
Bad Bunny fans won't want to leave Puerto Rico after visiting these 17 places
The 30-show residency begins July 11. It's entitled "No Me Quiero Ir de Aqui," which translates to I Don't Want to Leave Here.
The concerts come on the heels of Bad Bunny's latest album and newly announced tour, both entitled "Debí Tirar Más Fotos," which translates to I Should Have Taken More Photos.
Shop Bad Bunny tickets in PR
Travelers who spend a few days in Puerto Rico will quickly discover why it's so hard to leave, but they're going to have to go further than than the residency venue in San Juan to full see what makes this archipeligo so special.
Here are 17 photos of places to visit across Puerto Rico.
1. Arecibo
2. Bayamón
Bad Bunny was born in Bayamón as Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio.
It's the second-largest city in Puerto Rico by population; San Juan is the most populous. It's home to several museums spotlighting Puerto Rican artists and Puerto Rico's oldest rum, Ron del Barrilito, which dates back to 1880.
3. Cabo Rojo
4. Cayey
5. Culebra
6. Fajardo
7. Guánica
8. Isabela
9. Lajas
10. Orocovis
11. Ponce
12. Rincón
13. Rio Grande
14. San Juan
Puerto Rico's capital and popular cruise port, San Juan, is famous for its rich history, which tourists can see throughout Old San Juan and San Juan National Historic Site, and thriving culture, which travelers will feel all around.
15. Santurce
While technically part of San Juan, the neighborhood or barrio of Santurce is worth highlighting for its thriving arts and music scene. According to Discover Puerto Rico, several salsa's best known labels were based here and the area continues to known for its colorful creativity.
16. Vega Baja
This northern city is where Bad Bunny grew up, about 40 minutes from San Juan. It's known for its beaches
17. Yauco
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Atlantic
a day ago
- Atlantic
How Bad Bunny Turned a Toad Into a Figurehead
At the Brookfield Zoo, near Chicago, sloshing inside bags of oxygen and water, thousands of tadpoles await their transformation into what the Chicago Tribune has already dubbed 'celebrity amphibians.' A few months ago, the sapo concho was bound for extinction. The native Puerto Rican toad has long been endangered on the island thanks to habitat loss and invasive species. Yet fame, then fortune, found the concho: In January, Bad Bunny released his latest album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, as well as a short film of the same name, both of which feature a cartoon concho. After the record's chart-topping release, the Puerto Rican Crested Toad Conservancy received donations toward funding a new breeding center on the island; the Brookfield Zoo's long-standing conservation efforts also got a media boost. And the concho found fans across the world—especially among people who see its plight as analogous to their own, and who have latched on to it as a symbol of resilience. 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When Señor tries to pay in cash, he's told that the store is a 'cashless environment.' All of this may leave the viewer feeling disoriented: Is this really Puerto Rico? There's also nary a reggaeton or salsa tune in the film's first act, which may add to the confusion. Only English-language country and emo-rock songs float out of the homes Señor passes. Not until the old man returns home from the pricey café, two-thirds into the film, do the longing plucks of a bolero song start to play (a snippet of 'Turista,' off Debí Tirar Mas Fotos). It scores a small, more classical portrait of Caribbean life; Señor places a moka pot on a gas stove, cuts up bread, and pours his cafecito into a little green cup. After a long, uncanny absence—and among the overall strangeness of the town—the bolero riffs land on the viewer like an emotive tidal wave, flooding the largely muted streets with sound. At the bakery, Señor seemed uncomfortable, forced to speak halting English; at home, with his daily tasks scored by swooning traditional tunes, he looks at ease once again. His house becomes an oasis of local Puerto Rican music in a neighborhood that appears to be quickly forgetting its culture. This scarce use of Caribbean music feels intentional: One of the effects of gentrification, Bad Bunny proposes, is silence. Throughout the DTMF album, Bad Bunny laments how many Puerto Ricans have been forced to leave the island amid financial struggles and environmental disasters such as Hurricane Maria; this is most notable on 'Lo Que Le Pasó a Hawaii,' in which he notes that 'no one here wanted to leave, and those who left dream of returning.' (As of 2018, more Puerto Ricans live outside Puerto Rico than on the island; the same is true of native Hawaiians and Palestinians in their respective lands.) The DTMF short film makes their absence palpable. 