There are people out there who really don’t like Bad Bunny.
People who couldn’t stomach a Spanish speaker headlining the Super Bowl halftime show. But a casual look at his metrics – his massive global following – and a casual listen to his lengthy and consistently excellent LP, Debí Tirar Más Fotos (I Should Have Taken More Photos), would show you that those naysayers built their argument on sand. How can you be xenophobic towards a guy who doesn’t even hold a foreign passport?
And if you actually watched the halftime show, you’d know that Bad Bunny is a consummate professional with a deep catalogue of incredibly catchy tunes that capture the essence of his native Puerto Rico while pushing the genre of Latin pop forward.
I admittedly arrived late to the Bad Bunny bandwagon, but I’ve given Debí Tirar Más Fotos thorough plays and replays The song I keep coming back to is “BOKeTE”
It unfolds beautifully, like pulling apart a rose petal by petal. . . She loves me, she loves me not.
But the footage is reversed, with petals floating back into place until the whole flower is whole again, and the whole relationship is undone.
Once the petals form a complete blossom, the melody explodes. It soars so high, you might just learn Spanish so you can belt it in the car. Each trill and turn lands exactly where it should. Each note is stretched or cut to the perfect length. It’s a celebration of melody itself.
It’s such a celebration of pure melody that the rest of the song seems cobbled together to support it. “BOKeTE” is basically through-composed, with the chorus being the only repeated element. Every verse has a different feel; there’s an abrupt, dissonant musical interlude; a rap verse; and a spoken-word explanation of the song’s premise all packed into 3 and a half minutes. (The title means “pothole,” and the song warns of a lover to be avoided as such.)
It’s all over the place. It has no business being as mesmerizing as it is.
“BOKeTE” is what we get when artists in their prime go out there and just try shit. Everything that makes BOKeTE perfect to me is a creative decision that a focus group or songwriting team would probably veto. But I love that it comes across as a flash of brilliance rather than a meticulous, scientific composition.
Though not his most polished or most danceable tune, “BOKeTE” showcases why Bad Bunny is a bonafide pop star: impeccable vocals, absolute confidence, and an innate sense of how to pace a song without suffocating it.
Cover image: https://vimeo.com/1083535752
English Lyrics: https://genius.com/Genius-english-translations-bad-bunny-bokete-english-translation-lyrics
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