Twitter Users Find Glaring Error on Billboard’s Translation of Residente and Bad Bunny’s ‘Bellacoso’ (Hint: It Doesn’t Mean ‘Beautiful’)

Sep 23, 2019
2:45 PM

This weekend, several Twitter users shared a worrisome finding: Billboard made a mistake when translating Residente’s song “Bellacoso” (Ft. Bad Bunny). They translated the word “bellacoso” as “beautiful.”

Here at Latino Rebels, we did some diligent research and have confirmed that it is not the correct translation of the word.

The post was created by Billboard in August, when the song was released. Since users made the important discovery, the publication has corrected the error. Now the translation appears simply as follows:

Very, very, very, very “bellacoso”
Very, very, very, very “bellacoso”
Very, very, very, very
Very, very, very, very “bellacoso”
Very, very, very, very “bellacoso”
Very, very, very, very “bellacoso”
Very, very, very, very
“Bellacoso, very “bellacoso”

And this note was added to the bottom of the story:

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect the correct meaning of the word “bellacoso.” Billboard apologizes for the error.

Here are some Twitter reactions to this error:

Co-host of Radio Menea, Verónica Bayetti Flores, added that it seems the Billboard staff used Google translate.

We’re glad they’ve fixed the error and hopefully prevented a scenario where non-Spanish speakers would go around saying “bellacoso” when they mean to say “beautiful.”

And just in case, here’s the actual translation: