Trump vs. Bad Bunny Is a Helluva Showdown

Bad Bunny delivered a story for an evening that was otherwise as scattered as Cher's memorably chaotic appearance.

View in Browser  Monday, February 02, 2026 A few musicians at last night's Grammy awards used their pulpit to condemn ICE. And President Trump has threatened to sue the evening's host, Trevor Noah, for some of his remarks. (Of course.) But overall, it was a weird and confusing night, writes Alan Light, the former editor-in-chief of Vibe and Spin magazines. So, thank God for Bad Bunny. "The right guy at the right time saved Music's Biggest Night from feeling blithely out of touch with the present moment," Light says. In a column today, Light explains why Bad Bunny was so powerful—and what it says about this moment in pop culture. You can read his dispatch below. – Michael Sebastian, editor-in-chief Plus: All the best-dressed men of the Grammy Awards Steven Spielberg became an EGOT. Here's how. Last night was Justin Bieber's first Grammy performance in years The 2026 Grammys Gave Purpose to a Weird Year in Music Bad Bunny delivered a story for an evening that was otherwise as scattered as Cher's memorably chaotic appearance. So the rumors of Bruce Springsteen opening the Grammy Awards with his new anti-ICE protest anthem "Streets of Minneapolis" proved to be unfounded. The night's big statement still came, though, courtesy of MAGA's nemesis of the moment, Bad Bunny. Between his history-making Album of the Year win, host Trevor Noah dragging him onscreen so often he was virtually a sidekick, and the most direct political speech of the night, the Puerto Rican superstar gave a story to an evening that was otherwise as scattered as Cher's memorably chaotic appearance.   Debí Tirar Más Fotos is the first-ever Spanish-language project to win the Album category, and in the acceptance speech for his Best Musica Urbana Album win, Bad Bunny—one week before his Super Bowl halftime show—spoke to our current horrible moment. "We are not savages," he said. "We're not animals. We're not aliens. We are humans, and we are Americans."   This is what people will remember from the 58th annual Grammys, and probably not much else. The other awards handed out during the broadcast—which ran more than three and a half hours—were as diffuse as this weird year in music. READ THE STORY Trump is all over the Epstein files. But the DOJ insists it's bupkis. Charles P. Pierce highlights the absurdity of the never-ending Trump/Epstein saga. >> U.S. district judge Fred Biery's ruling freeing five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos from federal custody is a stinging rebuke of the Trump administration. Charles P. Pierce hears a worm turning. >> 61 Valentine's Day Gifts Your Wife Won't Immediately Return for Store Credit She deserves the world. Your wife, that is. I will be so bold as to assume that she's an incredible human full of wisdom, laughter, beauty, and emotional complexity. You love her a whole hell of a lot, so yes, she's entitled to more than just a last-second, half-baked gift. Getting her the perfect present, no matter the occasion, is paramount, because she really is that special. Get her a gift that's so romantic she'll brag about her partner's superior gift-giving prowess. Hey, dream big.   There's a secret sauce: Don't get her something she needs but rather something she wants. This long, definitive list can guide you to the best tech, fashion, and home gifts out there. All these are vetted—and many owned—by me, a snobby wife and professional shopper. By Krista Jones The 50 Most Stylish Men in Music Musicians are simply more stylish than the rest of us. The scientific explanation is that their unique ability to conjure emotions and generate indelible memories by literally vibrating the air around them translates remarkably well into fashion, where a similar magic trick is being performed but for the eye rather than the ear. There's something else, though: Music, more than most sources of the kind of fame and fortune that thrust a man into the public eye, is intensely personal. It begins alone in a bedroom with a drum machine or a laptop or a guitar or a scratch pad of cast-off couplets waiting to be assembled into a lyric. And the currency of fashion, as the 50 men on this list attest, is authentic self-expression.   Every era has a handful of musicians who immediately come to mind as defining the style of their age. So we took the occasion to create the definitive list of the most stylish men in music. Note that this is a list of the most stylish men in music now, men whose every look wields influence in the fashion landscape today. No Mick Jagger. No David Byrne. No Eddie Vedder. This was an incredibly difficult task. We planned for 15 to 20 names, fought over 60 or 70, and reined ourselves in until we landed on 50. By The Esquire Editors Follow Us Unsubscribe | Manage Preferences | Privacy Notice | CA Notice at Collection Esquire is a publication of Hearst Magazines. ©2026 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This email was sent by Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019-3779