It’s not your typical concert checklist: ticket, ID...bald cap?
Pitbull, the 44-year-old Miami rapper—known for hits like “Timber,” “Hotel Room Service,” and “Don’t Stop the Party”—kicked off the European leg of his Party After Dark arena tour. And like at so many of his other performances, he was greeted by a sea of Pitbull lookalikes wearing bald caps, suits, and sunglasses—and most of them were women.
Why do the rapper’s fans do this? Well, the answer is a lot simpler than you might think.
They love him, they love his music, and dressing up like the bald Miami club king is, apparently, a f**king vibe.
“Turns out, I wasn’t sad. I just needed to go to a Pitbull concert,” one TikToker captioned a video showing her and her friends—bald caps and all—having the time of their lives.
Another TikTok shows Pitbull doppelgängers running up to each other and breaking into spontaneous dance-offs. “POV: You’re at a Pitbull concert,” the caption reads.
According to Pitbull, the trend began during his 2021 I Feel Good tour in the U.S., where there was initially only a sprinkle of baldies in the crowd.
“Maybe out of 20,000 people coming to the show, 30,000 coming to show, you’ll see a thousand,” he told the Associated Press.
But with his new tour, it’s now become a full-blown phenomenon.
“We jumped the pond, and we ended up in London and it was just something else. It was definitely a whole new movement, took it to a whole new level,” he said.
While fans often dress up for concerts, like Taylor Swift fans who wore sparkly dresses to her Eras tour, it’s rare to see them go full-on cosplay like Pitbull’s baldies. There’s honestly something hilariously surreal about watching Mr. Worldwide perform to 30,000 people dressed exactly like him.
In an interview with the BBC, he said it makes him “very, very happy” to see fans dressed up like him.
“Every time I’m at a show, I let them know that when you put on a bald cap, I hope you’re ready to have the time of your lives - it feels deeper than just music,” he said.
He’s even embraced the movement on TikTok, regularly posting edits of the baldies tearing it up before, during, and after the concert.
Whether you’re a Pitbull fan or not, one thing is for sure: the bald cap business is thriving right now.
