Music
Page: 418
ROSÉ and Bruno Mars’ “APT.” moves in at No. 1 on both the Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts.
BLACKPINK member ROSÉ achieves her second No. 1 as a soloist on each chart, after “On the Ground” likewise led in its debut week in March 2021. As a group, BLACKPINK boasts two leaders on the Global 200 and three on Global Excl. U.S. She is the first member of the quartet with multiple No. 1s on the charts; the act’s Jennie and LISA have notched one Global Excl. U.S. No. 1 each.
Mars, meanwhile, dethrones his first No. 1 on both surveys: “Die With a Smile,” with Lady Gaga, dips to No. 2 on each chart. He’s both the first act to replace himself at No. 1 and take the top two spots simultaneously on each list since Sabrina Carpenter earlier this year with “Espresso” and follow-up “Please Please Please.”
Elsewhere, Oscar Maydon and Fuerza Regida’s “Tu Boda” bounds to the top 10 of both the Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S.; Morgan Wallen’s “Love Somebody” launches at No. 8 on the Global 200; and One Direction’s “Night Changes” hits the Global Excl. U.S. top 10 following the passing of the group’s Liam Payne.
Trending on Billboard
The Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts, which began in September 2020, rank songs based on streaming and sales activity culled from more than 200 territories around the world, as compiled by Luminate. The Global 200 is inclusive of worldwide data and the Global Excl. U.S. chart comprises data from territories excluding the United States.
Chart ranks are based on a weighted formula incorporating official-only streams on both subscription and ad-supported tiers of audio and video music services, as well as download sales, the latter of which reflect purchases from full-service digital music retailers from around the world, with sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites excluded from the charts’ calculations.
Released Oct. 18, “APT.” arrives atop the Global 200 with a staggering 224.5 million streams, as well as 29,000 sold, worldwide through Oct. 24. The song claims the second-biggest streaming week since the Global 200 began.
Here’s a look at all five weeks in which songs topped 200 million streams worldwide (with one belonging to BLACKPINK):
289.2 million, “Butter,” BTS, June 5, 2021
224.5 million, “APT.,” ROSÉ & Bruno Mars, Nov. 2, 2024
217.1 million, “Seven,” Jung Kook feat. Latto, July 29, 2023
217.1 million, “Flowers,” Miley Cyrus, Feb. 4, 2023
212.1 million, “Pink Venom,” BLACKPINK, Sept. 3, 2022
“APT.” introduces ROSÉ’s solo studio album, rosie, due Dec. 6.
Despite dropping to No. 2 on the Global 200, following eight weeks at No. 1 (the most for any song this year), “Die With a Smile” drew 120.6 million streams (up 10% week-over-week) worldwide Oct. 18-24. The song has tallied more than 100 million streams globally in each of the last eight weeks, the most in a row since The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber’s “Stay” linked nine triple-digit weeks in August-October 2021.
Billie Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” slips 2-3 on the Global 200, following three weeks at No. 1 beginning in August.
Oscar Maydon and Fuerza Regida’s “Tu Boda” blasts 22-4 on the Global 200, led by 75.1 million streams (up 119%). Each act reaches the top 10 for the first time.
Rounding out the Global 200’s top five, Sabrina Carpenter’s “Espresso” descends 4-5, following three nonconsecutive weeks at No. 1 beginning in June.
Plus, Morgan Wallen’s “Love Somebody” debuts at No. 8 on the Global 200 with 38.2 million streams and 19,000 sold worldwide from its Oct. 18 release through Oct. 24. The country star scores his third top 10 on the chart.
“APT.” concurrently starts atop Global Excl. U.S. with 200 million streams and 21,000 sold outside the U.S. Oct. 18-24.
As on the Global 200, “Die With a Smile” ranks at No. 2 on Global Excl. U.S. following eight weeks at No. 1.
Eilish’s “Birds of a Feather” keeps at No. 3 on Global Excl. U.S., following three weeks at No. 1 beginning in August, and Jennie’s “Mantra” places at No. 4, a week after it opened at No. 2.
Oscar Maydon and Fuerza Regida’s “Tu Boda” jumps 17-5 on Global Excl. U.S., with 60.1 million streams (up 111%). The acts each appear in the top 10 for the first time.
