Why is Bad Bunny so popular? His downtown Phoenix concert had all the answers

Ed Masley, Arizona Republic

October 7, 2022 at 12:38 PM·4 min read

Bad Bunny drew an estimated crowd of more than 43,000 to what certainly looked to be a sold-out Chase Field in downtown Phoenix Wednesday night with the promise of delivering the World’s Hottest Tour.

And the Puerto Rican superstar delivered on that promise, treating fans to an electrifying journey through highlights of the catalog that put him on the fast track to selling out stadium tours at 28.

He’s been the most-streamed artist in the world on Spotify for two years running. You could feel that in the joyous singalongs that filled the stadium, occasionally punctuated by chants of "Benito," his real name.

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Bad Bunny opened with his No. 1 new album

Bad Bunny performs during his World's Hottest Tour at Chase Field in Phoenix on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022.

The 2?-hour set leaned heavily on songs from “Un Verano Sin Ti,” his latest album.

Released in May, it's spent more weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's album chart this year than any other album while sending four songs to the Top 10 on the Hot 100.

Bad Bunny opened with the first and highest-charting of those singles, "Moscow Mule," after making his entrance on a set made to look like a tropical island, pulling a drink from the cooler he carried on stage after taking his seat on a beach chair.

Another hit from "Un Verano Sin Ti" followed, Chencho Corleone of the reggaeton duo Plan B hitting the stage like an exhilarating force of nature to revisit his feature on another of that album's biggest singles, "Me Porto Bonito."

By the time Bad Bunny brought the concert to a pyro-laden finish with the horn-driven splendor of the hyperactive mambo "Después de la Playa" as a backup dancer waved the Puerto Rican flag, he'd made his way through more than half the songs on his new album.

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It wasn't all 'Un Verano Sin Ti'

Bad Bunny fans record, dance and sing along with the music during Bad Bunny's World's Hottest Tour at Chase Field in Phoenix on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022.

And that still afforded him plenty of time to reach back to his first full-length release, 2018's "X 100pre," for such crowd-pleasing highlights as "Ni bien ni mal" and "200 MPH."

He also threw in a taste of the hit that introduced him to most people in the U.S. mainstream, Cardi B's chart-topping "I Like It."

The set moved quickly through the more than 30 songs (or parts of songs) he squeezed into his time on stage, incorporating elements of reggaeton, cumbia, salsa, merengue, bachata, bossa nova, Latin trap and more.

The only time he sacrificed momentum was to speak, in Spanish, to his fans, which he did often — and at great length on occasion. He came across as not just charismatic but sincere as he connected with the audience that put him on that stage.

This is the biggest tour Bad Bunny has ever done. And he responded to the challenge with a show that definitely seemed designed to hit the back rows of the ballpark.

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Finding the tropical paradise in Chase Field

The stage was simple yet effective — a sandy beach with giant palm trees and some rocks, a visual fleshed out by the action on the massive screens behind the stage.

The concert opened with a scene of dolphins swimming toward an island. Later, dolphin drones swam overhead. Bad Bunny also spent some time above the crowd, suspended on a floating island with a single palm tree as he sang "Un Coco," a cut from “Un Verano Sin Ti.”

There were lasers, columns of smoke, flames shooting out of the floor and fireworks, of course.

For the first few songs, Bad Bunny was alone on stage.

His crew of maybe 20 dancers made their first appearance on the fifth song, "Party," working the catwalks that cut through the audience to a smaller second stage on several songs and shooting fog cannons into the crowd on "I Like It."

He recruited additional dancers from the crowd toward the end of his performance, gleefully sharing the spotlight as they busted out their outrageous moves.

That spirit of inclusion only reinforced the sense that Bad Bunny had managed to take a ballpark packed with more than 40,000 people and make it feel more like the wildest beach party in town.

Deorro opens for Bad Bunny during the World's Hottest Tour at Chase Field in Phoenix on Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022.

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Deorro opened the show with a crowd-pleasing DJ set that had fans dancing and singing along from the start, as he made his way through remixes of songs by David Guetta and Sia, the Spice Girls, Mana's "Oye Mi Amor" and more.