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King J Balvin's court

2020-03-22T02:46:36.793Z


King J Balvin's court.


At the end of the last gala of the Premio Lo Nuestro, a great annual meeting of Latin music held a few weeks ago in Miami, the dressing room of Colombian singer J Balvin seemed the VIP room of the best disco in the world. Decorated with heavy cream-colored curtains, a pair of leather sofas, and a table to which waiters brought and brought trays with snacks and drinks, it was brimming with phenomena. Most of them were reggaeton figures who had been going in and out before, during and after the event at the rhythm that a strong guardian posted at the door decreed. Around there swarmed, among many others, Nicky Jam, the American who knew hell and rose again in Medellín; Jhay Cortez, brilliant protégé of J Balvin; the also Puerto Rican Rauw Alejandro; the Mexican Gloria Trevi; the master Archangel ... Even Raphael, who received the award for excellence, came to pay his respects to the king of the evening. "Locate me," Raphael asked after proposing a collaboration. J Balvin reciprocated the praise by clapping his palms together and bowing his head in an oriental greeting. His small entourage, loving parents and maternal grandmother included, was scattered around the room. But they all wanted to get to the guy dressed in a dark suit and black Dior ankle boots, eyes covered with glittering silver Louis Vuitton Millionaires sunglasses, a goatee and the extremely short rose-colored hair that hugged itself bursting into laughter with dozens of colleagues by trade. The vibe and bling bling of the jewels, the rings, and the solid gold chains echoed through the room, increasingly crowded. "I love that look , you bastard!" Said J Balvin to Arcángel, who was dressed in a suit as extravagant as divine and hid his bearded face behind large dark glasses. On the way to the exit door, Arcángel abandoned for a moment the flow with which he seems to go through life, grabbed my arm with one hand and began to shout while with the other he pointed at J Balvin: “That is the greatest exponent in the history of reggaeton! And he is Colombian. No one will tell you that. I say so. The genre needed someone who was not from Puerto Rico to come. Without him, this music would not be where it is today. ”

Shortly before, on the stage of the American Airlines Arena sports hall, the Puerto Rican Daddy Yankee had presented J Balvin - say ieibalvin - the Lo Nuestro Award to the world icon, merging with him in an endless hug. “The purpose of a leader is always to create new leaders. I'm very proud of you, ”said Yankee, the man who started reggaeton gasoline more than three decades ago, namely, a genre that truffles sounds from Jamaican dancehall and reggae with hip- hop on the dance floor. American hop , watered with other rhythms of the Caribbean and very hot lyrics in Spanish. Daddy Yankee promoted him along with other stars from Puerto Rico, making way for new enclaves such as Medellín, the birthplace of J Balvin and current mecca of this urban music as successful as it is controversial by the prevailing machismo in its lyrics.

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  • PHOTO GALLERY ESTAMPAS DE J BALVIN

J Balvin has imposed his law fleeing the clichés. He can be rude and sexy when he sings, but he doesn't denigrate women with his lyrics. He openly defends the LGTBI collective. No baby. Does not smoke. Do not do drugs. At the time when most of his colleagues go to bed with a good curda, accompanied by beauties who have become the protagonists of his songs, J Balvin wakes up every day in solitude, before dawn, to practice transcendental meditation and exercise a couple of hours in the gym. He maintains direct contact with a psychiatrist and a spiritual master to assist him in his complicated quest for peace of mind. It is the white-throated blackbird. The one that brought it to the mainstream . And the contradiction made flesh. He has made the planet dance with a formula that mixes echoes of contemporary R&B and avant-garde electronic rhythms with which he has given glamor to a dirty genre that comes from the street, turning his music into a breaker with lubricating effects for carnal desire among those they dance it. But the man who sings wild party and hedonism today like no one else is also a tormented mind suffering from depression and anxiety. Days before the gala we talked about its many lights and shadows. It was during another meeting in this lush American corner southeast of the Florida peninsula.

The second avenue that crosses the Design District of Miami runs between ships with graffiti walls and squared blocks of low houses that until a few years ago formed a dangerous ghetto of the city. On the corner of Second Avenue with 42 Northwest stands one of the buildings hipsterized by young colonists who have occupied these streets in recent times. The Miami Film Studios are hidden within the walls painted by the urban artist Pez Barcelona. After four in the afternoon, the singer finished recording on his main set an interview for Apple TV on the occasion of his new album. Under the title of Colors, J Balvin has just released a distillate of 10 songs with his 10 corresponding video clips, directed by Colin Tilley, that compose a chromatic journey through different reggaeton bases imbued with other rhythms of universal vocation. His sixth album, produced by Sky and Tainy, features the art of Takashi Murakami, whose works also decorate J Balvin's home in Medellín. Heard at a stretch, Colores lasts just over half an hour and resembles a long unique theme that is modulated through the cuts to burst the density of any club that boasts of being one. "This album is designed to further globalize the reggaeton sound," the singer told me after leaving the set. “You don't have to be a fan of this music to enjoy it. I want to see grandparents in Germany, and in Africa and Asia singing the songs on this album. Although they do not know what their lyrics say, but they sing them. And that they connect ”.