Additionally, One Direction’s “Night Changes” surges 95-10 on Global Excl. U.S., up 131% to 37.6 million streams and 573% to 3,000 sold outside the U.S. Oct. 18-24, after the group’s Liam Payne died Oct. 16. The song becomes the boy band’s first top 10 since the Global 200 began; it hit No. 31 on the U.S.-based Billboard Hot 100 in 2014.
The Billboard Global 200 and Billboard Global Excl. U.S. charts (dated Nov. 2, 2024) will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, Oct. 29. For both charts, the top 100 titles are available to all readers on Billboard.com, while the complete 200-title rankings are visible on Billboard Pro, Billboard’s subscription-based service. For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
Morgan Wallen’s “Love Somebody” leaps onto the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 1.
The single, released Oct. 18, arrives as Wallen’s third Hot 100 leader, after Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help,” featuring Wallen, opened on top in May and reigned for six weeks, and “Last Night” dominated for 16 weeks in 2023.
Notably, Wallen maintains the longest Hot 100 reign of the 2020s with “Last Night” – his new No. 1 dethrones Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” which a week earlier tallied its 15th week in the top spot (and remains tied with Harry Styles’ 2022 hit “As It Was” for the second-longest command this decade).
“Love Somebody,” on Mercury/Big Loud/Republic, becomes the 1,175th No. 1 in the Hot 100’s 66-year history, and the first to debut atop the chart since “I Had Some Help.”
“‘Love Somebody’ is a little bit of a new approach lyrically and sonically,” Wallen shared in a statement upon the release of the longing love song, which he co-wrote. “I wanted to try something different, with what I wanted to talk about … how I wanted it to sound, and we were inspired by Latin-leaning influences. I’m really excited about this song and pumped that it is out.”
Plus, ROSÉ and Bruno Mars soar onto the Hot 100 at No. 8 with “APT.” BLACKPINK member ROSÉ earns her first top 10 as a soloist, outpacing the group’s No. 13 best set by “Ice Cream,” with Selena Gomez, in 2012. She also makes history as the first female artist prominent in K-pop (Korean pop) to hit the top 10. Mars, meanwhile, adds his milestone 20th Hot 100 top 10.
The Hot 100 blends all-genre U.S. streaming (official audio and official video), radio airplay and sales data, the lattermost metric reflecting purchases of physical singles and digital tracks from full-service digital music retailers; digital singles sales from direct-to-consumer (D2C) sites are excluded from chart calculations. All charts (dated Nov. 2, 2024) will update on Billboard.com Tuesday, Oct. 29). For all chart news, you can follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Instagram.
Luminate, the independent data provider to the Billboard charts, completes a thorough review of all data submissions used in compiling the weekly chart rankings. Luminate reviews and authenticates data. In partnership with Billboard, data deemed suspicious or unverifiable is removed, using established criteria, before final chart calculations are made and published.
‘Love Somebody’ Streams, Airplay & Sales
Several top Contemporary Christian Music artists and bluegrass artists — including Steven Curtis Chapman, Brandon Heath and Darin & Brooke Aldridge — are teaming up to aid people in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee who have been impacted by the destruction of Hurricane Helene.
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
On Nov. 14, the benefit concert Mountain Aid: Music for Healing, Strength for Tomorrow will feature Chapman, Heath, Point of Grace, Jason Crabb, Darin & Brooke Aldridge, musician/humorist Sean Dietrich (Sean of the South), The Jason Lovins Band, TaRanda Greene and event organizers Chosen Road. The event will be held at Freedom Hall Civic Center in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Trending on Billboard
All proceeds from the concert will benefit the aid organization Samaritan’s Purse. Mountain Aid: Music for Healing, Strength for Tomorrow” is presented by Food City in affiliation with IMC Concerts and the city of Johnson City, Tenn. Tickets are $20 (with children ages 2 and under admitted free).
“Chosen Road is thrilled to help bring Mountain Aid to life,” Chosen Road co-founder Jonathan Buckner said in a statement. “When we heard how many of our friends and neighbors in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee were affected, we knew we had to take action. Our dear friends in the Jason Lovins Band agreed, and they stepped up in a special way to help make this event possible. We’re so grateful for their support, as well as for all the amazing artists who are graciously lending their time and talents for a night to remember. These mountains and the people who call them home have shaped our music and we owe so much to them. Our prayer is that Mountain Aid will not only help raise funds and bring hope for those in need but will, most importantly, make an eternal impact in Appalachia.” “Point of Grace is so grateful to be part of Mountain Aid,” added Point of Grace member Shelley Breen. “The images we have seen are beyond heartbreaking, and we will not forget the victims as they try to rebuild their lives. Lending our voices to encourage and raise funds for them is truly an honor. We are praying even now for a huge turnout of support for these precious souls who have lost so much.”
