The Bad Bunny Economy in Puerto Rico

Big international music tours from stars like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift haven't just been exciting for fans over the past few years, they've also been exciting for local economies.

Wherever Taylor Swift goes, so do people's wallets.

Being called the Beyoncé affect a noticeable boom in business.

The typical Swifty will spend about $1,300 per night.

The Queen Bee seems to be Houston's very own sugar mama.

This summer, the musician Bad Bunny has also been getting a lot of attention for the economic impact of his latest concert series.

But unlike others, Bad Bunny is focusing on one place, and it's not Las Vegas or New York.

He's posted up in his hometown of San Juan.

And hundreds of thousands of fans from all over the world have been flocking to the island to see him.

So I just got my tickets to see Bad Bunny.

This video is for everybody looking for Bad Bunny tickets because we bought our tickets.

I'm just excited.

I'm excited and counting down the days when I'm over there in Puerto Rico.

I'm going to see Bad Bunny in August.

I'm going to see a Bad Bunny in August.

Bad Bunny's Puerto Rican residency, which is ending this weekend, has done the same thing a Beyoncé or Taylor Swift concert does when it pops into a city.

Except he's doing it 30 times in a row.

The estimates we got were around $200 million flowing in due to all the travel and hotels and souvenirs and food and drink and whatnot.

Our colleague Elias Light covers the music industry.

He says that by spending so much time in Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny is flexing his superstar power in a new way.

Bad Bunny could do this anywhere in the world.

He's such a big star, but he chose to do it here in his home.

And I think it's something we don't see maybe as often as we could, sort of using your cultural influence to create that measurable capital impact in that way.

Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Ryan Knutson.

It's Friday, September 12th.

Coming up on the show, the Bad Bunny Effect.

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So for the uninitiated, how big of a star is Bad Bunny?

Yeah, so I think some people maybe still don't realize how big he is.

So he was the most streamed artist on Spotify in 2020 and 2021 and in 2022.

2022, he also had the highest grossing tour in the world.

He beat Elton John.

He beat Ed Sheeran.

So he's just incredibly popular.

He is wildly famous.

So he's so Bad Bunny is actually a really good bunny.

He is an incredibly good bunny.

And tell me, what is your favorite Bad Bunny song?

My favorite Bad Bunny song is a song called Komo Un Bebe with Jay Balvin and Mr.

Easy.

And now can you please sing it for us?

Nobody wants that.

I do.

What is the beat at least?

Oh, man.

It's got an incredibly funky bass sign that's like doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom.

Look that.

It's like a great mix of Afro beats and kind of like a reggaetone feel, which I feel like is pretty unique.

Bad Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martinez-Ocasio, grew up in Puerto Rico.

He worked at a grocery store in San Juan while trying to make it as a musician.

Then, in 2016, a song he posted on SoundCloud, Diles, started getting attention.

And you met him around then, right?

Boy, yeah.

It was early in his career, and he was still playing like maybe 3,000 cap venues, whereas now he can fill out like an arena, and it's just kind of wild to think back on because he was mostly unknown in New York City at that point.

Since the beginning of his career, Bad Bunny has only sung in Spanish.

And at first, some music critics didn't see him as a potential global star because of that.

Traditionally,

the music industry playbook was if you were a Latin artist and you wanted to reach a really wide audience, you recorded in English.

That's like Mark Anthony at the end of the 90s, Shakira in the early 2000s.

They had big hits.

They sang him in English.

Bad Bunny never did that.

He never sort of made those concessions.

In fact, Bad Bunny's gotten other artists to sing in Spanish too.

Like when he collaborated on a song with Drake in 2018.

Instead of Bad Bunny singing in English, Drake is singing in Spanish.

You know, Drake is a significantly bigger artist than Bad Bunny at that time, right, in 2018.

Drake's Spanish sounded pretty good, much better than mine.

Which I think is a pretty clear sign of how successful he has been by just maintaining his own approach.

And why is that surprising?

Or why is that significant that he never did that?

I mean, it's just significant because it demonstrates how global the music industry is now.

And, you know, the U.S.

is still like the biggest music market, but there's kind of this cliche that's really true where a hit can come from anywhere now.

And more and more, you're seeing massive stars right in K-pop.

You're seeing huge songs come out of India.

And Bad Bunny is, again, one of the top artists in the world.

The old playbook is pretty much out the window.

The other notable thing about Bad Bunny's career is his loyalty to Puerto Rico.

For instance, rather than sign with a a major music label, Bad Bunny works with Remus Entertainment, an independent Puerto Rican one.

Bad Bunny has often sung about Puerto Rico in his songs, and his latest album, Debi Turarmas Photos, which translates to I Should Have Taken More Photos, has been called a love letter to the island.

He has called it his most Puerto Rican album ever, and he wants to sort of give the world a better understanding of who he is and what Puerto Rico is like since that's so important to his background.

So he kind of did that in two ways on the new album.

