Bad Bunny's Global Pop Dominance Drives Latin Music Surge

Puerto Rican star Bad Bunny topped worldwide listening charts in 2025 with his album Debi tirar mas fotos, underscoring a ten‑fold rise in Latin‑genre streams on Spotify over the past decade. The surge has brought reggaeton, salsa, merengue and dembow into mainstream pop worldwide.

France Inter’s weekly podcast “La Cancion” investigates the roots of this tidal wave, traveling from Harlem’s streets to San Juan’s bars and Medellín’s neighborhoods, and highlighting legacy artists such as Willie Colón, Héctor Lavoe and Celia Cruz. The show examines how Latin rhythms shape contemporary hits and serve as cultural empowerment.

The trend is also reflected in video viewership: Bad Bunny’s collaboration with Arcángel, “Me Acostumbré,” filmed in the Dominican Republic and directed by Rodrigo Films, recently surpassed one billion views on YouTube, becoming his twentieth entry in the platform’s Billion‑Views Club.