The music community has stepped up in a significant way in the wake of Hurricane Helene, with artists including Taylor Swift, Dolly Parton, R.E.M., Jason Isbell and Metallica helping in various ways to aid those impacted, while Luke Combs, Eric Church, James Taylor, Keith Urban, Sheryl Crow and Billy Strings spearheaded a concert over the weekendin North Carolina, which raised over $24 million to help with hurricane relief efforts.
More than half a century into his career, Bruce Springsteen is one of the biggest rock stars on the planet. But is he a billionaire? After Forbes magazine reported in July that the blue collar hero had an estimated fortune that it pegged as conservatively north of $1.1 billion, the New Jersey icon set the […]
The Weeknd and Anitta aren’t pulling punches with the promo for their upcoming collaborative single. In an Instagram post on Sunday (Oct. 27) Queen of Brazilian pop Anitta wrote “Isn’t he beautiful?” alongside an image of what appeared to be an ultrasound of a baby with razor-sharp teeth and a forked tail.
Weeknd (who now goes by his birth name, Abel Tesfaey), responded “WOW! HE LOOKS SO BEAUTIFUL [crying face emoji].” While the post didn’t offer much more information, eagle-eyed fans noticed that the date on the image was Wednesday morning (Oct. 30), which appeared to indicate when their pair’s anticipated collaborative single will drop. Abel’s label, Republic Records commented, “sweet baby angel,” while a number of other artists also weighed in, including Saweetie (“Good bye”) and Ryan Tedder (“Whoaaaa”), among others.
The pregnancy promo came two days after Anitta posted a pic of herself in a black bikini rocking a giant baby belly and an infrared light face mask with the caption, “It was meant to be kept a secret…,” which Tesfaye responded to with, “OMG… CONGRATS [crying laughing emoji]; on X, Tesfaye reposted the pregnant pic and wrote, “@Anitta you hid it so well in São Paulo.”
Trending on Billboard
At press time, spokespeople for Tesfaye and Anitta had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on the posts or a confirmed release date for the song.
The dynamic duo performed their as-yet-unreleased uptempo new song “São Paulo” during a massive show by Weeknd in Brazil on Sept. 7 and Abel spoke to Billboard Brazil about collaborating with Anitta for his upcoming Hurry Up Tomorrow album. After Abel visited São Paulo, Brazil in Oct. 2023 on his After Hours Til Dawn tour, producer Mike Dean asked Anitta for a vocal track to complement the “Blinding Lights” singer’s special performance set.
“Anitta is a great friend. What she sent was so awesome that we created the song,” said Tesfaye of the vocal bits that were so far beyond his expectations that he composed a song that became the centerpiece of the new live show. “We knew it was too special to just play on stage. We saw great potential in the song and found the beat, which is the heart of the show,” he said.
Anitta was equally excited by the team-up, saying, “I wrote some verses as a joke and never imagined they would become serious. Suddenly, I received the finished song. I loved it! I felt very honored and flattered. I’ve always been a big fan of his and his work. I never imagined this would happen, and now it’s a dream come true. It’s a little more Brazilian funk, as promised, around the world.”
Check out Anitta’s post below.
Wednesday (Oct. 23) evening in New Orleans, a white SUV tentatively peeks around the corner of Chartres Street in the French Quarter. Though Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” is the song wafting from its window, the man behind the wheel is visibly uneasy as he drives his family past boozed-up revelers stumbling toward Bourbon Street.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
By Friday (Oct. 25), however, Swift’s presence in the city has made all the tables turn. SUVs sporting song titles scrawled in marker (“Getaway Car” is a popular choice) and decals of Taylor’s face clog the streets as tens of thousands of tourists descend upon the city for the first of three sold-out shows at Caesars Superdome.
Fans wearing Eras Tour merch (or unofficial t-shirts playing on the tour’s distinctive color palette) are everywhere from the Bywater (Swift ordered her Lavender Haze birthday cake from Bywater Bakery in 2022) to Frenchman Street to the Instagram-friendly Skeleton House way over by Audubon Park, which this year is themed “Terror Swift: The ScEras Tour” (sample offering: a skeleton in a yellow evermore dress clutches a guitar next to a “No Body, No Crime” sign).
