Bad Bunny is facing a $40 million lawsuit from Carliz De La Cruz Hernández, an ex-girlfriend whose voice can be heard on a pair of the Grammy-winner’s songs, Complex reports.
The suit, the outlet adds, claims De La Cruz Hernández’s “indistinguishable” contributions to “Pa Ti” and “Dos Mil 16”—where she memorably says “Bad Bunny, baby”—have been used without legal permission.
Citing the Associated Press, which in turn cites Puerto Rico’s NotiCel, it reports that the recording has also been put to use in “promotions, worldwide concerts, television, radio and social and musical platforms.”
De La Cruz Hernández’s lawsuit, filed in March in a Puerto Rican court, declares, “Since then, thousands of people have commented directly on Carliz’s social media networks, as well as every time she goes to a public place, about the ‘Bad Bunny, baby.’ This has caused, and currently causes, that De La Cruz Hernández feels worried, anguished, intimidated, overwhelmed and anxious.”
De La Cruz Hernández and Bunny—real name Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio—got together in 2011 and ultimately called it quits in 2017. Carliz claims the superstar’s rep contacted her in May 2022 to offer $2,000 for the rights to her “Bad Bunny, baby” vocal, which AP writes, she declined, then “spoke with someone at Rimas Entertainment who also offered to buy it, saying the recording would be used in the upcoming album, Un Verano Sin Ti.”
