Pope Leo XIV briefly meets Bad Bunny in Madrid

(OSV News) — Pope Leo XIV met the Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny in Madrid June 8, after joking days earlier that he would be vying against the singer for Spaniards’ attention as their tours in Spain’s capital overlapped.

Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni confirmed the meeting at Madrid’s famous Bernabéu soccer stadium to reporters June 9.

Bad Bunny “comes from a Catholic family and he wanted to meet the pope, so the organizers found the place inside the Bernabéu stadium, as it was the only day (while the pope was in town) when there was no concert of Bad Bunny at the rival stadium of Atlético de Madrid,” Yago de la Cierva, general coordinator of the papal trip to Spain on behalf of the Spanish bishops, told OSV News.

On the papal flight to Madrid June 6, Pope Leo was asked how he felt about that evening’s prayer vigil with young people coinciding with Bad Bunny’s sold-out concert in the same city. Pope Leo replied, “If they are confronted with the question ‘Do you want to go see Bad Bunny or see the pope?’ I think many will go to see Bad Bunny. But I think there will also be people there to see the pope. And that too says something. So I think it’s encouraging and I hope we’ll encourage young people to continue searching.”

Pope Leo’s prediction that some young people would choose the pope played out in a major way that evening, as approximately 500,000 people joined him at Madrid’s Plaza de Lima for a “festival of faith” that included music, testimonies and Eucharistic adoration. On June 7, the papal Mass and Eucharistic procession celebrating the solemnity of Corpus Christi, the liturgical feast celebrating the body and blood of Christ, drew 1.2 million people to central Madrid.

On June 8, Pope Leo joined 80,000 people in Bernabéu stadium for music, testimonies and prayer. The audience roared with cheers and praise songs, erupting repeatedly in chants of “Papa León!” and “Olé, olé, olé!” 

Pope Leo briefly met Bad Bunny at the Bernabéu stadium with his family and some friends, the Vatican spokesperson said. Beyond confirming the meeting, the Vatican provided no further details or images. 

“The deal was — meeting, yes, but no pictures — and Bad Bunny respected it,” de la Cierva told OSV News.

“If pictures started to circulate about the encounter, it would ‘hijack’ the beautiful event with the archdiocesan community of Madrid,” he added, describing the meeting as “friendly and familiar,” and added that Bad Bunny greeted the pope with his family.

According to Religion News Service, Bad Bunny attended part of the papal event from a booth in the stadium. 

Bad Bunny, the 32-year-old 2026 Super Bowl Halftime performer whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is known as the “King of Latin Trap” for his groundbreaking blend of Spanish-language reggaeton with Latin trap, a style of hip-hop. He is consistently among the most-streamed artists worldwide, with Spotify naming him the platform’s most-streamed global artist four times since 2020. He is the first and only artist to have gained this distinction. 

He has meanwhile won six Grammy Awards since 2021, including the first album of the year sung in a non-English language, and has achieved four No. 1 albums on the all-genre U.S. Billboard 200 with all-Spanish records, defying industry language barriers. In 2025, Billboard named him that year’s Greatest Pop Star. While he draws controversy for his gender-bending fashion, sexualized lyricism and outspoken immigration advocacy, he is applauded for his commitment to his Puerto Rican identity and his elevation of Latino culture.

According to the Catholic Extension Society, the singer was raised Catholic and attended Most Holy Trinity Parish in Vega Baja, a church that Extension funds built in 1980, and where he first sang publicly in the parish choir. His mother is a volunteer catechist for children at the parish.

Bad Bunny’s June 6 concert in Madrid drew around 60,000 people as part of his popular “DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS” World Tour. It was one of 10 scheduled in the Spanish capital that began on May 30, with each drawing around 60,000 per night. Billboard magazine reported that the concert stretch is one of Spain’s biggest musical events of the summer. Bad Bunny is expected to perform in Madrid on June 10, 11, 14 and 15 before continuing the European leg of his tour.

Pope Leo arrived in Madrid June 6 to launch a seven-day apostolic visit to Spain. After celebrating Corpus Christi June 7 and meeting with the Spanish Parliament June 8, he arrived in Barcelona June 9 where he plans to inaugurate the tower of Jesus Christ at the city’s Sagrada Família basilica June 10, before visiting migrant reception centers in the Canary Islands. He is scheduled to return to Rome June 12.

“I was participating in a debate prior to the papal trip a few days ago and participants said Bad Bunny could draw attendance of 700,000 total in all his Madrid concerts,” the organizer of the trip said. “I replied that it’s great, but the pope will gather three times more in a single event!” de la Cierva emphasized.

“Two daughters of King Felipe and Queen Letizia joined Mass in the morning and a Bad Bunny concert in the evening,” he added. “That’s also a sign of the spirit of encounter and connection we had here in Madrid in the last days.”

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