Trending on Billboard
“Taylor Swift Takes Over New Orleans” trumpets a “visitor’s guide” pamphlet crafted by The Times-Picayune and NOLA.com. The infamous Bourbon Street is almost family-friendly. Aside from “Blank Space,” “You Belong With Me” and “Anti-Hero” playing on repeat, nearly every bar and restaurant is boasting tie-in programming (karaoke, trivia, look-alike contests offering the winner as much as $500) or themed drinks (Taylorita, Lavender Haze fizz, Holy Ground hurricane).
Even the city’s music hotspots, places that skew toward jazz and the blues, aren’t immune to the pop star’s impact. Over on Frenchman, d.b.a. is hosting a friendship bracelet-making station; at the Mahogany Jazz Hall on Chartres, one of the bartenders is slinging lyrical references along with sazeracs (“I knew you were trouble when you walked in,” he quips while serving a customer two cocktails); while Esplanade Studios, where Swift recorded three songs from The Tortured Poets Department (“Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me,” “Fresh Out the Slammer” and “Florida!!!”), serves as an incentive for Swifties to explore the Treme neighborhood.
Back in the French Quarter, Antoine’s Restaurant — the oldest eatery in the city and the birthplace of oysters Rockefeller – is getting in on the fun, doling out pink to-go cups and writing “Eras Tour 2024” in frosting on their signature dessert, baked Alaska.
“[Right now is] as big and as busy as Mardi Gras and that’s the busiest time of year,” says Lisa Blount, who handles publicity for Antoine’s and is married to the CEO of the fifth-generation family-run business. “In the next three days we’ll do over 3,000 guests.”
“New Orleans always enjoys a busy pre-Halloween weekend,” says Steve Pettus of Dickie Brennan’s, a New Orleans restaurant group that includes Tableau, a French-Creole spot that hosted a Swiftie “balcony bash” on Saturday. “This weekend is more than double what we have traditionally seen. The requests for reservations have not stopped. I’ve never felt so popular in my life — I have more ‘friends’ than I realized.”
“We had guests start calling over the summer asking when they could book a table, so we knew what was coming,” says Kyle Brechtel, president & CEO of Brechtel Hospitality, which hosted a Swift-themed rooftop soiree on Friday. (Thanks to on-staff Swifties, “Taylor Tenders & Seemingly Ranch” were on the menu, referencing a viral Swift-related tweet from Sept. 2023.) “[Halloween] is always a big weekend in the city, but this is a whole different level.”
A growing New Orleans’ Halloween tradition is the witches’ luncheon, where locals don black robes, pointy hats and grab brunch. While the witches were out in force earlier in the day on Friday (even belting “Cruel Summer” at a karaoke bar in the crossover spirit of the weekend), by 5:00 p.m. the witching hour had given way to the Swifting hour. Taylor Swift costumes – from the purple “Enchanted” gown to the gold-tasseled “Fearless” dress to variations on the “22” t-shirt (“A Lot of Potholes Going on at the Moment,” “A Lot to Vote on at the Moment”) – and Kansas City Chiefs jerseys became as inescapable as Mardi Gras beaded necklaces.
Fortunately, New Orleans is a city that’s used to hosting massive cultural events. Case in point: Next year’s Super Bowl will take place at Caesars Superdome on Feb. 9, bringing halftime headliner Kendrick Lamar to the same venue Swift just sold out for three nights. So even with the Eras Tour bringing an estimated extra 100,000-150,000 people to New Orleans, the city doesn’t miss a beat.
“We have a lot of practice with this,” says Walt Leger, president and CEO of New Orleans & Company, the city’s official sales and marketing organization. “We have a lot of great professionals on the public safety side who know how to coordinate traffic and other issues that may impact us when we have an influx. Our city excels at these events – we have a professional hospitality community. It’s muscle memory.”
Still, the Eras Tour hits different. “This weekend will be more foot traffic, whereas the Super Bowl is a lot of corporate events scattered around town,” Brechtel says. “I haven’t seen anything rival the impact of a Super Bowl [here] until now.”
“The Super Bowl is very much a corporate event,” Blount echoes. “Large parties, a lot of VIPs. They buy out the restaurant, things like that. This is a different type of busy.” She offers a point of comparison: “We love those weekends where it’s the Saints vs. the Dallas Cowboys. We have massive amounts of people in town, the restaurants are busy, everybody is busy. A friend of mine said, ‘You know what’s great about this? It’s like a football weekend but we’re all rooting for the same team.’”
