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What if being Mr. 305 was a state of mind?

Stick your tongue out if you were ranked by Billboard as the 45th top artist of the 2010s!
Evan Agostini
/
AP
Stick your tongue out if you were ranked by Billboard as the 45th top artist of the 2010s!

As much as the news media serves to inform the public, we're also here to give you something to talk about. Learning about the world around us provides the connective tissue for spirited interactions and growing deeper bonds with each other.

What are you going to bring up at the dinner table to get the conversation flowing? Did you read that article everybody has been talking about, too?

Who is it? *Cue "The Twilight Zone" theme music* Imagine, if you will, a room full of people, all wearing bald caps and fake goatees, thrashing joyfully to some of the biggest hits of the past 20 years with a cacophony of catchphrases like "MR. WORLDWIDE" and "DALE!" echoing throughout the room.

Well dear reader, you don't need to imagine. Because the age of peak Pitbull mimicry, is apparently here.

What's going on? Pitbullmania, for lack of a better word.

Fans attending the Cuban-American rapper's Party After Dark European tour have been paying tribute to his signature look by donning bald caps and fake goatees in throngs. It's part costume party and part homage.

@pitbull Shoutout to all the fans out there that keep showing love… daleeee 🌎 #baldies #mrworldwide ♬ original sound - Pitbull

What are people saying? Here's what Pitbull had to say to the crowd in a viral TikTok from February:

"I wanna say a special thank you to everybody that came out with bald caps here tonight. I appreciate y'all. It is amazing to see, it's amazing to feel, and I hope when y'all put on those bald caps, you feel just like I do. Having a good motherf****** time every day of my LIFE!"

Bald cap concert attendees in another video from the BBC shared that for them, the environment of the show felt safe and welcoming. Others said that bald cap even made them feel "sexy."

There's also something to be said for the rapper's relentless positivity and inspirational messages. Wouldn't seeing this live make you feel better about yourself?

So, what now? Dozens of videos portraying the joyful trend have gone viral on TikTok, with the tour continuing its planned dates in Belgium, Germany and Scandinavia.

And the singer himself has gone beyond just embracing the movement; he's dubbed this new legion of fans the "Bald-ies" because they "soar like bald eagles."

DALE!!!!!!

Copyright 2025 NPR

Mia Venkat
[Copyright 2024 NPR]
Manuela López Restrepo
Manuela López Restrepo is a producer and writer at All Things Considered. She's been at NPR since graduating from The University of Maryland, and has worked at shows like Morning Edition and It's Been A Minute. She lives in Brooklyn with her cat Martin.
Ari Shapiro
Ari Shapiro has been one of the hosts of All Things Considered, NPR's award-winning afternoon newsmagazine, since 2015. During his first two years on the program, listenership to All Things Considered grew at an unprecedented rate, with more people tuning in during a typical quarter-hour than any other program on the radio.