'Did you hear that? That music!' the old man says to Concho, when a red sedan drives by their front porch playing reggaeton (Bad Bunny's 'Eoo'). The old man is moved. 'You barely see that anymore,' he says of the car moseying past. 'I miss hearing the young people hanging out, the motorcycles—the sound of the neighborhood.' Señor and Concho, it seems, live in a community that has turned its volume down, now that most of its Puerto Rican inhabitants have left. Yet Bad Bunny offers up one possible way for Puerto Ricans both on and off the island—and any group facing similar trials—to resist the cultural erasure that can accompany displacement. The proposal: to joyfully tout their music and traditional symbols. It's an idea that's threaded through the DTMF album, which is full of imperative lyrics such as ' Don't let go of the flag nor forget the le-lo-lai ' (a lyrical scat often used in jíbaro music, a folk genre that originated in the Puerto Rican countryside). The accompanying film ends on a similar note, as Concho and Señor, the everymen of the island, model a moment of cultural pride. Concho suggests that his friend shake up the neighborhood's ghostly quiet; why not drive around blaring some perreo bops? The old man entertains this idea, though only as a daydream. In his mind's eye, he sees himself behind the wheel of a Jeep, the windows down. He's blasting Bad Bunny's song 'Veldá' throughout the hilly, vacant streets. It's a triumphant, defiant vignette—an assertion that, as the old man tells Concho, ' seguimos aquí.' We're still here.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
The 50 Best Albums of 2025 So Far (Staff Picks)
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It hasn't produced a single anywhere near the size of 2023's culture-conquering 'Flowers,' but it doesn't have to — it's much more important for Cyrus' legacy that she has an album that no one song lives above. — a characteristically robust 37 tracks, I'm the Problem continues to offer a picture window into Wallen's late-night musings about relationships, small-town living and, yes, whiskey. And things feel especially diaristic this time around, with Wallen co-writing 22 of the songs, including the Hot 100-topping Tate McRae duet 'What I Want,' which marks his first collab with a woman and provides a much-needed female perspective to his typically navel-gazing views on love. Oh, and if you're looking for the true pinnacle of situationship songwriting, the brooding 'Just in Case' somehow makes casual dating seem romantic — because he's just keeping his bed warm while he waits for his true love to return. But the jam-packed project's ultimate love interest has to be Tennessee, spotlighted across the album – nowhere better than on the cunning 'TN,' which makes excellent use of a series of abbreviations to spell out just how forever intertwined Wallen is with his beloved home state: 'When I take my last breath, that's the dirt that they gonna bury me in/ TN.' When he takes his last breath, we also have a feeling Wallen will still be singing about women, whiskey and the Volunteer State. — Mexican singer-songwriter always finds a way to strike the perfect balance between reinventing herself without compromising her folk essence, sounding worldly while still honoring her Latin American roots. Cancionera is no exception here: a bold offering of son jarocho, tropical and ranchera music that also integrates natural sounds (courtesy of Soundwalk Collective) for an elevated listening experience. The 14-track set is a rich and nuanced musical landscape that sets up Lafourcade for another potential sweep at this year's Latin Grammys. — Choke Enough, the debut album from French singer-producer Marylou Maniel under her Oklou moniker, recalls the icy pop minimalism of Grimes, the hypnotic New Age tranquility of Enya and the experimental dance-R&B thump of FKA Twigs at different points, the synthesis of its influences is so fully realized that nothing else sounds quite like it. Part of that distinctiveness comes from Oklou's fragile yet warm vocal delivery, which is deployed at different distances — on the title track, for instance, she sounds like an echo from a wholly different song, before being shoved into the front of the mix for a breathtaking refrain. — J. LipshutzAfter a five-year layoff, Ovrkast. doled out his first full-length mixtape since 2020's Try Again with May's While the Iron Is Hot. The East Oakland rhymer dazzles over