Not everyone is fully onboard the Taylor train, however. During a Halloween-themed drag show on Wednesday, one of the performers announced they would be hosting a series of Swift-themed drag shows over the weekend and was greeted with light boos. “I know, I know, she’s ruining Halloween,” the queen declared. “I feel the same as you, but I gotta pay rent.”
Another local, after getting off her work shift and finding herself in a sea of Swifties, put it more bluntly: “I’m sick of these motherf—kers and their t-shirts.” (To be fair, if your coffee shop suddenly had a line of 150 people waiting around the block to get a themed plastic cup, you might be irked, too.) Karen-coded behavior reared its head on occasion, too — such as a pair of Swifties telling a local street musician playing blues instrumentals to sing Swift songs instead. Or a table of adults at Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop chanting Taylor’s name at the piano player, despite the pianist politely stating that song requests should come with a couple bucks (they did not tip, and their chants went unanswered).
But those brief bad blood moments were few and far between. The city is more than accustomed to tourists, and most locals were more than happy to strike up a conversation with visiting Swifties to offer food recommendations or share bits of the city’s history.
“Our city recognizes that we benefit greatly from who invest in our community by spending dollars and supporting jobs and infrastructure,” Leger says. “Data shows that in the first leg of the Eras Tour, we’re expecting an excess of $200 million in extra spending, conservatively. It’ll probably be more than that.”
Ultimately, the Taylor Swift New Orleans takeover – like the Eras Tour itself – is about something that runs deeper than dollars, though. Walking down a cobblestone street on Friday, a young woman on her smoke break stops a first-time New Orleans visitor with quiet but eager question: “Are you a Swiftie?” Putting out her cigarette, she reveals a wrist covered in friendship bracelets. “Wanna trade?”
“Everybody is walking around having a great time,” Blount says. “It’s a great positive time. In this world today, having it be happy? My God, with the election in two weeks and all the caustic things with the election, it’s so nice to see people smiling.”
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce may have been more than 1,700 miles away from each other on Sunday (Oct. 28), but that didn’t stop the singer from paying tribute to her NFL boyfriend during the third and final Eras Tour show in New Orleans. While Swift was wrapping up the penultimate run of Eras U.S. […]
The Harris campaign will continue to rock this week with another campaign event featuring prominent musical guests. According to an announcement for the When We Vote We Win event in Madison, WI on Wednesday (Oct. 30) evening, it will feature Democratic Presidential candidate current V.P. Kamala Harris, as well as appearances from Gracie Abrams, Remi […]
British indie band The Maccabees have announced that they will reunite for a live show in London next summer.
The band split in 2017 and released their last album, Marks To Prove It, in 2015, which landed at No.1 on the U.K. Official Album Charts. The Maccabees will perform their first live show in eight years at London’s All Points East festival in Victoria Park on August 24, 2025.
Tickets go on general sale at 10 a.m. GMT on October 31 from the festival’s official website. Special guests for the 50,000-capacity show will be announced in due course.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Speaking of the reunion guitarist Felix White said in a statement: “In the intervening years we’ve been to All Points East a lot, separately. It’s become a bit of a landmark festival for us, always checking who’s on the line-up. I’d go and have a great time throughout the day, but there was always this pinch of regret watching headliners that we could’ve done it ourselves one day too. I thought that moment had passed, and it was something I was prepared to come to terms with that I was always going to miss. I think we’re all kind of shocked and excited that we get to do it together again.”
Trending on Billboard
His brother, guitarist Felix White, added that The Strokes‘ performance at the festival in 2023 was part of the motivation to get the band back together. “I could see that they were enjoying it, realizing how great what they had created together was. Being a band, you are usually in a mindset of, ‘We can do better’ and you’re always chasing something else,” Felix said.
“This is an opportunity to realize that whatever we had in that moment was pretty special and get to enjoy it again. It’s a chance to appreciate everything, and especially how it impacts other people and created a community.”
The band formed in London in 2004 and released four studio albums: Colour It In (2007), Wall Of Arms (2009), Given To The Wild (2012) and Marks To Prove It (2015). They split in 2017 and performed a farewell tour in the U.K., which included three nights at the capital’s 10,000-capacity Alexandra Palace.
