House is a sense. Dwelling generally is a mountain, an island, a stranger’s dwelling the place you’re welcomed like household.
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, higher often called Dangerous Bunny, determined he’s homebound for the summer season. Throughout prime pageant and touring season, the megastar—whose newest album Debí Tirar Más Fotos (I Ought to Have Taken Extra Pictures) hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts, his fourth album to take action—leveraged his superstar to manifest one of many underlying functions of his artwork. After spending years bringing Puerto Rico to the world, his homegrown present at San Juan’s well-known Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot (El Choli, in case you’re native) was designed to deliver the world to the island.
Aptly named No me quiero ir de aqui (I Don’t Need To Depart), Dangerous Bunny’s utterly sold-out summer season residency is an unabashed love letter to Puerto Rico. Coming into the world, the ground is flanked by two phases: a mountain that feels uprooted straight out of El Yunque Nationwide Forest, vaguely formed like a cemí (a Taíno nature spirit), and a pink casita whose inside doubles as a VIP space. Anybody who sees the small home up-close can attest to the truth that the little home is genuine Caribbean structure, the form of area that might belong to any tía out in Fajardo or Ponce or Bayamón.
The spectacle opens theatrically: At heart stage, a girl searches for a digicam. On the similar time, a person finds a blanket masking drums used for plena, a conventional Puerto Rican style. Slowly, out of the mountain, dancers emerge donning conventional jíbaro garb worn in Boricua folks custom, some full with pava straw hats (an unofficial image of this period that doubles as a present of Puerto Rican pleasure). The person of the hour subtly seems stage-left, kicking off the evening with new music “ALAMBRE PúA”.
No me quiero ir de aquí is cut up into three of the island’s key genres: plena, perreo, and salsa. Dangerous Bunny tailored his songs to every, plena drums changing the dembow rattle on beloved hits like “La Santa” (initially recorded with Daddy Yankee) and “Vete.” When he appeared at la casita for the reggaeton-heavy part of the evening—which included YHLQMDLG-era opus “Safaera” (recorded in 2020 with Jowell & Randy, and Ñengo Circulation) and Un Verano Sin Tí’s “Titi Me Preguntó”—he comfortably waltzed between the roof and the entrance porch. His transition again to the mountain was soundtracked by native plena collective Pleneros de la Cresta, who thanked the viewers after a energetic jam out to “CAFé CON RON”: “Thanks for getting the world to listen to plena puertorriqueña!”
One of many residency’s greatest attracts is the rotating solid of friends. For its nineteenth iteration, Lorén Aldarondo Torres of Puerto Rican indie band Chuwi sang her “Weltita” verse from the mountaintop. Later, when the casita was reworked into a celebration de marquesina like those the place reggaeton was born, the soundtrack was none aside from Ivy Queen herself. The undisputed Queen of Reggaeton held court docket over the stadium from the casita’s entrance with a medley of her hits, snarling signature music “Quiero Bailar” prefer it was the final time she’d sing it. Earlier than going again to the mountains, Dangerous Bunny tried bending the viewers to his will once more, encouraging everybody to show off their telephones and be within the second. A lot of the enviornment adopted go well with, and the viewers presence was palpable.
Earlier than switching to salsa, a video concerning the style’s African roots was performed, and Benito emerged in a go well with. Backed by Los Sobrinos, he reinterpreted “Callaíta” with timbaleros and bongos. If he wasn’t already, Dangerous Bunny was totally in command of the viewers for “Baile Inolvidable”, the salsa standout from this period. Arguably the present’s greatest second after his sobering rendition of “Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii” proper earlier than, it was an incredible present of creative development, one the place Dangerous Bunny channeled salsa legends like Héctor Lavoe and Willie Colón whereas remaining extra himself than we’ve ever seen him.
It wasn’t till the top that I noticed three hours had flown by. I used to be prepared for extra, nearly dissatisfied that there wasn’t. That feeling was a shock: A giant-budget enviornment present can usually drag. Dangerous Bunny’s generosity as a performer is on full show from the second you strategy El Choli to the second you permit, an everlasting second frozen within the infinite summer season of the Caribbean warmth. It’s one thing that may solely exist right here, one thing Dangerous Bunny did effectively to remind us when he first popped out of los angeles casita, proper because the preliminary electrical guitar chords of house-influenced banger “Neverita” reverberated via the world: “Summer season led to many of the world, however we’re in PR.”
All quotes have been translated from Spanish.
