Bad Bunny, undoubtedly one of the biggest artists in the world right now, opened the 2023 Grammy Award with a melody of his recent hits.
He performed a mashup of “El Apagon” and “Despues De La Play,” both taken from his multi-Grammy-nominated album, Un Verano Sin Ti.
For the performance, oozing Puerto Rican, Dominican and Caribbean culture, the performer was not only joined by dancers– but also cabezudos for icons like Roberto Clemente, Tego Calderón, Andy Montañez and more.
Per Billboard, the entire live band was comprised of musicians from the Dominican Republic, alongside 40 merengue dancers.
During the telecast, some fans were upset at home as the Spanish-language songs were not shown in English or Spanish on-screen, but rather shown as “singing in non-English.”
This was met with backlash on Twitter.
Shame on #CBS for having [Singing in Non English] when Bad Bunny was opening the #GRAMMYs but when @brandicarlile was singing, her lyrics were in full subtitles
(at least that was how the subtitles were for me on @hulu live)
— Chandler Crews (@chancrews) February 6, 2023
Yep, CBS already killing it with #grammys subtitles pic.twitter.com/plvsYP9I8y
— Ina Fried (@inafried) February 6, 2023
Author and journalist Shea Serrano wrote, “took exactly up until literally the first performance before they reminded us they do not care about latinos awesome so great so wonderful.”
took exactly up until literally the first performance before they reminded us they do not care about latinos awesome so great so wonderful https://t.co/EazPCOyEiE
— Shea Serrano (@SheaSerrano) February 6, 2023
