{"id":244538,"date":"2025-09-21T19:10:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T19:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/244538\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T19:10:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T19:10:14","slug":"bad-bunny-says-goodbye-to-puerto-rico-after-historic-residency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/244538\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Bunny says goodbye to Puerto Rico after historic residency"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) \u2014 Bad Bunny fans drowned out memories of Hurricane Maria<\/a> in one booming voice on the anniversary of the devastating storm.<\/p>\n

Saturday was a concert for Puerto Ricans by Puerto Ricans to remind the world about the power of \u201cla isla del encanto\u201d (\u201cthe island of enchantment\u201d).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to quit. The entire world is watching!\u201d Bad Bunny thundered into his microphone as he looked into a camera streaming his last show in Puerto Rico this year to viewers around the world following a historic 30-concert residency in the U.S. territory.<\/p>\n

The crowd roared as thousands watching via Amazon Music, Prime Video and Twitch joined them, marking the first time Bad Bunny<\/a> was streamed across the globe.<\/p>\n

The residency was more than just a series of concerts. Saturday marked the end of an extended love letter<\/a> that Benito Antonio Mart\u00ednez Ocasio sang to Puerto Rico. He tapped into what it means to be Puerto Rican, to delight in the island\u2019s beauty, defend its land and fight for its people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is for you,\u201d Bad Bunny said from the rooftop of an iconic Puerto Rican house installed at the concert venue as he raised his glass and the crowd raised their glasses in return.<\/p>\n

\u2018We are still here\u2019<\/p>\n

Saturday marked the eighth anniversary of Hurricane Maria, which slammed into Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm on Sept. 20, 2017. <\/p>\n

An estimated 2,975 people died in the sweltering aftermath of the storm<\/a> that razed the island\u2019s electric grid, leaving some communities without power for up to a year. Anger and frustration over the pace of reconstruction continues to simmer as chronic power outages persist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a Sept. 11 report, the U.S. Office of Inspector General found that 92% of approved and obligated projects related to Puerto Rico\u2019s crumbling grid were incomplete, and that $3.7 billion of available funds had not been obligated.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver seven years after Hurricane Maria, FEMA does not know when Puerto Rico\u2019s electrical grid will be completely rebuilt. The grid remains unstable, inadequate, and vulnerable to interruptions,\u201d the report stated.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the number of estimated deaths were imprinted on the back of T-shirts and written on Puerto Rican flags that the crowd waved into the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are still emotional and carry the trauma of having gone through a horrible thing,\u201d said Marta Amaral, 61, who attended Saturday\u2019s concert. \u201cBeyond the sadness and remembering the negativity of having gone through a traumatic event, this is a celebration that we are still here, standing.\u201d<\/p>\n

A surprise guest<\/p>\n

At every concert this summer, Bad Bunny invited new celebrities \u2014 among them LeBron James, Pen\u00e9lope Cruz, Darren Aronofsky, DJ Khaled and Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 \u2014 and sang with different musicians, including Rub\u00e9n Blades, Residente, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Rai Nao and Jorge Drexler.<\/p>\n

But on Saturday, the noise from the crowd hit new levels as Bad Bunny rapped with Puerto Rico heavyweights \u00d1engo Flow, Jowell y Randy, Dei V and Arc\u00e1ngel and De la Ghetto. Thousands of fans flexed their knees in unison to thumping rap and reggaet\u00f3n.<\/p>\n

Then, the crowd gasped in disbelief as Marc Anthony<\/a> appeared on stage after Bad Bunny pleaded with his fans to join him because he was going to sing a song he hadn\u2019t sung in public in some 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cYo te quiero, Puerto Rico!\u201d the crowd cried as the two singers embraced at the end of the iconic song, \u201cPreciosa,\u201d whose lyrics say, \u201cI love you, Puerto Rico.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018An emotional night\u2019<\/p>\n

Thousands gathered outside the concert venue on Saturday hours before the concert, with Puerto Rico\u2019s national flower, the vibrant flor de maga, tucked behind their ear, and the traditional straw hat known as the \u201cpava,\u201d set at a jaunty angle on their head.<\/p>\n

But not all were celebrating.<\/p>\n

Darlene Mercado milled around, asking strangers if they knew of anyone with tickets she could buy for herself and her daughter, who had flown in from New Jersey.<\/p>\n

They were around number 122,000 in a virtual waiting line to buy tickets for Saturday\u2019s sold-out concert and weren\u2019t able to get any after waiting eight hours online.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not only the anniversary of the hurricane, but it\u2019s also the anniversary of me no longer having cancer and it\u2019s my birthday. We wanted to celebrate everything with a bang,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s concert was open only to residents of Puerto Rico, as were the first nine concerts of Bad Bunny\u2019s residency, but the remainder was open to fans around the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Overall, the concerts attracted roughly half a million people, generating an estimated $733 million for Puerto Rico, according to a new study by Gaither International.<\/p>\n

Most foreign visitors came from the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Spain, with an average stay of nearly nine nights, the study found. Overall, roughly 70% of concertgoers were female, with an average age of 33, according to the study.<\/p>\n

Among those attending was Shamira Oquendo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be an emotional night,\u201d the 25-year-old said, noting that Hurricane Maria was her first hurricane. \u201cIt was very sad. A lot of people around me lost their things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Yo soy boricua!\u2019<\/p>\n

Puerto Rico\u2019s party with Bad Bunny ended early Sunday, but the superstar who recently clinched 12 Latin Grammy nominations<\/a> will go on a worldwide tour in December, with concerts planned in countries including Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, Spain, France and Sweden. Notably, he is skipping the U.S., citing concerns over the arrest of immigrants<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Bad Bunny thanked his fans for their love.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to miss you a lot. I\u2019m going to miss this energy,\u201d he said as he urged the crowd to embrace love no matter the situation.<\/p>\n

At that moment, friends and family in the crowd began to hug each other, some with tears in their eyes.<\/p>\n

After more than three hours of singing with Bad Bunny, fans were not quite ready to let go. As the crowd filed down the stairs and into the night, one man yelled, \u201cYo soy boricua!\u201d and the crowd responded, \u201cPa\u2019 que t\u00fa lo sepas!\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a traditional cry-and-response yell that lets people around them know they\u2019re Puerto Rican and proud of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) \u2014 Bad Bunny fans drowned out memories of Hurricane Maria in one booming…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":244539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[71844,1613,5497,130221,90265,171,57,130225,22017,29606,130220,1612,130219,130223,45546,130222,130224,67,132,68,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-244538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bad-bunny","9":"tag-central-america","10":"tag-concerts","11":"tag-darlene-mercado","12":"tag-dj-khaled","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-gilberto-santa-rosa","16":"tag-hip-hop-and-rap","17":"tag-hurricanes-and-typhoons","18":"tag-jorge-drexler","19":"tag-latin-america","20":"tag-marc-anthony","21":"tag-marta-amaral","22":"tag-puerto-rico","23":"tag-residente","24":"tag-shamira-oquendo","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-unitedstates","27":"tag-us","28":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115243871531543607","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}