Bad Bunny shares a kiss with both male & female backup dancers during his 2022 VMAs performance
The Puerto Rican singer took home the Moon Person award for artist of the year
Bad Bunny isn’t afraid to make a stand.
During his performance at Yankee Stadium for the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, the Puerto Rican artist startled the audience by kissing his backup dancer.
The “Moscow Mule” singer, 28, performed his smash song “Tit Me Preguntó” and went over to kiss his female backup dancer in between roaring out the lyrics and intense dance moves. Shortly after, he turned the other way and expressed the same attitude to his male backup dancer.
His performance followed his selection as the artist of the year, where he competed against Drake, Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles, Jack Harlow, Lil Nas X, and Lizzo. He created history as the first non-English-language performer to win the coveted prize.
Bunny, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is widely known for challenging the status quo by challenging toxic masculinity in the Latinx community.
“I think that sex is a giant world, and everyone is free to see it as they want and do it with whoever they want, however, they want, with infinite possibilities,” Bunny — who is dating Gabriela Berlingeri — told Playboy in a 2020 cover story. “In the end, we are human beings. Everybody feels everybody falls in love with whoever they’re meant to.”
In March 2020, he made another statement by dressing in drag for his “Yo Perreo Sola” music video.
Meanwhile, in May of this year, he opened up to GQ in a cover story interview about his evolving style — and said when it comes to fashion, he doesn’t follow a rulebook.
“It depends on my mental state,” Bunny told the magazine. “Everyone must be at ease with who they are and how they feel. For example, what characterizes a man, what defines masculinity, and what defines femininity? I’m afraid I can’t assign a gender to clothes.”
He went on, “A dress is a dress to me. Would it stop being a woman’s outfit if I wore it? Or perhaps vice versa? No way, no how. It’s just a dress, that’s all. It’s not a man’s or a woman’s. It’s a gown.”
The musician is presently on tour with his Bad Bunny: World’s Hottest tour. He was also in the action comedy Bullet Train with Brad Pitt, Brian Tyree Henry, Sandra Bullock, Joey King, Logan Lerman, Zazie Beetz, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson.
The 2022 VMAs aired live Sunday night from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.