soul-grabbing samples with elastic precision on the set, shining alongside lyrical heroes Saba ('Dog Days') and Vince Staples ('Strange Ways'). Even when 'Kast is playing iso-ball, he lights up the scoreboard on standout tracks 'Spike Lee' and 'NEW ERA,' proving why he has box-office potential akin to another West Coast messiah by the name of Kendrick Lamar. — CARL LAMARREAs part of Animal Collective, Noah Lennox has spent years challenging listeners with experimental pop sounds — but in his own work as Panda Bear, Lennox's music is more like a watercolor painting, with ideas gently bleeding into each other to create the full soft-focus picture. Lennox has shown a penchant for doing more with less in his solo releases, never overcrowding his songs and letting his melodies shine, and this year's Sinister Grift feels like the pinnacle of this approach. This isn't Jimmy Buffett's beach, but the music is beachy, in the breezy, relaxed, bright sense of the word. The easygoing vibe and Lennox's eternally youthful voice hide lyrical undertones of sorrow, regret and a heavy heart that 'bends before it breaks.' Yet Lennox keeps moving, and ends the album with dukes up on 'Defense,' as he and guest Cindy Lee fight against hard times, with electric guitar becoming their Excalibur. — Glory is Perfume Genius' seventh album in 15 years, it's also his first proper studio album in five, one wrung out of pandemic-era depression. The first-blush assessment that Glory is softer and less abrasive than Mike Hadreas' previous album belies the melancholy, nostalgia, uncertainty and other overcast emotions that make up Glory's core. 'Clean Heart' is a twinkling, fragile indie pop song about what you lose and discover as time passes; 'No Front Teeth' alternates between Aldous Harding's gentle, meditative chorus and a grimy '90s alt-rock flavor; while 'Full On' brings an almost medieval musical flavor to some of his most arresting lyrics: 'I saw every quarterback crying/ Laid up on the grass/ And nodding like a violet.' — JOE LYNCHPinkPantheress polishes her Y2K sonics with carefully curated U.K. pop and dance samples and syncopated beats for her sophomore mixtape Fancy That. From the moment her featherlight vocals greet listeners with 'My name is Pink and I'm really glad to meet you' on the bubbly garage opener 'Illegal' to the thumping bassline and sweet come-ons of the Panic! At the Disco-sampling hit single 'Tonight,' the English singer-songwriter-producer beckons us to the dancefloor with reckless abandon and the alluring fantasy of a budding romance. — HERAN MAMOPlayboi Carti's MUSIC pays tribute to his Atlanta roots, earning him back to back No. 1s on the Billboard 200. Hosted by local legend Swamp Izzo, whose ad-libs echo throughout, the album celebrates Carti's rise to the top of the genre. Fusing gritty influences like Lil Wayne and Future with longtime collaborators Skepta and Lil Uzi Vert — plus huge star turns from contemporary pop A-listers Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd — MUSIC honors Atlanta's legacy while pushing the culture forward, in true Carti fashion. — be hard pressed to find a rapper and a producer that have more chemistry than these two Griselda stalwarts. With Trainspotting, they spun off on their own to give the game a lesson on how to make a modern-era east coast street rap album, with top-tier rhymes and top-shelf beats that only the truest of aficionados can appreciate. There also may be a conversation to be had about whether or not Rome is the current King of New York, but we'll have to leave that for another day. For now, roll something meticulous and enjoy. — British singer-songwriter's debut — on which she co-wrote all 12 tracks, with collaborators like Uffie, Justin Tranter and Cobra Starship alum Ryland Blackinton — calls to mind bits of other beloved dance-pop princesses: the underground rave energy of Charli xcx, the euphoric choruses of Carly Rae Jepsen, the disco coquette purr of Kylie Minogue. But with her big voice, nonchalant humor ('all the good shit in life is always free,' she sings on explosive single 'Free') and assured approach, it's clear Gray has star power all her own. — steered her way into the hearts and playlists of R&B purists earlier this year with her 14-track set FROM FLORIDA'S FINEST. Delivering confessional-style anthems like 'DOWN BAD' & 'CUT UP,' SAILORR's candor can feel SZA-coded for new ears unfamiliar with her talents. Laced with grit, vulnerability and whimsical one-liners that are catchy but maddening to the opposite sex, the Vietnamese-bred singer issues headshots to cheaters and haters. 