t long before he became a global sensation. In 2020, his album El Último Tour del Mundo became the first all-Spanish album to debut in the top spot on the Billboard 200. Unlike previous Latin artists, Bad Bunny has not switched to singing in English in order to broaden his fan base. Instead, his all-Spanish albums have continued to top charts and have been credited with leading the charge in Latin music’s surging popularity over the last few years.
Bad Bunny’s impact on Puerto Rico
When Bad Bunny released the list of world tour dates for his latest album, many were quick to notice that there were no stops in the United States. Bad Bunny cited concerns of immigration agents targeting his concerts as his reason for skipping over the states, but he certainly didn’t skip over the U.S. entirely. Instead, he just finished up a 31-concert residency in Puerto Rico – a U.S. territory – where the singer helped fuel the local economy during a season that is usually slow for tourism on the island.
As one producer of the residency told the New York Times, “We knew this would be big. As soon as we got the dates for the venue, our next question was, ‘Will there be enough hotel rooms for something like this?” Indeed, 34 hotels tied to the residency sold out in 35 hours, and short-term rentals in the area saw their revenue double from the year before.
Overall, it’s estimated that the residency generated $400 million for the Puerto Rico economy and supported countless small businesses across the island – not just in San Juan, where the concerts were held. Moody’s Analytics even updated its 2025 economic growth forecast for the island from 0.3% to 0.4%, in part due to Bad Bunny’s residency.
Puerto Rico’s impact on U.S.
Puerto Rico’s economy is starting to see growth and stronger economic conditions after decades of decline due to a variety of factors. Therefore, while we’re talking about Puerto Rico, we would be remiss if we did not mention the territory’s business contributions to the United States.
To start, Puerto Rico’s largest export industry is pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing. In 2024, it ranked second behind Indiana for total U.S. exports in that category, with $24.7 billion worth of exports that accounted for 17.6% of the U.S. total. Additionally, Puerto Rico is an island full of small businesses – it has over 41,000 of them – which make up 98.4% of employers in the region. Some of its biggest industries outside of manufacturing include health care, retail, construction, and food services.
Although many Americans forget, Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens as well and pay many of the same federal taxes, such as Medicare and Social Security, that citizens in the 50 states do, but without getting all the exact same benefits in return. For example, they are excluded from Supplemental Security Income and the Federal Earned Income Tax Credit. Currently, Puerto Rico receives more in federal spending than it contributes – similar to many states. However, it is estimated that should the territory become a state, that spending would not only be reduced, but Puerto Rico would be able to contribute more once fully integrated into the Federal income tax system.
