And the Grammy goes to…

January 27, 2026·52 min·4 clips

Rihanna explains why Bad Bunny's DTMF made her cry with its simple yet profound lyrics about grief and Puerto Rican pride.

Grammy season arrives with ceremony. The Switched on Pop crew gather around the 68th Grammy Awards and talk through the nominations like a real race, not a done deal. The field sounds crowded in the fun way. Bad Bunny, Lady Gaga, Sabrina Carpenter, and Kendrick Lamar all come up as major contenders, which gives the conversation plenty of chart pressure before it settles on DTMF. Raina's Song of the Year pick begins with the award's songwriting premise. If voters do not speak Spanish, will the song lose some of its force? The translated chorus is almost plain to the point of being blunt. Its regret about taking more pictures, giving more kisses, and offering more hugs becomes the way into grief, longing, and home. Simple does real work here. The case is that Bad Bunny avoids syrupy sadness by letting private memory spread outward into something shared. Friends enter the song. Benito's references to people in his life, including his brother's baby, Bernie having a baby, and Ann having a girl, make the grief feel tied to community rather than sealed inside one person. Puerto Rico is not scenery in the background. The episode follows how DTMF names and uses Puerto Rican genres like pereo, salsa, bomba, and plena, so the cultural references sit inside the music itself. That is the Switched on Pop pocket. A lyric opens into form, history, rhythm, and the weird fact that a chorus can hit the body before the brain finishes translating. The plena detail carries the ending. The final chorus uses call-and-response, and the grief starts to feel less private, more like a room answering back. Raina says she rarely cries at music, which gives the pick some bite. DTMF is not pitched as automatic tear bait. It is the one song from the past 12 months that got through. The episode leaves the race open too. Mayhem comes up as an Album of the Year factor that may miss the top prize but still find recognition lower on the Grammy ballot.

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