CBS’ Grammys Telecast Skips Closed Captions For Bad Bunny & Displays “Singing Non-English” Instead
06.02.2023 - 06:51
/ deadline.com
Bad Bunny opened the 2023 Grammy Awards with an explosive performance that even had Taylor Swift dancing to his hit songs.
Throughout the live ceremony, CBS provided closed captioning for individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing. However, during Bad Bunny’s performance, the captions only displayed the following text: “SINGING NON-ENGLISH” or “SPEAKING NON-ENGLISH.”
Some viewers took to social media to gripe about the closed captions not transcribing what the artist was singing or saying. The other musical acts enjoyed their performances being transcribed for viewers at home that turned the CC feature on.
Bad Bunny would later take the stage and when he delivered his speech, people with the CC featured only saw, “SPEAKING NON-ENGLISH.”
CBS and the Grammys might not have known that Bad Bunny would win a gramophone during the live telecast, but they knew that he would be on stage performing his songs that are in Spanish. This could’ve been planned and have someone multilingual working on the closed captions for the night.
We have reached out to CBS and the Grammys but have not received a statement regarding the fluke.
This comes as jurors at the Sundance Film Festival walked out of a screening for Magazine Dreams after failing to provide proper captioning for audiences that needed it.
For those needing a transcription of what Bad Bunny said during his acceptance speech after winning in the Best Música Urbana Album category here it is in English and Spanish:
ORIGINAL SPEECH (BILINGUAL): “Gracias. This is really easy. Humble. It’s easy because I just made this album with love and passion, nothing else. And when you do things with love and passion, everything is easier, the life is easier. I want to thank everyone who