“There are many of us Latinos across the world. Every place I go, I see the flags, which fill me with pride. And it moves me, because I know those flags represent sacrifice,” says Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, aka Bad Bunny, in Spanish to a crowd of reportedly 50,000 people at Tottenham Stadium.
- READ MORE: Bad Bunny – ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’ review: ode to homeland is a new high for the Puerto Rican star
It’s fitting that this concert – the first time a Latin artist has ever headlined a stadium in the UK, and the first of two nights here for the Puerto Rican superstar – should take place in this neighbourhood. Up the road is the Latin Village, a place that London’s Latin community saved only five years ago, after 15 years of tireless campaigning against gentrification. The heroic effort led to the market’s refurbishment, and the new Latin Village opened last October, a place born on the sacrifice of Latin migrants who built lives here.
Bad Bunny’s arrival in Tottenham is more than a concert: it’s a vindication and celebration. The streets around the stadium feel like a carnival – entire buildings are decked with flags representing countries across Latin America, and restaurants blare out salsa while merchants hand out free deditos (cheese-filled Colombian pastries).
Inside the stadium, after a brief video introduction by Concho – the animated toad created for Bad Bunny’s last album, ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’, Benito kicks off the set with ‘La Mudanza’. The song features an instrumental break led by percussionist and musical director Julito Gaston, who deftly steers the music into a salsa-fied rendition of ‘Callaíta’, from Bad Bunny’s 2022 album, ‘Un Verano Sin Ti’. The two opening tracks immediately set the tone of how the star plans to mix his portfolio of earlier reggaeton and trap hits into the world of ‘DTMF’, which is rooted in Puerto Rican folk and traditional styles.
After his speech about the Latin diaspora, Benito uses ‘Turista’ to give a thoughtful nod to the UK’s own musical history, weaving a melodic segment of ‘Hey Jude’, played on the Puerto Rican cuatro, into the track. If anyone is still sitting at this point, the explosive ‘Nuevayol’ ensures that every single person is up and dancing (even a woman on crutches makes a valiant attempt to stand).
The second half of the show moves to La Casita on the other end of the stadium, a set made world-famous at Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance in February. Moving between the throngs of gyrating influencers on La Casita’s porch, he dives into his earlier hits: the twerk-ready ‘Yo Perreo Sola’ is ecstatically received, and classics like the remix of Jhayco’s ‘No Me Conoce’ ensure mass sing-alongs. There’s also a rather underwhelming introduction to ‘Voy A Llevarte Pa PR’ by tennis champ Novak Djokovic – who feels like a strange choice when Tottenham local Adele is in the crowd and would surely be a better fit.
Back on the main stage for the show’s finale, Bad Bunny wraps things up with an emotional rendition of ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’. The album’s title track underscores what his latest project is all about: making memories while you can. It hits particularly hard here: while Tottenham’s Latin Village was saved, this was not the case for London’s other Latino hub in Elephant & Castle, which was demolished in 2021.
The fate of the diaspora, the migrant, the kids from the barrios, is an uncertain one under the constant threat of gentrification – a plight as true in London as it is in Puerto Rico. Tonight, at this spectacular show, Bad Bunny reminds us that we have to celebrate and care for one another and cherish these memories while we still have the people we love and the places that we’re from.
Bad Bunny played:
‘La Mudanza’
‘Callaíta’
‘Pitorro De Coco’
‘Weltita (with Chuwi)’
‘Turista’
‘Baile Inolvidable’
‘Nuevayol’
‘Veldá’
‘Tití Me Preguntó’
‘Neverita’
‘Si Veo a tu Mamá’
‘Voy A Llevarte Pa PR’
‘Me Porto Bonito’
‘No Me Conoce’
‘Bichiyal’
‘Yo perreo sola’
‘Efecto’
‘Safaera’
‘Diles’
‘Monaco’
‘Cybertruck’
‘Café Con Ron (with Los Pleneros de la Cresta)’
‘Ábreme Paso’ (Los Pleneros de la Cresta)
‘Ojitos lindos’
‘La canción’
‘Dákiti’
‘Yonaguni’
‘El apagón’
‘DTMF’
‘Eoo’