Bad Bunny sings in “Non-English” at the 2023 Grammys

The Grammys aired on CBS Sunday, February 5th and the first artist to perform was none other than the Puerto Rican Grammy award winner himself, Bad Bunny. His performance included songs from his new album “Un Verano Sin Ti” which was released in 2022.

The highly anticipated award show opened with his performance of “El Apagón” which incorporated Puerto Rican culture and promoted the Latinx community.  

Although his performance was lively and celebrated by artists like Jack Harlow and Taylor Swift, CBS could not keep up. They were not fully prepared to provide the needed closed captioning for the artist and his music. Instead, what was displayed was, “Singing in Non-English” or “Speaking in Non-English” for the entirety of his performance and speech when he won Best Música Urbana Album of the year.

This caused chaos among the Latinx community and fans of the artist who immediately turned to social media to critique the award show for its lack of competence. Fans and viewers shared photos from the performance as well as images and memes that mocked the situation. 

After the show CBS has faced serious backlash, described as being “racist” and 

“careless” of the Latinx community which has largely been underrepresented in the music industry. 

Influential people like Congressman and former Long Beach Mayor, Robert García, spoke out on the issue stating that, “Bad Bunny’s opening performance at the 2023 Grammy’s was supposed to highlight a point of historic inclusivity in our country. Instead, CBS’s failure to properly close caption both his performance and his acceptance speech called attention to an incredibly disappointing failure on part of a network that caters to the millions of Spanish speakers that we have here in the U.S. If Bad Bunny, the first-ever Spanish-language Album of the Year nominee, can’t have his words made accessible to the American people, we have an issue”

Since the incident CBS has fixed their errors and has provided the right Spanish language closed captioning on the entire program. The Latinx community still demands more inclusivity and representation.