Pop icon Ricky Martin is congratulating Bad Bunny on his history-making night at the Grammy Awards.
Martin was so proud of Bad Bunny becoming the first Spanish-language artist to ever take home Album of the Year that he penned a heartfelt open letter praising his fellow Puerto Rican musician.
“Benito, brother, seeing you win three Grammy Awards, one of them for album of the year with a production entirely in Spanish, touched me deeply,” Martin wrote in a letter published in Spanish in the Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día. “Not only as an artist, but as a Puerto Rican who has walked stages around the world carrying his language, his accent, and his story.”
Martin commended Bad Bunny for winning three Grammys, including Album of the Year for Debí Tirar Más Fotos, without “erasing your roots,” and by staying true to his heritage.
“I know what it means to succeed without letting go of where you come from,” Martin continued. “I know how heavy it is, what it costs, and what is sacrificed when you decide not to change because others ask you to. That’s why what you have achieved is not just a historic musical accomplishment, it’s a cultural and human victory,” he added. “You won without changing the color of your voice. You won without erasing your roots. You won by staying true to Puerto Rico.”
The “Livin' La Vida Loca” singer went on to praise Bad Bunny for denouncing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts by saying, in part, “we’re not savage, we’re not animals, we're not aliens — we are humans, and we are Americans,” in his acceptance speech.
"What touched me most about seeing you there on the Grammy stage was the silence of the entire audience when you spoke," Martin wrote. "When you defended the immigrant community, when you pointed out a system that persecutes and separates, you spoke from a place I know very well, that place where fear and hope coexist, where millions live between languages, borders, and deferred dreams."
Martin, who is a two-time Grammy winner himself, went on to thank Bad Bunny for teaching a generation of young people “that their identity is non-negotiable.”
He concluded, ”This achievement is for a generation to whom you taught that their identity is non-negotiable and that success is not at odds with authenticity. From the heart, from one Boricua to another, with respect and love, I thank you for reminding us that when one of ours succeeds, we all succeed."
