On the occasion of the 7th anniversary of Hurricane Maria, Bad Bunny has a new song. In it, he expresses his most political side. In some ways, it is the continuation of the short-documentary video ‘El Apagón’. Released in 2022 together with journalist Bianca Graulau, it spoke of the invasion of Puerto Rico by tourists, how ordinary Puerto Ricans cannot access certain beaches, and the constant power outages.
That’s what ‘Una velita’, our Song of the Day today, refers to with phrases like “Obviously the light will go out, God knows and it will never come back.” Although its most notable sentence is “There were 5,000 that were left to die and we will never forget that,” in reference to those killed by Hurricane Maria.
Undoubtedly one of his most melancholic and sad songs for obvious reasons, ‘Una velita’ has its roots in traditional music. That’s where the percussion and chorus come from, the cushion for that existential crisis: “a storm is coming, who is going to save us?”, reminding us that at any moment the tragedy could be repeated due to the neglect of the institutions.
And although in the end ‘Una velita’, written by Bad Bunny alone and produced by Tainy and La Paciencia, goes back to the love song (“tell me if you want to spend it with me, so you don’t sleep alone, sleep in an embrace”), the song cannot be separated from its intention. There are elections in Puerto Rico soon, specifically on November 5.
As El País reports, Bad Bunny recently encouraged people to vote for parties other than the two traditional ones in Puerto Rico. He told the podcaster El Tony: “Take out your (electoral) card, you have until September 21, there is still time (…) If you see that you are voting for the same people for 20 years and you see that your surroundings are not how you would like them to be, get them out of here, brother. It’s time.”
