Billboard Music Awards: Bad Bunny Performs with Ivy Queen & Nesi

Global superstar Bad Bunny released his mega-successful second album YHLQMDLG this year and for Wednesday’s Billboard Music Awards he performed a remix of standout track “Yo Perreo Sola.” The performance featured Puerto Rican queen of reggaetón Ivy Queen and Nesi, the original voice featured on the track. This is not only his inaugural performance on the Billboard Music Awards stage but also his first time performing with Nesi following criticism that he didn’t credit her on the track. The Puerto Rican trap artist announced the official “Yo Perreo Sola” remix on his Instagram and released the audio for on Youtube. He also won Top Latin Artist and Top Latin Album for Oasis, his collaborative album with J Balvin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAYbpFcPn6E

The 26-year-old reggaetonero took the opportunity to make a powerful speech after winning Top Latin Artist, raising awareness about violence against women in Latin America. He dedicated the award to women all around the world, “especially Latinas and from Puerto Rico” because “nothing would exist with them.”

“Enough with the machista violence against women,  Let’s educate everyone now for a better future,” he said in Spanish, reiterating the message behind “Yo Perreo Sola”. “Aprendamos que  se puede perrear, ser educado, y respetuoso a la misma vez. Si ella no quiere bailar contigo, respeta. Ella perrea sola.”

👏👏👏 Round of applause for @sanbenito, Top Latin Artist winner! #BBMAs pic.twitter.com/de71P4ULIu

— Billboard Music Awards (@BBMAs) October 15, 2020

While the song’s focuses on perreando in particular, his speech speaks to the bigger issue of femicide occurring throughout Latin America. Last month hundreds of protesters in the #NiUnaMenos movement demanded the Puerto Rican government take action and that Gov. Wanda Vázquez declare a state of emergency. At least 37 direct and indirect femicides have been registered on the island from Jan. 2020 to Sept. 2020, according to data from Puerto Rico’s Gender Equality Observatory. Murders as a result of domestic violence doubled following Hurricane Maria in 2017 a GEN and Type Investigation found: “At least 23 women on the island of 3.2 million were killed by their current or former intimate partners that year [2018], causing the intimate partner murder rate to soar to 1.7 per 100,000 women, up from 0.77 per 100,000 in 2017.”

For Bad Bunny to take the stage and raise awareness of the severity of the situation and especially on his beloved island shows the message behind his famous track is one he takes to heart.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGWPAUih46m/?igshid=bu4nofsrzzv2

Following his win, he told Entertainment Tonight that his “only intention is to let people have fun and enjoy themselves,” adding “but also always trying to teach something new, and to learn something new every day.”