Bad Bunny shook up Chuwi’s world. Now they’re harnessing the moment

M ost acts wouldn’t even dare to dream of performing in front of thousands of people at one single stadium, let alone dozens of them, before their debut studio album has even come out.

But that’s precisely what’s happened to Puerto Rican quartet Chuwi .

Ever since the band – comprised of siblings Willy, Lorén and Wester Aldarondo Torres, plus Wester’s school friend Adrián López Soto – received the offer to feature on Bad Bunny ’s monumental album ‘Debí Tirar Más Fotos’ in 2024, they’ve been on a rollercoaster of pivotal shifts.

“It’s hard to explain how it all felt,” Willy says emotionally of working on the album’s ‘Weltita’.

“We were just starting in the local scene in Puerto Rico, and suddenly something like this got dropped onto you.

We obviously had to put the initial shock to the side and focus on the song, but after, it’s like, ‘What on earth is going to happen now?’ Nobody could have predicted what happened after, where we would be, and where we are now.” Since then, all sense of time has been warped.

Following the release of the album, Chuwi also embarked on a world tour around Latin America, Australia and Europe with Bad Bunny as the star’s only opening act.

After almost a year on the road, the adventure came to a close just hours before they hopped on a call with NME , with a two-day finale in Puerto Rico’s Hiram Bithorn Stadium.

“It was euphoric,” Wester says, adding that the experience of having brought a taste of home to the world and then bringing a piece of each place back to where it all started is priceless.

López Soto agrees, further pointing to the emotional aspect of the shows.

“There’s a point in all our shows when we perform ‘Tierra’ where I bring out the Puerto Rican resistance flag and that of the country we’d be performing in.

Having the Puerto Rican flag and the resistance flag together, and everyone deeply understanding both of them, was unforgettable.” F ormed in the municipality of Isabela in the northwest of Puerto Rico by Willy, Lorén, and Wester, Chuwi started as an experimental project during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the trio recording most of their work in their parents’ bedroom on the island – their de facto studio until very recently.

It wasn’t until late 2021, when they were first invited to play live, that Mayagüez native López Soto joined as percussionist.

Music has always been around for the members of Chuwi.