Rauw Alejandro Transforms Forest Hills Stadium for Red Bull Chapters
Forest Hills Stadium already feels like a kind of time capsule. Tucked inside Queens, its Tudor-style cottages and intimate village-like pathways create the sensation of stepping into a storybook hidden inside New York City. On Saturday night (Sept. 5), that atmosphere became the setting for Rauw Alejandro’s own living storybook: a three-act performance that moved from the Puerto Rican roots and musical influences that shaped him to the superstar he is now — and the artist he is still becoming.
The show — Red Bull Chapters featuring Rauw Alejandro — was initially scheduled for one night. After that date sold out quickly, a second performance was added for Sunday (Sept. 6), giving the event an unexpected momentum even before its first chapter began. It also marked Red Bull’s first Chapters project centered on a recording artist, following the brand’s long history of building platforms around athletes, action sports and culture.
One day before the show, Rauw told Billboard over Zoom that the collaboration was intended to merge “the world of extreme sports, the world of sports, with the world of art and music.” He added: “It’s literally Rauw and Red Bull. It’s not like Rauw Alejandro and Red Bull separately — it’s a fusion between the two worlds.”
Inspiration
The opening chapter began with images of the Caribbean Sea and the sun, accompanied by a narrated portrait of Puerto Rico as the place where mountains, ocean and city meet. The story connected Taíno, African and Spanish influences with salsa, reggaetón and rock — sounds that entered Rauw’s life through his grandfather, his own early ambitions and his father, guitarist Raúl Ocasio.
He opened the concert with “Santa,” his collaboration with Rvssian and Ayra Starr. The mood shifted between intimacy and showmanship. “2/Catorce” prompted a full-crowd singalong, while “Club El Calentero” lit the stadium in neon colors. That idea became physical during “Tú Con Él,” his cover of Frankie Ruiz’s classic. Backed by a full band, Rauw delivered the song with an ease that made the homage feel less like a detour than a conversation between generations of Puerto Rican music.
Momentum
The transition into the second chapter introduced the production’s most overtly athletic language. A skateboarding structure rolled onto the stage as performers in helmets executed tricks with fire blazing behind them. Later, daredevil motorcyclists performed stunts while Rauw changed into a black leather look with a rocker edge. The production’s narration asked how someone holds onto the hunger that first fueled them, and what it takes to leap into the unknown.
Rauw also used the second chapter to address the Puerto Rican diaspora directly. “There are approximately six million Puerto Ricans outside the island, while Puerto Rico itself has only three million,” he told the Forest Hills crowd. “Puerto Rico needs us — the people who are there every day, but also those of us who are here.”
Legacy
For the final chapter, Rauw emerged in an all-white leather look, signaling a move away from biography and toward possibility. Tainy appeared behind the decks as Rauw called for New York to make itself heard, while Chencho Corleone later joined him for “Desesperados,” one of the evening’s most euphoric moments. The final act explored the future of Rauw’s sound through a freer mixture of reggaetón, R&B, electronic music and pop.
Red Bull Chapters ultimately worked best when it treated Rauw’s career as an unfinished experiment. At Forest Hills, Rauw was not just revisiting the inspirations, hits and eras that brought him here — he was demonstrating that every new chapter requires another leap.
