The Washington Post - 11.03.2020

wednesday, march 11 , 2020. the washington post ez re C3

control.

To m Leavens, a Chicago-based

attorney who served as general

counsel at Pitchfork media be-

fore its sale to Condé Nast, used

to help coordinate the Pitchfork

music festival and said force

majeure clauses are “very stan-

dard” across industries. While

the coronavirus outbreak itself

might be enough to trigger the

clause, Leavens said that govern-

ment declarations of a local di-

saster, like in Austin, provide a

safe harbor.

“It’s a stronger argument for

[South By Southwest] to be able

to make, if they’re prohibited

from going ahead because of

government action,” Leavens

said. “Whatever licenses have

been granted or taken away,

whatever resources the city

would otherwise provide, would

be taken away... they can’t be

faulted for that.”

There’s a case to be made for

postponing a festival that paral-

lels what likely went down with

the latest James Bond film, “No

Time to Die,” whose release pro-

ducers delayed from April to

November. The decision was

co stly, given the money spent on

publicity thus far, but they are

more likely to make it back in the

fall, when theaters in China, the

world’s second-largest film mar-

ket, will hopefully be open again.

Similarly, music fans might be

more willing to attend Coachella

in october, should it be post-

poned until the fall.

While some artists have can-

celed o r postponed tours, smaller

music venues don’t seem to have

been hit too hard yet. Audrey fix

Schaefer, communication direc-

tor for I.m.P., which operates

such D.C. stages as 9:30 Club and

the Anthem, stated that they

have increased sanitation efforts

but haven’t had to cancel any

shows. But the situation is evolv-

ing, she added. It’s difficult to

predict how it will progress.

“You’re going to be seeing

more of this,” Chidekel said. “It’s

going to a ffect sports, it’s g oing to

affect — again, the James Bond

thing, right? Shocking. This is

the tip of the iceberg.”

[email protected]

Coachella, located in a California
county that has reported multi-
ple cases of the novel coronavi-
rus, is expected to attract around
250,000. And Stagecoach, the
country music festival following
Coachella, has drawn more than
70,000.
Even if a city doesn’t declare a
local disaster or limit the size of
sanctioned gatherings, Chidekel
said there is the threat of a “Pr
disaster” looming over large-
scale events scheduled for the
near future. from that stand-
point, he continued, there isn’t
much of a downside to c anceling.
If the outbreak gets worse, orga-
nizers will have been at the
forefront of people trying to stop
it; if it doesn’t, they’re still
among “the people who prudent-
ly put [their] financial interests
on the back burner to make
people safe.”
The Washington Post reached
out to several festivals scheduled
for the next couple months. The
two that responded, Bottlerock
Napa Valley and D.C.’s Broccoli
City festival, a re both set for may
and stated that, as of Tuesday,
they plan to move forward while
staying in communication with
health officials.
The financial loss of scrapping
a festival can be staggering,
climbing to the millions. SXSW
organizers confirmed to the Aus-
tin Chronicle that they did not
have insurance covering cancel-
lation triggered by “bacterial in-
fections, communicable diseas-
es, viruses and pandemics.” Gen-
eral policies don’t cover this sort
of cause, Chidekel noted, adding
that “they will going forward, I
guarantee you.”
When it comes to paying per-
formers, canceled music festivals
might not have too much of a
financial obligation. With the
exception of headliners who
might be paid upfront — “the
one percent, so to speak,” Chide-
kel said — most artists sign
contracts subject to a “force ma-
jeure” clause, which relieves the
festival of performing its con-
tractual obligations when the
circumstances are beyond its

virus from C1

South by Southwest cancellation may be a harbinger for other music festivals

sergio flores/reuters

Presley ann/getty images for coachella

Last week, the city of Austin

made a disaster declaration

that prompted the cancellation

of the south by southwest

festival and conference that

organizers say drew 400,0 00

people last year. There is

speculation that the Coachella

valley Music and Arts Festival,

BY BETHONIE BUTLER

Bad Bunny recently appeared
on “The To night Show With
Jimmy fallon,” where he un-
veiled the cover of his sopho-
more album “ YHLQmDLG” — an
acronym f or “Yo Hago L o Que me
Da La Gana” (“I Do What I
Want”). The charismatic Latin
trap star showed off his English
skills during the interview with
fallon (the Puerto rico native
recently told the Los Angeles
Times he’d been cramming in
lessons ahead of the album’s
press tour). But when Bad Bunny
performed at the end of the
show, h e — and collaborator Sech
— sang only in Spanish.
Latin pop has long had a huge
following in the United States,
but that popularity has not al-
ways been reflected on American
television — even though many
of its brightest stars are, like Bad
Bunny, from Puerto rico. That’s
been slowly changing over the
past few years, especially when it
comes to late-night TV. fallon
and his peers have increasingly
hosted artists who perform ex-
clusively in Spanish: ozuna, J
Balvin and veteran reggaetonero
Daddy Yankee among them. But
that increased visibility has not
yet translated to “Saturday Night
Live,” which arguably has the
most prominent performance
stage in all of late night.
That’s a glaring oversight —
and it’s time for the iconic sketch
comedy show to rectify it. What
better way to do that than book-
ing the hottest rapper in Latin
pop right now?
In s ome ways, Bad Bunny has
already outgrown Studio 8H’s
intimate stage, having played
to a much larger crowd —
alongside Jennifer Lopez and
Shakira — at this year’s Super
Bowl. But “Saturday Night
Live” remains a coveted mile-
stone for artists on the rise. The
show has already embraced at
least one act whose music is
primarily in a language other
than English: BTS became the
first K-pop band to perform
there last year, to much fanfare.
So far, this season’s roster has
been filled with breakouts from
various pop genres: Lizzo, indie
pop royal King Princess, XXL-
touted rapper DaBaby and
goth-pop phenom Billie Eilish.
SNL’s audience should be as
familiar with Bad Bunny as they
are with Eilish, full stop. But it’s
more than that: Seeing Spanish-
language performers on late-
night feels revolutionary at a

time when many Latin American

immigrants feel under attack by

the Trump administration’s poli-

cies and the president’s own

rhetoric. The presence of Puerto

rican artists is especially poi-

gnant in the aftermath of the

administration’s lackluster re-

sponse to Hurricane maria’s de-

struction. In 2018, one year after

maria ravaged the U. S. territory,

Bad B unny made his TV d ebut o n

fallon, where he told viewers

that many were still without

electricity in their homes. “more

than 3,000 people died, and

Trump is still in denial,” he said.

His criticism led into a powerful

performance of “Estamos Bien”

(“We’re Good”), the hopeful lead

single to his debut album, re-

leased earlier that year.

only a handful of Spanish-

speaking musicians (Lopez, and

Carlos Santana with his name-

sake band, for instance) have

performed on “Saturday Night

Live,” almost always drawing

from their English-language dis-

cographies. There are a couple of

notable exceptions: J Balvin sang

in Spanish when he made a guest

appearance alongside musical

guest DJ Khaled, singer Jeremih

and rappers meek mill and Lil

Baby during SNL’s Season 44

finale. Shakira, who has been

musical guest three times, sang

one Spanish song in 2005, tap-

ping Alejandro Sanz to join her

on their Spanish-language col-

laboration “La To rtura.”

Shakira rose to global fame in

an era when what’s known as the

Latin crossover required artists

including Gloria Estefan, Sele-

na, ricky martin and marc An-

thony to release English-lan-

guage albums. Bad Bunny and

his generation of Latin pop stars

aren’t beholden to that formula

or what rolling Stone recently

dubbed “the Hokey Latin Cross-

over Song” (see: “Despacito” re-

mix).

The top five most popular

music videos (globally) on You-

Tube last year were all by Span-

ish-speaking artists including

Anuel AA, Karol G, Spanish sing-

er rosalía and J Balvin. Bad

Bunny made the list through his

appearance on Jhay Cortez’s “No

me Conoce” remix, which also

featured J Balvin. Daddy Yankee,

who helped pave the way with

“Gasolina” and other interna-

tional hits in the early aughts,

held the top spot with “Con

Calma,” a reggaeton banger that

sampled and featured Canadian

rapper Snow (of “Informer”

fame). The song also landed on

the top 10 list for most-viewed

music videos in the United

States.

Last march, Daddy Yankee

became the first Spanish-lan-

guage musician to perform on

“The Late Late Show With

James Corden.” He has also

appeared on “The To night

Snow,” which has been some-

what ahead of the curve since

featuring Colombian rocker

Juanes in 2014. (one reason

behind the influx of Latin per-

formers is probably NBC’s close

association with Te lemundo —

the miami-based Spanish-lan-

guage network and a division of

NBCUniversal). fallon has since

hosted performances by J Bal-

vin (with Nicky Jam) and Karol

G, whose breakup anthem

“Tusa” borrows its name from a

Colombian slang term. ozuna

has performed on both fallon

and “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

Latin p op, particularly reggae-

ton and Latin trap, has no short-

age of artists worthy of SNL’s

prestigious stage (the omission

of Daddy Yankee and J Balvin are

particularly glaring oversights).

But Bad Bunny seems especially

suited to move the show into a

new era as o ne of his g enre’s m ost

forward-looking artists. The rap-

per h as been a n outspoken ally of

the LGBTQ community and has

made a point to include LGBTQ

representation in his music vid-

eos. “There are people who listen

to reggaeton and love it and at

the same time they have never

felt represented within it,” Bad

Bunny told the Los Angeles

Times. “In 20 or 30 years nobody

had worried about that, but I

did.”

He has made similar attempts

to counter his genre’s notorious-

ly aggressive view of masculinity.

He rejects gender stereotypes,

often wearing colored polish on

his nails. When Bad Bunny took

“The To night Show” stage last

month, he wore a T-shirt that

said, in Spanish: “They killed

Alexa. Not a man in a skirt.” The

declaration referred to Alexa Ne-

grón Luciano, a transgender

woman whose brutal murder has

caused widespread outrage in

Puerto rico.

Bad Bunny followed up his

fallon appearance with a perfor-

mance on “The Late Late Show”

last week. Less than a week later,

“YHLQmDLG” debuted at No. 2

on the Billboard 200 albums

chart — an unprecedented feat

for an all-Spanish album. SNL

would be lucky to have him.

[email protected]

Essay

SNL should book Spanish-language acts. Bad Bunny would be a good start.

Jose mendez/ePa-efe/shutterstock

“saturday Night Live” should invite Bad Bunny for his music and for his willingness to speak truth to

power, whether it’s the Trump administration’s response to Hurricane Maria or toxic masculinity.