My Obsession With Bad Bunny
- Mar 31
- 3 min read
He's Moved On. I Haven't.
He’s cut his hair. He’s expecting a baby, and the headlines (and life!) have clearly moved on. Yet here I am—in my kitchen, singing badly in Spanish, failing spectacularly at salsa (laughing at myself!!) … and still, completely obsessed with Bad Bunny.
It all started with a tabloid headline and a supermodel. I knew him as the guy dating Kendall Jenner (yes!) … then came the Grammys and the Super Bowl halftime show—a total must-watch in the Nair-Mason household.
I don’t know what I was expecting, but what I got was a man completely unbothered by the size of the stage he was standing on—absolutely NO performing-for-the-room energy… just Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio showing up exactly as himself, in front of a hundred million people, and somehow making it feel intimate, like he was doing it for the sheer love of it (and he was!!)—and we were lucky enough to be watching.
I couldn’t look away AND I haven’t looked away since!
It turns out neither can anyone else. My Instagram and TikTok feeds are full of his music — not pushed by an algorithm chasing relevance, but chosen, again and again, by people all over the world who found something in it that felt like theirs.
You may think, “Wow—brilliant marketing/PR,” but I can confidently tell you (hand over heart) that these astronomical numbers come mainly from Bad Bunny just being fully himself—and making everyone watching feel less alone at the same time.
Comfortable in his own skin (with no tell-tale signs of trying to be palatable in any shape or form) … he is, to borrow a phrase I happen to feel strongly about, unapologetically himself!
When someone does that—wholeheartedly and authentically (not as a branding move!) but just as themselves—you can’t help but think: what would it look like if you went all in, just like that?
If I’m honest, I’ve spent years editing myself for access.
Brown in South Africa, exotic in Britain, yet with the same skin, brain, and ambition—nothing actually changed!
I learned which jokes to soften, the references to explain and how to smooth my edges so I didn’t feel like I was too much. Some days, I was too Indian for certain rooms, and then not Indian enough for others. Can someone explain that, please?!!
The words edit or shrink do not seem to exist in Bad Bunny’s vocabulary. He scales at full volume—and instead of pushing back, the world leans in and the hierarchy begins to wobble.
And this is the bit I find deliciously interesting. He was asked to perform in English. He flat-out refused to dilute himself or erase parts of who he is. End of story.
English isn’t the world’s default — it just behaves like it is.
This isn’t a Puerto Rican thing, or something unique to South Asia, or to immigrants in Britain — it belongs to anyone who has ever felt like they were standing just outside the story everyone else seemed to be part of.
Benito gives it a voice — artistically, intentionally and rooted in love +self-belief.
Watching someone who looks nothing like the default, owning the room anyway? I can’t describe the mix of joy, acceptance, and awe that rushes through you!
At the Super Bowl — in front of a hundred million people — he looked straight into the camera and said it anyway: "Nunca dejé de creer en mí. Tú también deberías de creer en ti."
I never stopped believing in myself. You should too. That's it. That's the whole lesson.
So yes, I’m still singing badly and dancing terribly to Bad Bunny (wouldn’t you love to be a fly on my wall? 😉), and learning something new every single time about what it means to be fully, unapologetically myself.
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