\n<\/p>\n
\n\tBad Bunny has officially been recognized as the most important artist of the 21st century by the Latin music industry.<\/p>\n
\n\tDuring the 2025 Latin Billboard Music Awards, actress Rita Moreno surprised El Conejo Malo on stage to hand him the award for Top Latin Artist of the 21st Century. Before doing so, the 93-year-old, who is also Puerto Rican, reflected on her experience as a Latina in the industry and the obstacles she encountered.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cWhen I started my career, being Latino in the United States meant facing barriers. Opportunities were few, almost non-existent, and every small step forward was a victory,\u201d said the Westside Story<\/em> actress.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI see an artist who brings the world to Latin culture with the same strength and passion that kept me going and allowed me to never give up,\u201d said Moreno while looking at a smiling Bad Bunny smiling from the audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThe \u201cDeb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos\u201d singer walked on stage and began doing a few salsa steps while the crowd roared with excitement. He then hugged Moreno as they danced and shared a moment chatting away from the mic.<\/p>\n \n\tDuring his acceptance speech, the artist humbly thanked fans and acknowledged his colleagues, stating that he didn\u2019t know why he had been chosen over the rest.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cFor me, it\u2019s an honor to receive this award from your hands. I respect you and admire you so much,\u201d he said to Moreno. \u201cEvery time I hear other artists speak as you did of me, it tells me that doing things from a good place and with your heart, it\u2019s always the best decision.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Puerto Rican artist, the top nominee of the night with a historic 27 nods, also mentioned that he knew how hard he had worked to have a place in the industry.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI know how much I have worked and not just me but my whole team. At the same time, I\u2019m 100 percent aware that anyone of my colleagues could have been given this award,\u201d added the artist who took home numerous Latin Billboard awards, including the one for artist of the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tThere were suspicions on whether he would make any mention of the current conversation surrounding his upcoming Super Bowl Halftime performance, however the artist steered clear of making any social or political statements.<\/p>\n \n\tIn late September, El Conejo Malo announced that he would headline the halftime show in February. The news sparked an array of conversations around politics, culture and the performance being fully in Spanish.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been thinking these past few days and after discussing it with my team, I think I will do just one date in the United States,\u201d he wrote on X at the time.<\/p>\n \n\tAfter his No Me Quiero Ir de Aqu\u00ed residency in Puerto Rico, Bad Bunny revealed that he wouldn\u2019t be adding a U.S. leg to the\u00a0Deb\u00ed Tirar M\u00e1s Fotos Tour. In an interview, he explained that he had concerns that ICE would be outside the stadiums and that he wanted to keep his fans safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tBad Bunny\u2019s tour is set to kick off in November with a first stop in the Dominican Republic.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Bad Bunny has officially been recognized as the most important artist of the 21st century by the Latin music industry. During the 2025 Latin Billboard Music Awards, actress Rita Moreno surprised El Conejo Malo on stage to hand him the award for Top Latin Artist of the 21st Century. Before doing so, the 93-year-old, who<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[2483,1295,7212,8264,8370,11346,8641,686,17770],"class_list":{"0":"post-30208","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-awards","9":"tag-bad","10":"tag-billboard","11":"tag-bunny","12":"tag-honors","13":"tag-latin","14":"tag-moreno","15":"tag-music","16":"tag-rita"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}