Bad Bunny Just Won Album of the Year at the Grammys and It Was in Spanish
The Grammy Awards have existed since 1959. For 67 years, Album of the Year went to an English-language project every single time. On February 1, 2026, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Bad Bunny's Debi Tirar Mas Fotos broke that streak.
A Puerto Rican artist. An entirely Spanish-language album. The top prize in American music. It took seven decades, and it still almost did not happen.
The Album
Debi Tirar Mas Fotos -- "I Should Have Taken More Photos" -- dropped on January 5, 2025. It is a love letter to Puerto Rico. Not the tourist brochure version. The real one. The album pulls from plena, bomba, salsa, dembow, and reggaeton. Bad Bunny brought in collaborators representing a full cross-section of Puerto Rican music: from traditional folklorists to modern trap producers.
The album beat out Kendrick Lamar's GNX, Lady Gaga's Mayhem, Sabrina Carpenter's Man's Best Friend, Tyler the Creator's Chromakopia, Justin Bieber's Swag, and Clipse's Let God Sort Em Out. That is a stacked field. The fact that a Spanish-language album won against that lineup is not a diversity play -- it is a statement about where music actually is right now.
The Speech
Bad Bunny sat alone when his name was called. He covered his eyes with his hand, took a few seconds to collect himself, then walked to the stage and did the entire speech in Spanish.
"100 by 35" -- 100 miles long, 35 miles wide. That is the running joke about Puerto Rico's size. Bad Bunny turned it into a rallying cry in front of a global audience.
He switched to English once: "I want to dedicate this award to all the people who had to leave their homeland to follow their dreams."
Watch the full acceptance speech.
"ICE Out"
When accepting Best Musica Urbana Album earlier in the night, Bad Bunny opened with two words: "ICE out." Then: "We are not savages. We are not animals. We are not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans."
He was not the only one. Justin Bieber, Billie Eilish, Joni Mitchell, Finneas, Kehlani, and Carole King all wore "ICE OUT" pins on the red carpet. The 2026 Grammys turned into the most overtly political ceremony in years, and that is saying something for an awards show that usually plays it safe.
The Rest of the Night
Kendrick Lamar took home five awards, including Record of the Year for "luther" with SZA. His total is now 27 Grammys -- surpassing Jay-Z's 25, making him the most decorated rap artist in history. Steven Spielberg became the 22nd person to achieve EGOT status, winning Best Music Film as a producer of Music by John Williams.
Full winners list from Variety.
Latin music has been the fastest-growing segment of the global music market for years. The Grammys did not lead this trend. They followed it. But on February 1, for the first time, they at least acknowledged it exists.
