Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
Audio By Carbonatix
Last night, Benito made history. Debí Tirar Más Fotos, the sixth solo album from Bad Bunny, took home Album of the Year at the 2026 Grammy Awards, the first time ever that an entirely Spanish-language record has claimed the Recording Academy’s top honor.
The win goes beyond a career-defining moment for the Puerto Rican superstar to a milestone shift in Latin music’s presence in the global mainstream. Just a week before Bad Bunny headlines the Super Bowl halftime show, he continues to amplify the voices, rhythms, and stories of the Spanish-speaking world on the biggest stages.
Debí Tirar Más Fotos is a love letter to Puerto Rico, weaving salsa, bomba, and reggaetón through a modern, nuanced lens. The salsa resurgence is no accident; it reflects a broader wave of nostalgia and cultural pride among Gen Z and millennial listeners, echoed in recent releases by Luis Fonsi, J Balvin, Rauw Alejandro, Karol G, and others.
Bad Bunny’s win came against a crowded field: Clipse’s Let God Sort Em Out, Justin Bieber’s Swag, Kendrick Lamar’s GNX, Lady Gaga’s Mayhem, Leon Thomas’s Mutt, Sabrina Carpenter’s Man’s Best Friend, and Tyler, The Creator’s Chromakopia. The award was presented by British pop star Harry Styles.
In his emotional acceptance speech, delivered mostly in Spanish, Bad Bunny said: “I want to dedicate this award to all the people who had to leave their home, land, their country, to follow their dreams.”
Earlier in the night, when accepting Best Música Urbana Album, he opened, voicing his stand against ICE: “Before I say thanks to God, I’m gonna say: ICE out!”
He continued, addressing the audience directly: “We’re not savages, we’re not animals, we’re not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans.”
The crowd in Los Angeles erupted in cheers. He spoke on the toxicity of hate in the current climate, adding: “Sometimes we get contaminados, I don’t know how to say that in English, the hate gets more powerful with more hate. The only thing that is more powerful than hate is love. So, please, we need to be different. If we fight, we have to do it with love,” a love that is clearly reflected in his award-winning record.
This Grammy milestone places Bad Bunny in rare company. He becomes only the third Latin artist in history to win Album of the Year, following Carlos Santana in 2000 and João Gilberto (alongside Stan Getz) in 1965.
Debí Tirar Más Fotos also won Best Música Urbana Album and Best Global Music Performance earlier in the night.
