By Juan J. Arroyo, Rolling Stone | (On February 8th ), Los Pleneros de la Cresta found themselves on the biggest stage of their career: They joined Bad Bunny for the Super Bowl halftime show. Not only did they perform the Debí Tirar Más Fotos title track “DtMF”and their Bad Bunny plena collaboration “Café con Ron” in front of millions of spectators (128.2 million to be exact), they also backed surprise guest Lady Gaga during a salsa rendition of “Die with a Smile.”
For a couple of young guys from the small Puerto Rican town of Ciales, it was a day that they never imagined would be possible. “It was one of those moments we’re still processing,” says Joshuan Ocasio Rivera, founding member of the group. “Being chosen to sing backing vocals — which, in our case, we were doing for the first time in English — on one of her songs, and at the same time witnessing Lady Gaga singing salsa, was truly iconic for us.”
On DebÍ Tirar Más Fotos, Bad Bunny honored native Puerto Rican genres that haven’t been celebrated much outside of the archipelago. One of those is plena, a folkloric sound that emerged in the early 1900s in the southern town of Ponce, initially as a way for marginalized communities to share news and events between each other, led by instruments like panderetas and güiros. Since then it has stayed alive during the holiday season, when lively partygoers go caroling home-to-home or at festivals, performing a mix of classic and spontaneous improvised jingles over plena rhythms.
Los Pleneros de la Cresta had been one of those bands, keeping the genre alive through sheer enthusiasm and passion. The quartet is composed of twins Joshuan and Joseph Ocasio Rivera, their brother Jeyluix, and close friend Josué Román Figueroa. They have been active since 2013 when the group was founded at the Río Piedras campus of the University of Puerto Rico. They’ve toiled for the past decade-and-change, releasing three albums (their last one in 2024, just months before DtMF) and doing shows around Puerto Rico. In November of 2024, they were one of the artists who performed at Puerto Rico Independence Party candidate Juan Dalmau’s campaign closing event, where Bad Bunny made a surprise appearance to endorse the candidate. A giant boom for plena was around the corner, but most didn’t know it yet.
When Bad Bunny decided he wanted to bring plena to the forefront, he tapped them. Together they cooked up one of the album’s most popular breakout hits, “Café con Ron.” The track is an ode to the country’s centrally located mountain towns, celebrating them just as warmly and eagerly as Puerto Rico’s beaches and coasts tend to be.
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Read more on how this band got chosen and their history:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-latin/los-pleneros-de-la-cresta-bad-bunny-super-bowl-1235514323/