Bad Bunny still has a bad taste in his mouth over the 2023 Grammys.
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, the Puerto Rican singer opened up about the controversy surrounding his performance and album of the year nod.
The performer received three Grammy nominations for Un Verano Sin Ti, including album of the year. The historic nomination made the LP the first Spanish-language album nominated in the category. Although he won the best música urbana album award, he lost the big one of the night to Harry Styles.
“Maybe they weren’t ready for a Spanish-language album to win the big prize,” he said.
“I didn’t even feel like [album of the year] had been stolen from me until the media started saying [it],” he added. “I saw that everybody thought I deserved the prize and everybody thought it was a robbery…. That’s when they kind of convinced me and I said, ‘Well, yes, it was a robbery then.'”
The performer opened the ceremony with a mashup of “El Apagon” and “Despues De La Play” off Un Verano Sin Ti. As Blavity previously reported, during his culture-rich performance, the CBS-assisted telecast fumbled with a lack of Spanish captioning.
Fans who watched at home tweeted their anger as the Spanish-language songs were not shown in English or Spanish on-screen but rather shown as “singing in non-English.” Bunny caught the flub during a rebroadcast and was not happy.
The performer told the outlet it was “so f**cked up” that he didn’t realize what had happened.
“It’s ugly to say that I saw it as normal,” he said. “Then it was like, wow, wait a minute, what the hell? Why don’t they have someone? Knowing that I was going to be there….”
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
He continued, alluding to the insult was bigger than just him.
“I sing for those who want to listen to me and those who understand me,” he said.
And Bunny is focused on those who understand him. He touched on the speculation of him crossing over to create English-language music.
“I am never going to do it just because someone says I need to do it to reach a certain audience,” he said.
The Latin star did clarify that he would be open to singing in English if it were the right song with the right collaborator.
“It’s not like I hate the idea … It’s just that I feel more comfortable in my own language. I think in Spanish, I feel in Spanish, I eat in Spanish, I sing in Spanish,” he said.
