Did Bad Bunny Just Not-So-Subtly Shaded Harry Styles at Coachella?

This year, one of the headliners at Coachella was Bad Bunny.

This made him not only the first Puerto Rican but also the first Latino singer to headline the festival.

No matter how successful people of color have been in the music industry, white artists are still in the spotlight. Especially when it comes to prestigious awards — the Academy's members are still not too enthusiastic about anything made outside white culture. And this fact led to Harry Styles receiving a barrage of criticism from fans as well as a not-so-subtle dig from Bad Bunny.

Benito Ocasio aka Bad Bunny, the king of Puerto Rican rap and reggaeton, made a reference to Styles in a very unusual way during his performance at Coachella, and his remark wasn't particularly nice either.

As the rapper was performing his song 'El Apagón' from Un Verano Sin Ti, arguable one of the best albums in the history of Spanish-language music, the screen behind Bad Bunny flashed up with one very interesting tweet:

'goodnight benito could do as it was but harry could never do el apagon,' the post read.

'As It Was' is Styles' song that became one of the biggest hits of 2022, which the singer first performed at last year's Coachella. The tweet suggests that Bad Bunny is perfectly capable of writing an equally great song, while there's no way Styles could replicate the Puerto Rican's success.

But it's not just about the singers' creative abilities — the tweet also seems to imply that the public (and, most importantly, academicians) have different attitudes toward white and non-white artists.

Styles' his album Harry's House won three Grammy Awards in February 2023. At the ceremony, the singer said, 'This is really, really kind. I'm so, so grateful. This doesn't happen to people like me very often.'

While Harry was probably trying to be humble, many people were outraged by his comment, saying that rich white men do get these awards a lot. And what's worse, the Grammy award was literally stolen from Bad Bunny, whose album Un Verano Sin Ti was also very successful in 2022, becoming the first Latino music album ever to be nominated for the Album of the Year award.

Undoubtedly, both albums are worthy of awards and attention, but with all love and respect for Harry Styles, fans still feel hurt for Bad Bunny, claiming that Un Verano Sin Ti deserved proper recognition at the Grammys.

And the fact that the performer made it to the Coachella Festival this year is a promising sign that the music industry is ready to change and become more appreciative of non-white artists and their music.

Although the reason why Ocasio made such a bold shade is pretty obvious, we want to believe that the two will eventually work things out. After all, fans would be thrilled to see an unexpected collaboration between such giants as Bad Bunny and Harry Styles.