On August 28, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny, real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, performed at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, as a part of his current World’s Hottest Tour after being the first Latin artist to win Artist of the Year at the 2022 MTV Video Music Awards.
Bunny was caught on camera kissing backup dancers while performing at the VMAs. The fans were startled when he began to make out with dancers, first a man and then a female.
At the MTV Video Music Awards, the VMA winner’s rendition of “Titi Me Pregunto” drew criticism for being queerphobic (VMA).
He passionately kissed his male dancer while performing “Titi Me Pregunto” and shared a kiss with his female dancer as well. His supporters are calling him queerbaiting since they think he is merely pretending to be a member of the LGBTQ+ community when he is not.
With one viewer responded, “He needs to stop queerbaiting.”
“Harry’s queerbaiting classes are working I see,” another said, comparing him to the musician Harry Styles who they accused of doing it for attention for being sexually ambiguous.
Bunny routinely condemns homophobia in the music industry and incorporates queer persons in his song videos. Additionally, he was spotted kissing a male in his 2019 music video for “Caro,” which led many fans to speculate that he might be gay or bisexual.
Bunny won Spotify’s top-streaming artist of the year in 2020, becoming the platform’s first non-English-language celebrity to do so and creating history by becoming the first performer who didn’t speak English to receive the honor as an Artist of the Year whom the bilingual performer was up against Drake, Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles, Jack Harlow, Lil Nas X, and Lizzo.
“I think that sex is a giant world, and everyone is free to see it as they want and do it with whoever they want, however they want, with infinite possibilities,” Bunny said during a 2020 cover story with Playboy, sharing the details of his sexuality.
“In the end, we are human beings. Everybody feels, everybody falls in love with whoever they’re meant to,” he added.
Bunn also said to GQ this year that “a dress is a dress” while appearing in drag for his “Yo Perreo Sola” music video, as he felt the same way about wearing gowns and other things that were considered feminine.
And when it comes to his fashion choices, Bunny said,
“It depends on my state of mind,”
Eeverybody has to feel comfortable with what they are and how they feel. Like, what defines a man, what defines being masculine, what defines being feminine? I really can’t give clothes gender.”
To me, a dress is a dress. If I wear a dress, would it stop being a woman’s dress? Or vice versa? Like, no. It’s a dress, and that’s it. It’s not a man’s, it’s not a woman’s. It’s a dress.”
Sources: Dailywire, Zomaloma, Papermag