'BITCHES BREW' best showcases her pop sensibilities, as she takes lyrical swipes at those looking to tear her down. — U.K. has seen precious few new male rockers win over American audiences in recent years, but Sam Fender is poised to break through on these shores. With its 11 hook-laden, guitar-driven, lyrically rich tracks, People Watching has reached a respectable No. 16 on Billboard's Top Album Sales chart — but in the U.K. it achieved the biggest opening week for a British solo act since Harry's House from Harry Styles in 2022. The album's title song showcases Fender's anthemic sensibility, perfectly crafted for arena singalongs. — THOM DUFFYThe prolific English funk band Sault returned with a new album less than four months after Acts of Faith, and it's one of their most compelling releases to date — full of knubby bass lines, catlike guitar riffs, stairstep horn lines, and delicately stirring vocals from lead singer Cleo Sol. 'K.T.Y.W.S.' evokes the great Deniece Williams soul ballad 'Free' with more punch, while 'I.L.T.S.' serves as a showcase for Sol, whose tricky, intricate runs keep disrupting the track's head-nod beat. 'Be yourself,' Sol sings. 'Don't apologize.' — ELIAS LEIGHTThe lore goes that back in the early 2010s, a laptop was stolen from Skrillex, with the equipment containing a stash of music intended for an album release and thereafter lost. Whether that's entirely true or not, the fact remains that the final track of Skrillex's April LP, the mighty, tear-jerky 'Voltage,' has been floating around the internet since the producer's breakout years — with the metal-bending intensity that defined Skrillex's genre-evolving early output, and vocals that evoke his even-earlier work as frontman for emo band From First to Last. The track is thus an apt closer to F*CK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! <3, a pummeling 34-minute mega-mix of cobbled beats and collaborators that nods to Skrillex's earlier dubstep era and also effectively ends it, a glorious goodbye as the star producer's final album of his long tenure at Atlantic Records. — after Think Later and a top five solo hit ('Greedy'), Tate McRae still found herself on the outside looking in when it came to pop's A-list. Well, the Canadian dancing savant drove her sports car into pole position with So Close to What, joining the next class of stars shaping pop music. McRae's songwriting matured, and she made the most of elevated production to develop a clearer artistic identity with the bionic synths of 'Sports Car' and 'Revolving Door' — both of which reached the Billboard Hot 100's top 25. The 21-year-old is making the leap to performing in arenas across America later this year, and now she has the catalog to match. — great blue-eyed-soul singer began the year with a Grammy nod for best new artist and the release of his sophomore album. The punchy 'Bad Dreams,' Part 2's first single, is one of the prime shoulda-been-bigger hits of 2025. It peaked at No. 30 on the Hot 100, simply because 'Lose Control,' the megahit from Swims' first album, refused to recede. The rest of the album features Givēon (on second single 'Are You Even Real'), Muni Long, Coco Jones and GloRilla, an impressive supporting cast that just further solidifies Swims' current leading-man status. – Tesfaye bids adieu to The Weeknd and caps his final trilogy with its third and last installment, Hurry Up Tomorrow. The Canadian Ethiopian superstar reflects on the afflicting nature of fame on 'Drive,' wanting to die at his peak on the Future-assisted 'Enjoy the Show' and leaving it all on the stage on the existential, epic 'Without a Warning,' over his signature synth-pop/R&B production. With the end of the poignant album-closing title track transitioning into the beginning of 'High For This' – the opening track of his 2011 debut mixtape House of Balloons – Tesfaye brings his legendary catalog full circle. — the anthemic rock songwriting on Turnstile's 2022 album Glow On was too undeniable to be contained to the veteran Baltimore band's hardcore-punk fan base, then the experimental ethos of long-awaited follow-up Never Enough was always destined to inspire frustration from genre purists. Yet the band that mixed rap-rock, samba and cowbell breaks on Glow On has simply been given more runway to refute convention on its follow-up: Never Enough rages when necessary on songs like 'Birds,' 'Sole' and the title track, but the synth-pop of 'I Care' and extended dance groove of 'Look Out for Me' are just as compelling, and offer new shades of a band that's coming into its own on a national stage. — J. LipshutzBy the time Valiant reaches his two-year old smash 'Mad Out' at the end of Prove Them