Historically Racist Country Finally Elevates Non-English Language Music

I was hopeful this day would come years ago—in 2017, when “Despacito” proved U.S. audiences were open to welcoming non-English, Spanish-language music in traditional (re: white, mainstream) pop spaces, but it never came. (It’s also worth noting that the version of the song most are familiar with is the Justin Bieber remix and not the fully-Spanish original.) K-pop group BTS has proven that young people are curious music fans, willing to engage with art in a language and culture foreign to their own, but it still took until 2020—this hell year—for Bad Bunny to reach the top. He’s standing on the shoulder of giants: Il Divo’s Ancora and Selena Quintanilla’s Dreaming of You both hit No. 1 in 2006 and 1995, respectively, but each had songs recorded in Spanish and English, a common practice for Latinx performers hoping to “crossover” into mainstream pop. The fact that Bad Bunny didn’t have to appease an Anglophonic audience speaks to some shift towards inclusion, and I’m fucking stoked.