The Puerto Rican Women Behind Bad Bunny’s Residency Stage Redefined What a Concert Can Look Like
The NFL just confirmed it: Bad Bunny will headline the Super Bowl halftime show in 2026. He becomes the first Puerto Rico-born artist to do so. The announcement cements what fans have long felt: Benito doesn’t just perform. He rewrites the center of pop culture in Spanish.
But before the Super Bowl spotlight, Benito built something else historic. His No me quiero ir de aquí residency at El Coliseo in San Juan didn’t just showcase his catalog. It also showcased the talent of an all-Puerto Rican design team, led by women, who turned the island itself into a stage.
Building a mountain inside El Coliseo for Bad Bunny
Production designer Mónica Monserrate was approached with the idea that would become the residency’s centerpiece: a mountain inspired by the landscapes of Adjuntas and Cerro Mime. “The request was, we want a piece of a mountain with that nostalgic feeling that most [Puerto Ricans] who don’t live in Puerto Rico have all the time,” Monserrate told Latina journalist Tess García, for Architectural Digest.
To bring it to life, architect Gabriela Escalera modeled and sculpted the design. She ensured it was structurally sound for performers while preserving its curves true to Puerto Rican geography. Scenic painter Alejandra Martínez added local flora, even painting flamboyán flowers by hand to get the exact shade of orange.
La casita that felt like home
While the mountain evoked the island’s natural beauty, another set piece hit just as hard emotionally: la casita. Production designer Mayna Magruder and art director Natalia Rosa recreated a real house in Humacao that appeared in Bad Bunny’s short film Debí Tirar Más Fotos.
The details mattered. From the deliberately “dirty-looking” roof that Benito requested, to rattan patio furniture that felt pulled from abuela’s house, la casita became more than a stage. “Many people are saying it reminds them of their grandparents’ house, or the house they grew up in,” Rosa explained.
Women leading Puerto Rico’s biggest stage project
For Rosa, the residency marked something unprecedented. “A project of this scale has never been realized by an all-Puerto Rican design team, let alone one led by women,” she told AD. The result wasn’t just a set. It was a cultural landmark that sold out ten weekends and generated an estimated $200 million in revenue.
Bad Bunny carried Puerto Rico to the world
When Bad Bunny sat beneath a hand-painted flamboyán tree on stage and sang a medley of early songs, the residency blurred the line between personal memory and collective identity. It was Puerto Rico, reimagined and projected to the world.
Now, as Benito prepares for the Super Bowl, that same ethos carries forward. His path to the halftime show has been paved with Puerto Rican artistry, much of it imagined and executed by women who literally built the stages that made his music unforgettable.
