Bad Bunny Unveils Next Album Launch & Speaks About Relationship with Kendall Jenner

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After dropping Un Verano Sin Ti (2022), the album that has made Bad Bunny the king of digital platforms for three consecutive years, he has a new project in the works. Everything points to it possibly being released this autumn (at the latest by the end of 2023), according to Vanity Fair. Bad Bunny, the cover star of the magazine’s October issue, has been somewhat hesitant to confirm the existence of his fifth album. «Who told you that?» the magazine reflects when congratulating him on the new musical work.

The interviewer insists that, according to her sources, it will be released in the fall, despite the reticence (or prudence) of both Benito and his publicist. She even ventures to suggest that he might release it without prior notice on Thanksgiving night, as he did by surprise with the EP LAS QUE NO IBAN A SALIR (2020).

After skyrocketing to global stardom, @sanbenito is taking a well-deserved break in his native Puerto Rico—just don’t ask him about his new album.

For VF’s October issue, Bad Bunny speaks to VF’s @michelleruiz about navigating public interest in his life, how his activism takes… pic.twitter.com/VUSShAzeSS

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) September 12, 2023

In any case, what is clear is that Bad Bunny has been experimenting musically between Puerto Rico and Los Angeles. «I’m playing with sounds and having fun, letting myself go. I’m getting a lot of inspiration from the music of the 1970s, across different genres in both Spanish and English, but I don’t know if this will shape my music in general or just one song.»

One result of these influences is «Where She Goes,» the single he released last May, which is an incursion into Jersey Club, a genre described as «fast and aggressive dance music that emerged in the 2000s in New Jersey and is based on electronic and house music.»

As for this fifth album project, there is still no title. However, «it has the potential to be the most personal of his career to date.» «Now more than ever, I feel confident enough to speak about what I think, what I feel, and what I’m experiencing through my music,» he says. Of course, he admits that it is «impossible for the album that comes after ‘Un verano sin ti’ to sound the same. I will always look for a way to do something new.»

Speaking & Singing in Puerto Rican Spanish

Bad Bunny does not rule out singing in English. A year ago, Bad Bunny told El País that he refused to sing in English on a matter of principle, not wanting to fall into stereotypes from other countries. «Perhaps it was necessary, and it opened doors to this Latin boom, but that moment for me has ended. I am very proud to be at the level where we are speaking in Spanish, and not just in Spanish but in the Spanish we speak in Puerto Rico. Without changing the accent. We need to break the idea that Americans are gods,» he explained at the time.

Now, after hearing «One Day,» «Where She Goes,» and even «I Like it Like That,» we can say that Benito has been flirting with English sporadically, a language that—contrary to what he said a year ago—he does not rule out including in his songs, as long as he doesn’t feel pressured to do so to reach a specific audience. «Someday, with the right song or collaborator, I will sing in English, but I will never do it just because someone says I need to reach a certain audience.» Furthermore, he confesses that he almost didn’t record the lines in Japanese for «YONAGUNI» because they forced him to sing in the Japanese language for outreach purposes (reaching more people).

As of today, he still doesn’t handle the English language fluently, but he is working to communicate better. «It’s not that I hate the idea of performing a song in English. It’s just that I feel more comfortable in my own language. I think, feel, eat, and sing in Spanish,» he says, although «with some people -specific individuals- I speak in English. With one of them, for example, I couldn’t communicate before,» he indicates, in a clear reference to Kendall Jenner.

Keeping Private Life Private

We already know that Benito is not a fan of speaking openly about his intimate life (even though he loves to sing about intimate details in his iconic songs). During the interview, the Puerto Rican insists on the fact that he will never provide explanations about his personal life to people outside his closest circles of friends and family.

“They don’t know how you feel, they don’t know how you live, they don’t know anything, and I really don’t want them to know. I’m not really interested in clarifying anything because I have no commitment to clarify anything to anyone. I am clear, my friend Jomar is clear, and my mother is clear. They are the only ones to whom I have to clarify anything. As for Juliana Dominguez from Mississippi, I have nothing I need to clarify to her. Never. About anything,» he declares to the media.

However, Benito makes some references to interesting details of his personal world. He makes a reference to Jenner again when he speaks about not wanting to be pigeonholed just as an artist. “I worry about those issues, but I also have my family, my partner, my nightlife—on Fridays, I want to go to the club, on Sundays, I want to go to the beach. That’s life.” Moreover, he specifies that he doesn’t want traditional milestones like settling down and having children at the moment.