Bad Bunny, left, and J Balvin teamed up for “Oasis,” an eight-song collaborative album that was released as a surprise. Credit Left, Christopher Gregory for The New York Times; Right, Julien Mignot for The New York Times.

Two of the biggest Spanish-speaking global pop superstars discuss joining forces for the first “Watch the Throne”-style pairing in Latin music.
(Joe Coscarelli, “How J Balvin and Bad Bunny Made Their Surprise Album, ‘Oasis’,” NYTimes, 6-28-18)

In the universe of Spanish-speaking musical artists there is a sub-group who are global pop superstars. Within that sub-group, there co-exist in diminishing numbers the little global pop superstars, the bigger global pop superstars, and the biggest global pop superstars.

Among the biggest global pop superstars are found J Balvin and Bad Bunny. What distinguishes them from the other global pop superstars is that they have achieved superstardom on a global scale in pop music — in Spanish.

And surprise! They have made an album. No disrespect intended for these two excellent artists — they’re both on my playlist. It’s the ripe rhetoric of the NYTimes that invites a friendly grin. But these are the puffy times we’re in, language-wise.

(c) 2019 JMN