2025 in Review: Why did Bad Bunny's anthem to Puerto Rico strike a global chord?
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 748 Ratings
🗓️ 23 December 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We’re looking back at 10 of the episodes that defined 2025 at The Take. This originally aired on February 10. None of the dates or references have been changed.
Bad Bunny’s new album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, became the number-one streamed album worldwide. It mixes different Puerto Rican music genres and touches on themes of gentrification and a loss of cultural identity. How is the album bringing the Puerto Rican fight for survival to the world?
In this episode:
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Jorell Meléndez-Badillo (@jorellmelendezb), Author of “Puerto Rico: A National History”
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Marcos Bartolomé, with Hanah Shokeir, Hagir Saleh, Melanie Marich and our guest host, Natasha Del Toro. It was edited by Noor Wazwaz.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Hi everyone, Malika here. This week and next, we're bringing you the takes year in review. |
| 0:18.1 | Ten episodes looking at the stories that shape 2025. Today, why did Bad Bunny's |
| 0:24.2 | anthem to Puerto Rico strike a global chord? See what we did there? This episode first aired on |
| 0:30.4 | February 10th, 2025. All dates and references are from that time. Enjoy the show. Today, Bad Bunny's Love Letter to Puerto Rico. |
| 0:48.7 | It's all in the album's name. |
| 0:57.8 | I should have taken more pictures. |
| 1:01.0 | How this deep dive into memories and history |
| 1:04.0 | is reimagining the island's political future. |
| 1:09.0 | I'm Natasha Del Toro, and this is The Take. |
| 1:22.2 | When I first listened to Bad Bunny's album, it was really emotional for me. |
| 1:27.3 | I mean, it's so nostalgic. So it was |
| 1:29.9 | surprising that this has resonated with so many people around the world because it seems to me |
| 1:34.3 | so specific about the Puerto Rican experience. I mean, it's this little island in the middle of the |
| 1:39.8 | Caribbean with so much heart and yet faces so many challenges that it makes you wonder, will this culture even be able to survive? |
| 1:49.8 | As my late Uncle Pablo used to say, in order to know where you are going, you need to know where you've been. |
| 1:59.3 | And maybe that's why Bad Bunny thought it was so |
| 2:02.0 | important to weave in the island's history, which brings us to our guest today. |
| 2:09.5 | For me, it was incredible. I just got a call from the Bad Bunny team, and they said that Benito |
| 2:14.5 | was interested in using his platform to amplify Puerto Rican history. |
| 2:18.8 | I never in my life expected to have this sort of platform in my career. Benito is very adamant |
| 2:25.2 | that this is a project by and for Puerto Ricans. |
... |
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