Bad Bunny’s Team Addresses Alleged On-Screen Criticism of Harry Styles During Coachella Headlining Performance
Bad Bunny’s team addressed concerns from Harry Styles fans on Monday, stating that there was no intended disrespect. After Benito appeared to criticize Harry during his historic headlining Coachella set on Friday night, the reggaeton superstar’s team clarified that a tweet displayed behind Bunny during the performance was not what it seemed. The tweet stated: “goodnight benito could do as it was but harry could never do el apagaon.” The latter is a reference to the song “El Apagón” from Bunny’s acclaimed Un Verano Sin Ti album and the former was just confusing. On Monday (April 17), a rep for Bunny told Rolling Stone that the singer had no comment, adding that Benito did not approve of the message in the tweet. The visual content company that produced the images for his set, Sturdy.co, also reportedly confirmed that Bunny did not approve the Styles-dissing tweet and said it also did not intend to throw shade at the British singer/actor.
“Our intention is to create light-hearted designs that embody Bad Bunny’s personality and amplify the experience he presents as a performer,” Sturdy.co reportedly said in an Instagram Story statement on Monday. “The request from the artist during the visuals for ‘El Apagón’ performance was to use the image only and not text from the tweet, which we take responsibility for and correct it for [this] Friday’s performance. These visuals are a celebration of Bad Bunny and his dedication to empowering his native island, Puerto Rico.”
While Bunny has not reacted to the viral tweetstorm set off by the apparent Harry shade, fans speculated that it suggested he could easily have performed Styles’ hit “As It Was,” while there was no way Styles could have written “El Apagón”; Bunny’s Un Verano album was up album of the year at the 2023 Grammy Awards, where it was bested by Styles’ Harry’s House.
Bad Bunny became Coachella’s first-ever solo Latino headliner on Friday, during which he shared a poignant message about life in the celebrity bubble. “Humbly speaking, people think they know the lives of famous people, but they don’t,” he told his crowd. “They don’t know what we feel, what we live through,” he continued. “They will never know what a heart can feel. Don’t believe everything you hear. You won’t get to know the real me through a video on Instagram, an interview or a TikTok.” At press time, it did not appear that Styles had reacted to the tweet’s display during Bad Bunny’s action-packed two-hour set, which included special guests Jhayco, Jowell & Randy and Ñengo Flow, Post Malone, and a jet ski.
