His latest feat? A truly seismic show — one of two back-to-back nights — at Yankee Stadium as part of the World’s Hottest Tour, one of the biggest concert runs in the country right now. Madison Square Garden and Barclays were too small, so gorgeous and glittered-out fans in bunny ears and bucket hats filled the 50,000-person venue as Bad Bunny went through a dazzling, three-hour setlist that hit all the peaks in his career. After an opening DJ set from Diplo, Bad Bunny kicked things off surprisingly early at about 9:15 p.m. He took the stage, leaning back in a beach chair, relaxed and ready to have fun. Then he immediately launched into “Moscow Mule,” the dreamy first cut from Un Verano Sin Ti, the history-making album that keeps boomeranging back to the Number One spot on the Billboard 200 this year.
Elated cheers filled the stadium, but the people inside weren’t the only ones listening: Massive crowds flooded the surrounding area, with fans dancing and celebrating outside the security gates, overjoyed that the music was loud and clear enough to travel across multiple city blocks. Entire families and throngs of children packed the nearby Macombs Dam Park to the brim, picnics and Puerto Rican flags in tow. It wasn’t just an event for people who got a ticket; it was one for all of the Bronx. His links there are deep: Bad Bunny famously drove through the borough during his memorable pandemic concert atop a moving van in 2020, and recorded part of his video for “Tití Me Preguntó” there.
[...] Whether it was old hits or new ones, the audience yelled every word with him. There’s a specific euphoria to screaming Bad Bunny lyrics along with another 50,000 people. Not only are his hits well-constructed, veritable bangers that have marked an era in a short amount of time, the soft heart of every song is filled with a kind of nostalgia and emotion only Bad Bunny knows how to deliver. They’re also imbued with a sense of magic that comes from knowing that not too long ago, the Puerto Rican megastar was a young kid working at a local supermarket. Now, he’s achieved something that is in many ways unparalleled. Looking across the bright lights of the stadium at tens of thousands of Latinos united over what he’s built through endless work and talent felt nothing short of spine-tingling.
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More photos by José A. Alvarado Jr. and videos below...