Following the band’s split, frontman Orlando Weeks released a string of solo records, while brothers Felix and Hugo White formed 86TVs, which released its self-titled debut in August.
They are the first act to be announced for 2025’s All Points East festival. This year’s edition included headline sets from Kaytranada, Loyle Carner, Mitski, LCD Soundsystem and more.
We’re very excited to say we are getting back together to headline @allpointseastuk on Sunday, August 24th. Pre-sale is Wednesday 10am and general on sale Thursday 10am.Good luck. We’re looking forward to seeing you at Victoria Park. With love,The Maccabees x pic.twitter.com/tmrizZvJ0m— The Maccabees (@themaccabees) October 28, 2024
Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin were among the prominent artists who showed support for Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign on Sunday (Oct. 27) after a speaker at a Donald Trump rally made a racist joke about Puerto Rico. All three boosted a video from the Democratic candidate pledging to do her best for the citizens of the island nation following what CNN described as a Trump rally brimming with “blistering anti-migrant rhetoric [that] ranks alongside the most flagrant demagoguery by a major figure in any Western nation since World War II.”
Their show of support for Harris came after comedian/podcaster Tony Hinchcliffe opened for convicted felon Trump at a rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden by offering up the racist jibe, “There’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
Trending on Billboard
In addition, Hinchcliffe — one of nearly 30 speakers who warmed up the crowd for twice impeached former Pres. Trump — also made other racist and sexist jokes about Latinos (“they love making babies… there’s no pulling out. They don’t do that. They come inside, just like they did to our country”) as well as racist jibes about his Black “buddies” who he “carved watermelons” with and an antisemitic joke about how “Jews have a hard time throwing that paper.”
According to reports, the attempts at humor did not go over well inside the room, where they were met with tepid applause. And in an unusual apology from the Trump campaign, a senior advisor said in a statement afterwards that “this joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” seemingly in reference to the Puerto Rico joke. The Harris campaign referred to the Hinchcliffe set as “a vile racist tirade against Latinos.”
The racist comment immediately galvanized the trio of Puerto Rican artists, with Bad Bunny re-posting a video message from Harris in which she discussed the importance of the election for the citizens of the U.S. territory, reminding them what Trump “did and did not do when Puerto Rico needed a caring and a competent leader” after the nation was hit with devastating damage after Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017; a new report revealed that the Trump administration obstructed an investigation into why officials withheld $20 billion in hurricane relief from P.R. following Maria.
In addition to Bad Bunny sharing the message with his 45 million Instagram followers, Martin also boosted the Harris video to his nearly 19 million followers on his Instagram Stories, adding the message, “I remember @kamalaharris,” as did Lopez, whose re-post to her 250 million Instagram followers included links to Harris’ socials as well as a hands clapping emoji. Martin also claimed that his posts on X with similar content were being suppressed on the platform owned by Trump financial backer Elon Musk.
“Despacito” star and P.R. native Luis Fonsi reposted the Hinchcliffe video on his Stories with the message “Are you serious?,” as well as a portion of the Harris video and a lengthy personal note responding to the hate speech. “I understand comedy, I’m a big fan of it,” he wrote. I love roasts, trust me I get it. BUT… this is far from comedy. Not now, not against my island [Puerto Rico flag emoji], my people. Hell nah!”
Fonsi said it’s okay to have different views, but racism is not acceptable. ““We are not OK with this constant hate. It’s been abundantly clear that these people have no respect for us and yet they want our vote,” Fonsi wrote. “I purposely wrote this in English cause yes we’re American too.”
The shocking comments from Hinchcliffe at the Trump rally where CNN reported Republican candidate Trump and his MAGA surrogates spewed “racist, vulgar attacks at Harris and Democrats” came nine days before Americans go to the polls, and just a few after Trump’s former chief of staff, retired Marine General John Kelly, said the former reality TV star fits into the “general definition of a fascist” and frequently praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. It also comes as both Harris and Trump are spending precious time and money in the waning hours of the campaign to win over voters in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania, where nearly 500,000 Puerto Ricans live, representing the third-largest P.R. diaspora in the U.S.
While the quartet of P.R.-born superstars did not explicitly endorse the Harris campaign in their posts, the show of support for the Democrat vying to the the first woman and person of Asian American descent to become President comes as both campaigns have been laser-focused on trying to win over crucial voting blocks including Black and Hispanic men.