One is musically, he incorporated a lot more sort of traditional Puerto Rican styles like salsa,

and then thematically, you know, he has a song on there where he compares Puerto Rico to Hawaii and talks about how he doesn't want his island to sort of lose some of its identity.

There's another song, it's kind of a love song, but it also doubles as a critique of like tourists who don't really engage fully with the culture of a country they visit.

And so when he announced that he was doing a 30-show residency in San Juan, Elias says it went along with the ideas he's been exploring in the album.

He's been wanting to do something like this for a long time, a show that was really focused on kind of giving back to Puerto Rico.

So his manager, for example, said, it's basically putting our money where our mouth is.

How can we go tour the rest of the world right away when we release our most Puerto Rican album ever

the residency kicked off with nine shows that were reserved for island residents only tickets to those shows had to be bought in person on the island and buyers had to show proof of residency

and even the set design for the concert had the island in mind

The stage is built, so like one part is a mountain that's supposed to resemble a Puerto Rican mountain and they have a flamboyant tree which is like it flowers on the island every summer.

So he's just really trying to foreground kind of the culture.

Puerto Rico's economy has struggled for years with high unemployment and population decline.

And the government essentially went bankrupt in 2016.

And the island is still recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria a few years ago.

Bad Bunny hints at those struggles on his album, and he decided to hold his shows at a time of year when the island could especially benefit from an economic boost.

It's a slower season for Puerto Rico right now for tourism, so it certainly helps during a slow season just to have this deluge of visitors and extra spending.

After the Puerto Rico residency ends, Bad Bunny is planning to go on tour to places like Latin America, Asia, and Europe.

But one place he won't be performing is the mainland U.S.

So most artists would, once they release an album and start a tour, they would probably incorporate their New York, their LA, their Miami, you know.

But

again,

he's always kind of wanted to do things his own way, and he has so much clout that people will come to see him.

I mean, we spoke to someone who worked with him, and he did say, like, if he had done this in somewhere like Las Vegas, he would make more.

Why Bad Bunny decided not to stop in the 50 states?

That's next.

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In a recent interview with ID magazine, Bad Bunny said there were, quote, many reasons he decided not to perform in the U.S.

One of them was the pride he has in his hometown.

But another reason was that he worried officers from the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, might target his shows.

In the interview, he said it was, quote, something that we were talking about and very concerned about.

And it's something other artists have been thinking about too.

There have been a few instances in the Latin music community.

There was a festival in Chicago called Michelata Fest that it ended up canceling, partially because artists coming from Mexico were not being granted visas, but also because there was some fear about ICE activity there too.

ICE didn't respond to a request for comment.

Bad Bunny's decision to have his residency in Puerto Rico hasn't slowed down his fans.

Do you remember when he announced that he was going to do this residency in Puerto Rico?

Yeah, I was just like, I mean, I told my boyfriend, I was like, listen, we're going.

I'm going to get tickets and we'll just get the tickets and then figure it out.

That's Georgina Rovirosa Trujillo, who lives in New York.

She'd never been to Puerto Rico before, but she loves Bad Bunny.

What's your favorite song of his?

I don't know, that's really hard.

I honestly don't have one.

There's.

I really like Cojitos Lindos.

And you can guess what I asked her next.

How does it go?

Oh, I don't want to sing it.

I won't put you on the spot, but

I really like that one.

Georgina says she and her boyfriend paid $800 each for the concert tickets.

And then they decided to turn the trip into a six-day-long vacation in August.

And

how much money do you think you spent while in Puerto Rico?

For the whole thing.

I was actually just talking to my boyfriend about this yesterday because I was like, how much did it spend between the two of us?

I think combined it was like $7,000.

Yeah.

Did you feel like you were going?

Because like, you know, Bad Bunny was doing this in part because he wanted to give a boost to the economy of Puerto Rico, presumably, by bringing all of his fans there.

How did that affect the way you approached your trip there?

I

did a lot of research more than I normally would because of the purpose of this residency and because of, you know, it was just what my bunny kind of like wanted from us.

So just made sure that every restaurant that I like made a reservation or bar that I like bookmarked was locally owned.

And same for like places where I shopped and stuff.

Yeah, I just really, really, really try to like make sure that I was giving money to like local economy.

Like one of the reasons we stayed at a hotel and not an Airbnb is because it's harder for you to know if it's actually a place that's owned by a local or not.

And I really was trying to like make sure that we were tipping well.

Yeah, just really trying to like be good tourists.

A lot of people attending Bad Bunny shows seem to have a similar mindset about spending locally and being a thoughtful tourist, just like Bad Bunny sings about on the album.

You are here for the Bad Bunny concert.

Please pay attention because I know you want some good, authentic Puerto Rican food.

I appreciate it.

There are a bunch of really dope local designers, shops, boutiques.

Check into a local hotel.

As a tourist myself, let's all act right, okay?

Do you feel like the effort to spend locally was appreciated?

People were just, first of all, every single Puerto Rican that we spoke to about us being there for the show, I don't remember if you've ever been to the show or was planning or going or was, you know, very supportive.

