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It has not been a week in 2023, and the entertainment industry has its first scandal starred by Bad Bunny. The Puerto Rican star, who is supposed to be enjoying the new year away from the stages and living a simple life, took to social media to defend himself after a situation with a fan while he was vacationing in the Dominican Republic.
In a viral video, Bad Bunny is seen walking alongside his friends in Casa de Campo, a private and exclusive residential community in La Romana on the southeast coast of the Caribbean nation. Suddenly, a woman got extremely close to the artist while holding her phone, shouting and recording in selfie mode.
A few seconds later, Bad Bunny grabbed the phone from her hands and threw it into the bushes. The fan immediately stepped back to recover her phone while everyone following the artist became quiet for a moment. “You have to respect his space,” said someone from the crew. Another fan walking behind the artist said he was still the best even though he had that rude reaction.
After the much-talked-about moment, the “Tití Me Preguntó” singer took to Twitter to express his unapologetic point of view. “The person who comes up to me to say hello, to tell me something, or just to meet me, will always receive my attention and respect,” he wrote. “Those who come to put a freaking phone in my face I will consider it for what it is, a disrespect, and I will treat it as is.” He also used a hashtag that loosely translates to “I don’t give a damn.”
Social media has had a field day, expressing mixed feelings about Bad Bunny’s actions and the fan’s disrespect. “Let’s normalize the fact that artists are human beings and deserve to be treated with respect always,” a person tweeted. “You are the number one artist in the world, and you hope people don’t want a picture with you? Get your feet on the ground,” said another.
For years, Bad Bunny has chosen the Dominican Republic as a place to welcome the New Year with his family. According to Santiago Matías, also known as Alofoke, an influential Dominican radio host, podcaster, and producer, the reggaeton star, who just wrapped a world tour, “is exhausted and wishes to enjoy the holidays as Benito and not as Bad Bunny.”
Days before traveling to the Dominican Republic, the 28-year-old Almirante Sur native met with children in Puerto Rico as part of his “Bonita Tradición” event held by his Good Bunny Foundation.
The global sensation’s non-profit handed over 25,000 gifts, as reported by CiberCuba, on December 27, at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan.
The official Instagram account of the Good Bunny Foundation shared a glimpse of the beautiful encounter. They featured some gifts the attendees were getting, including sporting, art, and music items such as footballs and basketballs, baseballs, pianos, guitars, violins, and much more.
Camila Vega, the development coordinator of the Good Bunny Foundation, told EFE that “the objective of distributing articles of art, music, and sport is because they are the three pillars of the social organization. We aim to support children and young people with limited resources and direct them to be leaders under those three pillars”.
This is the third year that Bad Bunny and his foundation have held the event. They began in 2018 and continued in 2019; unfortunately, in 2020 and 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they had to pause and decided to resume in 2022.