Pitbull’s fans party like clones, bald caps included

LONDON (AP) — Londoners have reported thousands of sightings of Pitbull this week. With that bald head, goatee and suit, he’s pretty hard to miss.

On closer inspection, though, it becomes clear that Mr. Worldwide is not actually everywhere all at once — in his stead, those are clones swarming London, on their way to the O2 Arena to see him onstage. That goatee? Drawn on. That bare head? Bald caps, in lieu of a dramatic shave.

More than two decades into his career, the Miami superstar whose hits — from “Hotel Room Service” to “Timber” and “Give Me Everything” to “El Taxi” — have become permanent playlist staples of weddings, bar mitzvahs and, yes, the club is stoking a growing fan frenzy in the U.K. and beyond. He started noticing the odd look-alike or two at concerts back in 2021, emerging from the pandemic-era lockdowns.

“Maybe out of 20,000 people coming to the show, 30,000 coming to show, you’ll see a thousand,” he says of what happened next.

But that’s before he hit the U.K.

“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,” Pitbull told The Associated Press, the day after Monday’s show in London.

The phenomenon is something that has rapidly grown from a minority to the majority — or from a negative to a positive, as Pitbull is known to say. Unlike the celebrity look-alike contests that reward uncanny resemblance to the likes of Timothée Chalamet, Glen Powell or even Ernest Hemingway, it’s less about the ability to grow the right facial hair and more about the vibe. After all, the vast majority of those dressed up at Monday’s concert were women. (Pitbelles, one could say.)

These wannabe clones were spotted on the underground to North Greenwich, where they proceeded to dance outside the arena to a live DJ set for hours before the show even started. Photos were taken in front of a giant poster of Pitbull and goatees were carefully colored in on friends’ faces before, finally, the sunglasses went on. Rebecca Petrie and Jamie Lee Hart spent hours online to get tickets, traveling from Scotland for the gig. They suggested that girls are more drawn to dressing up than guys.

“Women are more brave,” Hart said. And Pitbull appreciates that.

“To have more women in the crowd, it just goes to show you that they are feeling what the most powerful woman in my life has taught me on stage,” he says, referencing his mother, “which is a gentleman that knows how to have a good time. Sometimes a little naughty, sometimes a little nice, but more than anything a good person that will do the right thing to the best of my ability.”

Videos from Pitbull’s London show in February flooded social media with a decent number of look-alikes vibing out to tracks like “On the Floor” and “Fireball.” When additional June shows for his “Party After Dark” tour went on sale, ticket buyers got the memo: Dress up or stand out as one of the few who didn’t. Indeed, the floor of the arena on Monday looked like a sea of baked beans, courtesy the bald caps, while the stands looked like the destination of an unlikely school trip, with rows after rows of white shirts and black ties askew.

“If you’re going to go to a Pitbull concert you need to really feel his energy and you can’t do that without a bald cap and a suit,” attendee Keeley James Elliot said, while posing with Mr. Worldwide-inspired inflated globes outside the venue.

Expect similar scenes at his upcoming Europe dates, as he winds his way through Paris, Prague and Poland. He’ll jaunt back to the U.S. for dates in South Dakota, Las Vegas and a stop at the Iowa State Fair, before making his way to Australia in October. The 305 may be an area code, but it reaches far beyond South Florida.

Fans should know that Pitbull wholeheartedly appreciates their efforts and makes sure to watch the crowds arriving for the show. He too is a fan — of them: “To have people out here feeling that good dressed up as me — man, unbelievable.”