J Balvin

J Balvin

José Álvaro Osorio Balvín (born May 7, 1985) is a Colombian reggaeton singer. Balvin was born in Medellín, Colombia. At age 17, he moved to the United States. He moved to Oklahoma and New York to learn English and was influenced by the music he heard there. He then returned to Medellín and gained popularity performing at clubs in the city. He was the first Latino artist to be a Lolapalooza headliner. His breakthrough came in 2014 with the single "6 AM" featuring Puerto Rican singer Farruko which peaked at number 2 on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. In 2016, he released Energia, which included the hit singles "Ginza", "Bobo", "Safari", and "Sigo Extrañándote". In June 2017, J Balvin released the single "Mi Gente" with Willy William. On 1 August 2017, "Mi Gente" topped the Global Top 50 on Spotify, and later reached one billion views on YouTube. In January 2018, he released the hit single "Machika" featuring Jeon and Anitta. He collaborated with Cardi B and Bad Bunny on the US Billboard Hot 100 number-one single "I Like It", which was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. As of 2019 J Balvin has more than 35 million singles sales certified and 4 million albums sales certified worldwide. He has won five Billboard Latin Music Awards, four Latin Grammy Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards and four Latin American Music Awards and received two Grammy Award nominations. In 2017 the BMI Latin Awards gave him the Contemporary Latin Songwriter of the Year for his contribution in latin music industry.Though his music is primarily reggaeton, J Balvin has experimented with a variety of musical genres in his work, including electronica, house music, trap, and R&B. His original musical inspirations included rock groups such as Metallica and Nirvana, and reggaeton artist Daddy Yankee. He has collaborated with Latin American artists such as Ozuna, Anitta, Nicky Jam, Alejandro Sanz, and Pitbull. Despite working with many English-speaking artists such as Beyoncé, Pharrell Williams, The Black Eyed Peas, Cardi B and Major Lazer, J Balvin continues to sing almost exclusively in Spanish, and hopes to introduce Spanish-language music to a global audience. He is also noted for his eclectic and colorful fashion sense.

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