There’s really no denying at this point, that Bad Bunny’s “Un Verano Sin Ti” was 2022’s biggest album of the year. Not only did it make Billboard’s number-one spot for 13 consecutive weeks, but it was also streamed 4.6 billion times in just the U.S. The record-breaking album moved the equivalent of 273,000 units in streams and downloads with two singles breaking one billion streams: “Tití Me Pregunto” with 1.4 billion and “Me Porto Bonito” with 1.5. “Un Verano Sin Ti” has made history and yet it continues to get snubbed an Album of the Year award. But tonight, at the 2023 Premio Lo Nuestro Awards broadcasting live via Univision, “El Conejo Malo” finally received the honor of being awarded the Álbum Del Año (Album of The Year) award, and it’s about freaking time!
While Bad Bunny has received praise and awards for “Un Verano Sin Ti,” it’s always been in the musica urbana category. For far too long we have seen rappers, reggaetoneros, and other urban artists of color only receive high awards specifically in urban music categories, as if their work wasn’t good enough for Artist of the Year or Album of the Year awards. At last year’s Latin Grammy Awards Bad Bunny lost the Album of the Year award to Rosalía for her 2022 album “MOTOMAMI” and Harry Styles took home the Album of the Year award at this year’s Grammys for “Harry’s House.”
But unlike the Grammys and Latin Grammys, Premio Lo Nuestro are fan-voted awards, and it seems like Benito’s loyal fans came through. Sebastían Yatra who had the most nominations for the night — 10 nods —took home four awards including Pop-Male Artist of the Year, Pop -Song of the Year, Pop/Ballad -Song of the Year, and Pop-Album of the Year.
In addition to Album of the Year, Bad Bunny also took home the awards for Urban-Album of The Year and Urban-Collaborator of the Year. He was not in attendance at this year’s Premio Lo Nuestro to receive his awards.
After all those award show nubs, many of the Puerto Rican artist’s supporters had come to the conclusion that looking at award shows for validation and vindication makes no sense. But seeing Bad Bunny take home a Premio Lo Nuestro award for Album of the Year and not just Urban Album of the Year proves that the people have spoken.