Bad Bunny Formally Apologizes to Harry Styles: ‘It Was a Mistake From My Team’
A few days after Bad Bunny’s graphics team broadcast a controversial meme about Harry Styles during the rapper’s headlining Coachella set, the artist and his team have come forward to apologize.
Well, mostly the team. Bad Bunny didn’t even know about it.
Bad Bunny’s first headlining Coachella set marred by controversy
As the first Latin artist to headline Coachella, Bad Bunny’s set was a big deal. He is currently the most popular artist in the world, bringing Latin hip-hop to the mainstream unlike anybody since Daddy Yankee. However, there was a big asterisk on his first set thanks to a potentially hurtful meme about Harry Styles.
Benito reportedly wanted an array of images to appear on large screens across the stage as he performed. One of those images involved a Twitter caption that read, “Goodnight, Benito could do ‘As It Was’ but Harry could never do ‘El Apagon.”
Fans of both artists started wondering about a possible beef between them. Although there isn’t much connective tissue between them, fans couldn’t ignore the fact that Benito featured the tweet at the biggest live set of his entire career.
Turns out, he only wanted to show the image at Coachella, not the caption. “Our intention is to create light-hearted designs that embody Bad Bunny’s personality and amplify the experience he presents as a performer,” graphics company Sturdy.co said in a formal apology last week.
They went on to explain that Benito requested just the image without the caption. The company took responsibility for the error and corrected it for last Friday’s set. “These visuals are a celebration of Bad Bunny and his dedication to empowering his native island, Puerto Rico,” they said in a statement.
Benito makes things right by apologizing on the same stage
Instead of letting his team do all the heavy lifting for him, Bad Bunny took it upon himself to publicly apologize for the mishap with another message on the screen directed at Harry Styles. This time, one that Benito actually wanted to broadcast.
“Sorry Harry. It was a mistake from my team. We love you. <3,” the apology read. After clearing things up, Benito went on to have another successful Coachella set. Both weekends, outside of this minor issue, had fans going absolutely nuts.
Between the elaborate stage setups and Benito’s array of special guests — including Jose Feliciano, Jhay Cortez, and Post Malone — the rapper brought the house down during both of his performances. His success was an even bigger deal at a festival struggling with a couple of last-minute controversies.
However, the meme was far from the festival’s biggest issue
The biggest disappointment from the festival’s first weekend actually had nothing to do with Bad Bunny at all. Instead, fans pointed to Frank Ocean as the biggest letdown of Coachella. The artist’s highly-anticipated return to the stage devolved pretty quickly when Ocean took the stage an hour late.
He reportedly injured his ankle soon before the show, forcing him to scrap an elaborate setup that involved ice skaters and choreographed routines. Instead, Ocean came out late, played a few songs, talked to the crowd, walked around the stage a bit, and left early, blaming the 12 AM curfew.
Immediately prior, he refused to allow Coachella to live stream the set as they did with every other artist. Then, after the disappointing first set, Ocean pulled out of the festival altogether. A vast majority of fans who planned to see him during the second weekend already paid for their flights and tickets.
