I’ve never been to a drive-in movie. I really want to. And probably it will happen since COVID-19 has made the drive-in experience a thing again. Last night Maluma delivered a live drive-in performance during the MTV VMAs that was one of the best of the night, not only because we could see that he really was singing and dancing for an actual audience (that was socially distanced in clearly marked parking spots) but also because the song, “Hawái” was the perfect mood for that setting, at least in my mind.

 

Late summer out with your friends, or maybe your girl/boyfriend, you don’t want to go home, you want to make this last as long as it can. What’s “this”? You don’t know exactly, but you do know that you can sense an inevitable stop sign ahead in the distance. So you’d rather pull over for a while and stay off the road until the last possible moment. The end of August always felt like that for me. And I know that’s not what “Hawái” is about, but there’s definitely a sweet melancholy to it that really connected with me last night during the broadcast. 

Also… 

I mean, it’s Maluma. Look at him. Here is someone I never, ever want to meet because it would be bad for my health. I have a fainting problem, legit. When it’s too hot, I just pass out. If Maluma was around, there is no way I’d stay conscious. 

 

Maluma won the first VMA of his career last night and his acceptance speech was mostly in Spanish. And it’s not like if you don’t speak Spanish (I don’t) you couldn’t pick up the gist of what he was saying. Joy is universal. And besides, the United States, which was the primary audience for this show, is second to only Spain for a Spanish-speaking population. So there were a LOT of people watching who did understand. And who are not often catered to. This is what multi-level diversity is all about. It’s in the stories being told, the storytellers being featured, and also by whom the stories are received.