He’s worked with Beyonce, Usher and Ed Sheeran. What’s next for this pop star?
By Osman Faruqi
J Balvin’s upbeat and bouncy party anthem Mi Gente has been streamed on YouTube more than three billion times since its 2017 release, but there’s one avid listener who was probably more influential than the rest combined: Beyonce and Jay-Z’s daughter Blue Ivy.
“That was her favourite song,” Balvin says. “She used to listen to Mi Gente over and over again, over and over again. I think Beyonce wanted to give her a present.”
J Balvin is in Australia to perform at sold-out shows in Sydney and Melbourne, and play Splendour in the Grass.Credit: Justin McManus
That present came in the form a special guest verse from the pop megastar, after he sent Beyonce the beat through an intermediary, culminating in a joint performance at her iconic Coachella set in 2018.
“It was a huge blessing to be with her on stage,” says Balvin, who is in Australia to perform at sold-out shows in Sydney and Melbourne, and play Splendour in the Grass. “It was such an iconic moment for culture in general.”
While 2018 was a crowning year for the 38-year-old Colombian artist known as the Prince of Reggaeton, thanks to both the Beyonce collaboration and a feature verse on Cardi B’s Billboard-topping hit I Like It, it’s been a years-long grind.
Born in Medellin, Balvin says he was already at a disadvantage when it came to being taken seriously as a reggaeton artist, a genre that fuses dancehall with hip-hop, and has become one of the most popular sounds in the world.
“Reggaeton basically started in Puerto Rico, and they said I was an outsider, because I’m from Colombia,” he explains. “I went against all the odds. I was like, ‘Well it seems like football was born in the UK, and we’ve got amazing players from Colombia, Brazil and Argentina.’”
Before reggaeton become as popular as it is now (thanks to the likes of Daddy Yankee, who’s 2004 hit Gasolina brought the genre to a global audience), the most popular Latin music in Western markets were English-language crossovers from artists like Gloria Estefan, Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin and Shakira.
But Balvin, like others of his generation, wanted to sing in his own language and refused to conform.
“I’m not gonna record my songs two times,” he says. “One in English, another in French, another in Portuguese, or another in Arabic, just to cross over. That’ll drive me crazy. It’s not going to be the same feeling, it’s not the same as the one you’ve recorded in your language, with your slang.”
A key difference between the era of Iglesias and Martin and the contemporary music industry, according to Balvin, is social media. From MySpace to YouTube, artists in recent decades have been able to leverage the internet to build audiences locally, and then find receptive listeners around the world, bypassing sceptical music label executives.
Balvin has released five records, with a sixth on its way.Credit: Justin McManus
Balvin also points to a curiosity among younger listeners. “The new generation are way more open-minded and more curious,” he says, while acknowledging that his success was only possible thanks to the pioneers of the genre, like Daddy Yankee.
Balvin has released five records and a collaborative EP with Bad Bunny, collectively selling more than 35 million units, but despite already conquering the charts, racking up awards, and working with pretty much every major star there is, he is far from done.
His upcoming sixth solo album features a sample of Usher’s generation-defining 2004 hit Yeah!, complete with a guest spot from Usher himself. But that’s not all. Next year he will release a collaboration album with Ed Sheeran, recorded in Paris.
“We met at a hotel, I was in the gym, he was in the gym,” Balvin says. “I saw a guy on the treadmill, and I was like ‘Is that Ed Sheeran?‘. So, I saw his left arm and I Googled his left arm, and he also was Googling me and my tattoos. So, then he got off the treadmill, and I was in one of those spinning bicycles And he’s like ‘J?’, and I’m like, ‘Ed?’ And he was so cool, we had this immediate connection.”
Balvin is coy on what exactly is in store on the album, but promises it will be special and fans of Sheeran’s previous collaboration with Cardi B and Camila Cabello, South of the Border, won’t be disappointed.
So, who does the man who has collaborated with everyone from Beyonce to Usher to Ed Sheeran want to work with next?
“Rihanna, Drake, I haven’t worked with The Weeknd, he’s really dope,” he answers. “They’re like me and you, talking, vibing you know. It’s not like it used to be with labels sending you the song, it’s much, much more like ‘Oh let me get to know the person, let me vibe with it’.”
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