Bad Bunny look-alike contest in San Francisco draws hundreds of fans

The three winners of the Bad Bunny look-alike contest, from left, winner Abdul Arroyave, second place Juan Cavalleiro, at Tacolicious, and third was Miguel Gallegos, react at Tacolicious in San Francisco, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (Giselle Garza Lerma/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)

SAN FRANCISCO -- A Bad Bunny look-alike contest at a San Francisco restaurant snowballed into a street party after hundreds of fans of the global superstar showed up to cheer his doppelgangers and sing along to his music ahead of his Super Bowl halftime show this weekend.

More than 30 contestants from across the Bay Area, including men with tight curly hair, women in wigs and fake facial hair and a kindergartener in a fedora, white tank top and bow tie, competed for a US$100 prize at a packed Mexican restaurant in the Mission neighbourhood.

They channeled the 31-year-old Puerto Rican singer through some of his signature looks, donning straw hats known as a “pava” and traditionally worn by Puerto Rican farmers, or a shearling aviator hat like the one the artist has worn at times since the release his 2025 album, “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos,” which translates to “I should have taken more photos.” It won album of the year at the Grammy Awards on Sunday.

Adam Fox, 24, and his friend Alejandro Kurt, 23, travelled from Belmont, a city about 25 miles (40 kilometres) south of San Francisco, after both men with curly dark hair and dark facial hair were told they look like Bad Bunny.

Fox, an aspiring actor who wore a suit, bow tie, and dark sunglasses, said he is a fan of Bad Bunny’s music even though he doesn’t speak Spanish.

His music “is like art. You don’t have to totally understand it. It could just be something that’s beautiful,” Fox said.

Bad Bunny, who sings in Spanish, is sparking huge interest by non-Spanish speakers in Latin music and culture when some communities in the U.S. have voiced anxieties about even speaking Spanish in certain public spaces amid growing anti-immigrant sentiment and raids. His Grammy-winning album “Debi Tirar Mas Fotos,” which mixes Latin trap and reggaeton with traditional Latin rhythms like salsa and merengue, catapulted him onto the global stage.

The contestants imitated Bad Bunny’s “perreo,” or twerking, and repeated his criticism of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign with one wannabe-Bad Bunny in a wig and a black tuxedo holding an “ICE Out” sign as she danced through the packed Tacolicious restaurant to roaring cheers from the crowd.

But the artist’s music remained the focus of the look-alike contest organized by Mission Loteria, a group that promotes Latino businesses, with people spilling out to the street where a DJ played Bad Bunny’s most-loved tracks and some in costumes resembling the Puerto Rican crested toad, an endangered species that is featured in one of his music videos, danced with contestants.

Pamela Guo, 33, travelled from San Jose to compete in the contest dressed in an aviator hat, shorts and an athletic jacket. Guo, who had a painted-on beard, said she is such a fan of the singer that she travelled to Mexico City to see him in concert.

“I love to perrear and dance, so I do love that aspect of his music,” she said, adding that his last album has deeper lyrics that speak to her because they talk about our shared humanity.

The grand prize went to Abdul Ramirez Arroyave, a professional Bad Bunny impersonator from Colombia, who was dressed in a red shirt and straw hat on top a tight curly hair wig.

When asked to say a few words after his win, he said “thanks for everything” then broke into song with the crowd singing along Bad Bunny’s “Debi tirar mas fotos.”

Ramirez Arroyave then joined the party outside and took photos with his new adoring fans.

Olga R. Rodriguez, The Associated Press