Wrong, his second full-length project, the fast-rising St. Andrew, Jamaica-hailing star has already explored hip-hop, trap-dancehall and Spanish guitar-inflected R&B, without ever sacrificing his Patois tongue or slick wordplay. Whether he's working through relationship woes on 'Selfish' or delivering an unruly anthem in the Tommy Lee Sparta-assisted 'Rapid Up,' Valiant spends Prove Them Wrong flaunting his range and versatility, ultimately giving credence to the project's title. — we're only halfway through the year, Ryan Coogler's box office-topping Sinners is already the definitive film of 2025 — and its bluesy soundtrack remains one of its biggest draws. Curated by Oscar winner Ludwig Göransson, Coogler and Serena Göransson, the Sinners soundtrack bolsters both the film's plot and general narrative of the history and influence of Black music through an exploration of Delta blues, early rock n roll, and Irish music. Anchored by stirring orchestral arrangements, true-to-history blues songwriting and Miles Caton's soaring performances on end-credits anthem 'Last Time (I Seen the Sun)' and the Raphael Saadiq-penned 'I Lied to You,' the Sinners soundtrack has cast a supernatural hold on listeners that's even lasted beyond the film's theatrical run. — her Whatever the Weather alias, English IDM producer Loraine James channels some of her most atmospheric impulses, with the conceit that every track is named after a temperature, and to some degree, reflects that temperature. Whatever the Weather II is immersive and hypnotic, like the best ambient music – but it's never monotonous, from the skittering drum tracks that undergird many of its ethereal compositions to the samples of unintelligible chatter and other sound effects that drift in and out of the mix. That unpredictability – much like the meterological phenomena from which James' project takes its name – is what makes the album endlessly rewarding, from its ruminative opening to its curveball folktronica-infused finish. — great songwriter pays tribute to another, as Nelson exquisitely covers works by Rodney Crowell on this set — released in April, just ahead of Nelson's 92nd birthday. The tracks include Crowell's classic 'Shame on the Moon,' previously a hit for Bob Seger. Above the shuffling beat of an ace studio band, with sweet hints of Nelson's picking on his vintage guitar Trigger, he and Crowell duet on the title track, a gentle reflection on the passing of time. 'It's the first and the last of your days flying past,' they sing, 'oh what a beautiful world.' — T.D. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart
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Which Album Has Been Your Favorite of 2025 So Far? Vote!
We're only six months into 2025, but already a number of artists have dropped albums that have topped the charts, sparked discourse and shaped this year's culture as we know it. And with that in mind, it's difficult to choose a favorite. Bad Bunny reasserted his status at the forefront of Latin pop with Debí Tirar Más Fotos, while Lady Gaga made her return to dark dance-pop with the critically acclaimed Mayhem. Miley Cyrus, The Weeknd and Morgan Wallen also reemerged with new products in the first half of the year, dropping Something Beautiful, Hurry Up Tomorrow and I'm the Problem, respectively. More from Billboard The 50 Best Albums of 2025 So Far (Staff Picks) Cold Chisel Announce 'Big Five-0' Live Album to Celebrate 50-Year Legacy Lorde Fans Say 'Virgin' CD Doesn't Work in Most Players But in addition to those already established artists, multiple up-and-comers have scored breakout moments with new LPs as well. Addison Rae unveiled her first-ever full-length, Addison, while Tate McRae scored her very first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 with So Close to What. One soundtrack also made waves in 2025: Sinners, which featured music from the film's leading lady, Hailee Steinfeld, as well as Rhiannon Giddens, Brittany Howard, Buddy Guy and more. But despite the high volume of great releases, Billboard staff still managed to assemble a list of our favorite LPs of the year thus far, from high-profile pop and hip-hop drops to less splashy but equally mighty indie and alt-rock albums. Now, it's your turn — we want to know which of those albums grabbed your ears the most in the past six months. Tell us which set has been your favorite in the first half of 2025 by voting in the poll below. Best of Billboard Chart Rewind: In 1989, New Kids on the Block Were 'Hangin' Tough' at No. 1 Janet Jackson's Biggest Billboard Hot 100 Hits H.E.R. & Chris Brown 'Come Through' to No. 1 on Adult R&B Airplay Chart