«I dream with melodies»: Bad Bunny's summer in Puerto Rico

«I just really want the people feel like they are really here, in the island, in the Caribbean», told Bad Bunny to Apple Music talking about his latest album Un Verano Sin Ti released earlier this month. « I'm still making music from here to the world. So, there's a lot of fans around the world that can’t come… They never visit Puerto Rico or the Caribbean. So even some of them don't live so close to the beach. I want that people feel close. The whole album, you can use VR… You can feel that you are in the beach with us». Indeed, the pop star's home country is at the center of her new album - an element so fundamental that even the recording studio has a view of the sea «When you sing here, the ocean, the ocean breeze, it baptizes you, it has the ability to bring you to another level».

The structure of the album actually has the same progression as a summer day: after the first track, Moscow Mule, which corresponds to an establishing shot of the panorama Bad Bunny wants to paint, it starts with energy to end in sweetness. «At the beginning, you are chill, then you start with a few drinks with the sun, and then at the end with the sunset, everyone’s like calm». The vibe of the album is not only meant to reproduce the pattern of a typical day in the blissful sunshine of Puerto Rico but to evoke a whole humanity - nominally, from the songs of the featured artists that accompany Bad Bunny's voice as that of a group of friends. «This whole album is inspired by all my summers. The vibe, the sound, even the featurings. I like every featuring because I like the music of that artist. They remind me of very special summer». A love of music that is part of the singer's very DNA: « I don't remember any moment of my life without music. Because I dream with melodies, I just can't stop thinking about music».

The feeling that Un Verano Sin Ti wants to evoke is something familiar, almost natural - a feeling mirrored in Bad Bunny's own state of mind that he said: « I just want people remember me like just a normal guy»,  and very attached to his home country one might add. A little later the singer returns to the subject: « The cars passing with my music. That's the best feeling ever, no matter what. You can be in L.A., or in New York, [in any part of the world, and hear the music, and it feels great], but in your home is different». A sense of home, of belonging that is expressed not only on a musical level («'m still doing music for my people...», said Bad Bunny) but as of now on the cinematic one. A few weeks ago, in fact, Sony announced that the singer will join the Spider-verse by impersonating the Marvel character of El Muerto - a role the pop star has taken very seriously: «This is one of the biggest thing in my life. I have to make proud the Latino people, the wrestlers, I can't fail».