And even our Uber driver who drove us from our hotel,

he was an older guy.

He was like, you know, I don't really like, I don't really get Bad Bunny's music, but I'm really happy he's doing this.

And what the guy is doing is really, really smart.

He's basically like, he's built this like huge pie

and everyone is getting a piece of it.

Bad Bunny's decision to hold a residency in Puerto Rico and skip the mainland U.S.

entirely on his tour is a reminder that the U.S.

isn't really the center of the cultural universe in the same way it's been in the past.

Bad Bunny's whole ascent has has sort of proved that the music culture at least is more global than ever.

That's our colleague Elias Light again.

It's not as Anglo-centric as it was.

If you look at like your YouTube charts, you have a ton of songs from Latin America, you have

By Le Funk from Brazil, you have songs from Bollywood and India, you have K-pop.

It's not just, you know, American and UK pop stars at the top of the charts.

It really demonstrates how more than ever it's possible to succeed in music without catering to the kind of Anglo side of the industry.

It does sort of

set an interesting example like you do not have to do things the way they were historically done.

Before we go, we wanted to tell you about a new series dropping in our feed on Monday.

It's called Camp Swamp Road.

It's reported and hosted by our our colleague Valerie Borlein.

And let me tell you, it is really, really good.

She's here with us now to talk about it.

Hey, Valerie.

Hey, Ryan.

How are you?

Great.

We're so excited to have you host a series for the journal.

So you've been working on this story for over a year.

What's it about?

You know, this is a story about a shooting that happened in South Carolina in 2023.

It's a stay-and-your-ground case, and most of these cases fly under the radar.

It's usually case closed, self-defense.

But this story was different.

And it's because the sister of the man who was killed wouldn't let it go.

She had found out after the fact that the men who killed her brother and claimed self-defense had chased him for nine miles before they shot him.

Okay, so this story involves an armed man on a highway who was shot and killed by people who didn't know him.

Why did you want to tell this story?

You know, I grew up just over the state line from where this happened.

I grew up in southeastern North Carolina, and this happened just north of Myrtle Beach.

I mean, I went shopping for my prom dress in that area.

And, you know, this was a this was a case that was just a kind of a short couple paragraphs in the local paper, a mention on the evening news, and then it went away.

So I called the sister and she's, she's a fascinating person.

And she uncovered hours of secretly recorded phone calls, which blew this case wide open and also revealed how police were putting their thumb on the scale, really.

And it just, it just showed that it was so much murkier.

These cases are complex and there was so much going on underneath the surface, almost like a secret world where things weren't what they seemed.

So, I've heard a sneak preview of it, and it sounds amazing.

We're going to hear a clip now from episode one.

This is a moment on Camp Swamp Road, just minutes after the shooting.

Officer Higgs now walks towards the black truck.

It's about 25 yards further down Camp Swamp Road.

Checking on the

other vehicle, black Chevy, North Carolina Plate,

Romeo Charlie 1538.

Inside the truck, a white man is slumped over the center console.

Higgs reaches in and prods the man's back.

Sir.

The driver doesn't move.

Temple or his one is definitely 10-7.

10-7 is police code for out of service.

Officer Higgs is telling his colleagues that the man in the black truck is dead.

Higgs walks over to Boyd.

He's pacing back and forth.

Calm down.

Listen, listen, listen.

I understand.

It's self-defense.

I understand.

I just want you to sit down, calm down.

I'm sorry.

Take a breather.

There's nothing to be sorry about.

Just sit down and take a breather, sir.

All right.

It's now been about 20 minutes since the shooting, and Weldon Boyd is very clear.

He and Bradley Williams shot in self-defense.

How can we hear Camp Swamp Road?

Well, the first episode comes out this Monday, September 15th, and then new episodes will come out on Sundays after that.

And you can find it here in your journal feed or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Great.

Well, thanks so much, Val.

I can't wait to listen to the rest.

Thanks for having me.

And thanks for letting me post a podcast.

Oh, yeah, anytime.

That's all for today, Friday, September 12th.

The journal is a co-production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal.

The show is made by Catherine Brewer, Pia Gadkari, Carlos Garcia, Rachel Humphreys, Sophie Codner, Matt Kwong, Colin McNulty, Jessica Mendoza, Annie Minoff, Laura Morris, Enrique Perez de la Rosa, Sarah Platt, Alan Rodriguez Espinosa, Heather Rogers, Pierce Singy, Jivika Verma, Lisa Wang, Catherine Whalen, Tatiana Zamis, and me, Ryan Knutson.

Our engineers are Griffin Tanner, Nathan Singapak, and Peter Leonard.

Our theme music is by So Wiley.

Additional music this week from Catherine Anderson, Peter Leonard, Bobby Lorde, Emma Munger, Nathan Singapak, So Wiley, Audio Network, and Epidemic Sound.

Fact-Checking this week by Kate Gallagher.

Thanks for listening.

See you Monday.