Bad Bunny is once again using his music to draw attention to his homeland, Puerto Rico, and as a catalyst for activism.
After some time away from the spotlight, the Puerto Rican rapper dropped a surprise single, “Una Velita” (“A Little Candle”) with producers Tainy and La Paciencia, exactly seven years after Hurricane Maria devastated the U.S. territory on Sept. 20, 2017.
The song opens with ominous folkloric sounds and a chorus describing the signs before the storm and the impending doom. The name of the song, paired with the album art, sets a scene of a dresser in someone’s bedroom with a lit candle and a picture of the Virgin Mary — a sight familiar to many in the largely Catholic island.
“The storm is coming/Who is going to save us?” Bad Bunny sings in Spanish.
The song is an indictment of the state of things in Puerto Rico before and after the powerful storm.
“Fueron cinco mil que dejaron morir y eso nunca se nos va a olvidar” — “It was 5,000 that they let die and that we’ll never forget,” he sings.
He’s referring to a study that found that as many as 5,000 Puerto Ricans may have died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria — thousands more than the government’s official death count. Many of the deaths were caused by the interruption of health care, electricity and utility services after the hurricane battered the island, according to the researchers.
The song transports listeners to the island and to the intimate moments of fear and despair many Puerto Ricans experienced before the catastrophic event.
The category 4 storm was the deadliest hurricane to hit Puerto Rico and one of the deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history. Bad Bunny calls out government leaders for “hiding” and showing up only to make appearances but not actually sending any help.
He describes the failed leadership when it comes to the island’s infrastructure, singing of “the bridge that they were late on building/the river grew, it’s going to break it” and the consistent blackouts the island has faced, even before the hurricane.
“The lights will go out, and God knows when they will come back on,” he sings in the first verse. He refers to the blackout caused by Hurricane Maria, which wiped out 80% of power, leaving part of the island in darkness for 328 days, making it one of the longest blackouts in U.S history.
He also sings of remembering the viejita, or older lady, “who lives alone/she has to be helped.”
“Who will save us?” the chorus chants.
Fans across the internet have applauded Bad Bunny for using his platform to bring awareness to what took place. Some have created video reactions of how the song has brought them to tears. Others have commented about how they connected with the song and felt seen, including some who have lost loved ones.
“This made me legit shed some tears lost my grandpa to Maria, he couldn’t get medications after,” a person commented in a TikTok reaction. Puerto Rican TikTok creator Carlos Calderon, known for his lively and fun dance videos, took to the platform in a post breaking down the meaning of the song and translating lyrics as he shows himself in tears.
In “Una Velita,” Bad Bunny sings that “the palm tree that they want to hang the country with, we’re going to topple down,” which is a dig at the island’s pro-statehood party, which was in power during Hurricane Maria, whose longtime symbol is a palm tree.
This isn’t the first time Bad Bunny has used his art to spread awareness of the issues facing his homeland. In 2022, he paired his song “El Apagón” (“The Blackout”) with a 23-minute documentary by filmmaker Bianca Graulau called “El Apagón — Aqui Vive Gente” (“The Blackout — People Live Here”). In it he describes the hardships of living amid constant blackouts and higher electricity costs on an outdated and devastated power grid — despite the government’s new contracts to update the system.`
The 2022 documentary also criticized the displacement of Puerto Rican residents after the local government offered tax incentives to wealthy investors if they established residency in the island, pushing up real estate prices.
In a recent interview with the Puerto Rican YouTuber El Tony, Bad Bunny got emotional about the situation in the island and encouraged its youth to take action and register to vote. “It’s good to go out on the streets to protest, to let ourselves be heard as people, but I think that the biggest act of protest is to vote against the people who have led us to this mess on Nov. 5,” he said on the podcast.
Bad Bunny also discussed the weight he feels to speak about his homeland as he broke into tears. “I really worry about Puerto Rico, and I don’t know if it’s the weight of … making it out of the island,” he said, saying his mission has been to represent the island to the world. “I want my people to live happily in Puerto Rico,” he told El Tony.
With crescendoing drums, a chanting chorus and guitar riffs setting the tone for a battle cry, Bad Bunny made a political statement with “Una Velita” but also shared an experience the outside world seldom sees during such disasters.
Hurricanes are usually seen through news stories and aerial views of rescues and ravaged landscapes, but Bad Bunny’s song and video bring the audience into bedroom of an ordinary islander praying to live another day as a deadly storm nears. It’s an anthem invoking compelling emotions, and Bad Bunny’s mission seems to be to remind fellow islanders to make their voices heard — including at the ballot box.
“Al pueblo, el pueblo le toca salvar,” he sings, which loosely means the community has to save its own people.
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