Bad Bunny’s “Yonaguni” Lyrics Meaning

Yonaguni is one of Japan’s 6,000 and holds the distinction of being the one further out west which is actually inhabited. In other words, it is pretty far out to sea, being a considerable distance from the mainland. And Bad Bunny is using said remoteness as a metaphor.

Lyrics of “Yonaguni”

And what appears to be going down, based on the lyrics as translated into English, is that the addressee is a romantic interest.  Moreover it would seem that the vocalist has been intimate with her in the past and even in the present is very, very much enamored with her. 

As stated, this admiration is primarily in terms of her appearance – like the fact that she has “a very big ass” – and relatedly Bad’s desire to sleep with her. But also in the here and now it appears that he cannot actually be with her, thus making this song to some degree one of lamentation. Or perhaps more accurately we can say it is one of longing. 

And the reason why, despite having vast resources at his disposal which he is more than ready to spend in the name of making her happy, is because by the looks of things she is already in a committed relationship, perhaps even a marriage. So the implication in all of this is that Bad Bunny hooked up with the addressee some time in the past. However, since then she got into a serious romance with someone else. 

And despite that, this has not minimized his feelings for her. Indeed it can be ascertained that he is more enamored with her now than he’s ever been. But all of that being said, it should also be noted these feelings tend to particularly manifest when he’s drunk.

Yonaguni

And that’s where the title of the song comes into play. Bunny is fantasizing about, pitching the idea even, that he and the addressee can “take a flight… to Yonaguni”. And whereas Yonaguni does have some appeal as a tourist attraction it damn sure isn’t Ibiza, i.e. the type of island that rich musicians tend to drop songs about taking the women they fancy to. 

Instead what is once again of significance is its remoteness, being out in the middle of nowhere so to speak. And the ultimate point that Bad is obviously making is that since romancing the addressee would be considered taboo or unacceptable in their actual homeland, then he is willing to go to the farthest reaches of the Earth in order to do it with her.

So all lyrics considered this is in fact a love song, perhaps one can even say of the unreciprocated variety. It is a bit unconventional that the sole object of the vocalist’s affections more or less appears to be a woman who belongs to someone else. But it’s ;like one of those ‘it is what it is’ types of situations. That is to say that the narrator hooked up with someone in the past who he’s still in love with, even though she has obviously moved on in a way which all can bear witness to.

Facts about “Yonaguni”

This is a track which came out, as a standalone single, via a label called Rhymes Music (aka Rimas Music) on 4 June 2021. It is actually the fourth single Bad Bunny has put out this year, the others being “Booker T”, “La Noche de Anoche” and “100 Millones” and the latter two respectively being collaborations with Rosalía and Luar La L.

Bunny teased the forthcoming of this particular track about a week before the issuance of “100 Milliones”, which itself came out during the last week of May. And in doing so, he described “Yonaguni” as a “calm and relaxing rhythm to dance and enjoy the summer” and a “soft, danceable song” which he “can’t remember the last time (he) did such”. And everyone involved in its recording ultimately concluded that song was “magical”.

Additionally, the vocalist implied that he just wrote “Yonaguni” just about a month before it came out. He also went on to infer that it is a genuine reflection of his feelings at the moment.

Bad Bunny is credited as the sole writer of this song. And it’s producers are Smash David, Tainy and FinesseGTB.

Obviously inspired by the track’s title, Bad Bunny renders the outro of this song in Japanese. But being that the vocalist actually hails from Puerto Rico, most of the lyrics are actually in Spanish.

The director of the music video to Yonaguni, which features an animated version of Bad Bunny, is an entity known as Stillz.

Bad Bunny

In fact as of the onset of the 2020s, Bad Bunny can be considered the most poppin’ Puerto Rican musician out there. Yes, there are the likes of Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi also, but up until this point neither has really been as active in terms of dropping new music as Bunny has been since the turn of the decade. 

For instance, his 2020 project, El Último Tour del Mundo, was “the first all-Spanish language album” to top the Billboard 200. And by contrast, as of mid-2021 the other two mentioned artists have yet to drop a studio album during this decade.