see photo gallery J Balvin, in his dressing room after receiving the Lo Nuestro Award for the world icon in Miami. Behind him, his mother, Albita, and his grandmother. Manuel Vazquez

But that afternoon in Miami, what J Balvin least wanted to talk about was the reasons for releasing this album. Neither of the colors that give name to each song. Nor of the more than 150 million views on YouTube that have accumulated the video clip of the White ball , advanced last November. Nor how last summer he became the most viewed artist on YouTube. Nor of his successes on Spotify, where he has been the first Latin artist and fourth global in 2019, bringing together 56 million monthly listeners and more than 6,000 million views. Nor of the more than 65 million followers on his social networks, where he exposes all the good and the bad that there is in his life. None of that was going through his mind that day. What the reggaeton world ambassador wanted to talk about was his unstoppable and, for the moment frustrated, desire to be a father.

Without hiding his melancholy, he took a seat in a high chair next to the illuminated mirrors of a small makeup room, began to put mint gum that he took out of a bottle one after another, and said looking at me with his slanting eyes: 2016 I had an accident with the jet that at that time we rented. Fortunately, we made it out alive. The only thing I thought as the plane crashed was, 'I had no children.' Prosperity without sharing is not the same. "

"In 2016 I had an accident with a jet. When the plane crashed, all I thought was: 'I had no children"

José Álvaro Osorio Balvín, alias J Balvin, is a corpulent and medium-sized Antioquia man about to turn 35. He has a chiseled torso at the gym and tattoos running down his arms and neck. Her small head is crowned with shaved hair that is usually painted in colors. Pink was chosen that recent afternoon in Miami. He wore a white T-shirt, black jeans , a yellow hoodie and Air Jordan sneakers decorated in various colors from his own collection for Nike. An ostentatious Audemars Piguet chronograph with a steel body and diamonds shone on the left wrist. "I don't even know how many watches I have in my collection," he said, gesturing with his left hand. Nor does it specify how many houses it has spread across the globe. "My mom peels me like I say that." Medellín and New York are at least two fundamental enclaves. For some time now, the capital of Antioquia has been retaken as a base of operations. “I returned to live there because I want to be in contact with my people, listen to them and see how I can be the voice so that they can be heard,” he says, always marking the paisa accent with his deep voice that fills any room. His large Japanese-style home, a 20-minute drive from downtown Medellín, is decorated with works by Murakami and other oriental artists. J Balvin is obviously a millionaire who travels in a private jet around the world. "I have less money than people think and more than I think."

see photo gallery Reggaeton Daddy Daddy Yankee hugs J Balvin after handing the Lo Nuestro Award to the world icon in Miami. Manuel Vazquez

—How can a reggaeton singer who says he doesn't do drugs, promotes that young people don't drink alcohol and doesn't denigrate women with his lyrics?

—The genre has evolved a lot. The misogynistic letters were there. It was a kind of unplanned marketing that made it sound and people talked. But I always wanted to be me. That does not mean that he is no saint. Or that it doesn't have sexy songs . Or where you have said some rudeness. I like to listen to reggaeton street, street ... But when I make music I like to be myself.

'Last year he dyed his hair colored on Gay Pride Day. Many people question their sexuality for defending the rights of the LGTBI collective.

"We are in twenty-twenty ." If I were gay, I would be the most proud to say it. There would be even more impact. But I'am not. I have always been a lover of tolerance and unity. If I can be the voice for those people, I will.

"If I were gay, I would be the most proud to say it. But I'am not. I have always been a lover of tolerance and unity ”

—And he is obsessed with changing the stereotype that remains associated with Latinos.

"We are going to see many changes." In 10 years the story will be different. Here in the United States, during times of crisis great opportunities arise. Like me, there are thousands of Latinos saying, "Oh yeah? I'm going to show you that you can. "

"Where do you want to go with all this?"

-There is not limit. Dreams reinvent themselves. And not all of them are professionals. There is the spirit, the ego ... The ego is the child within you. The one that makes us dream. And compete. An egoless person is a dreamless person.

"How much does your ego fire?"

"Possibly I was an asshole at some point." Or I have been and I have not noticed. But never outside my environment. I had and still have many internal battles. But they don't come out of there.

At the beginning of J Balvin's story there are zero dramas. What we do have is a large house in a well-off neighborhood of Medellín, where he lived with his little sister and his parents, Álvaro and Albita. Childhood passed during the lead years in Colombia. “As a child it became normal for us to hear of deaths, murders, bombs, kidnappings… My family was not affected directly. But that was violence against citizens. The wound is still open, but it also taught us how not to do things. And how to do them well. Today I see Colombia a thousand times better than it was before, compared to those years. There will always be difficult situations and I don't know the country perfectly either. But I see a youth with hope, with a much higher consciousness ”.

see photo gallery Fists out. Manuel Vazquez

In those first years there is also an Opus Dei school. And good notes, combined with a thug side. And an incipient ambition that has marked his life. "Josesito, since he was a child, has always been ambitious," recalls his 65-year-old father, economist and businessman today. "At the age of six or seven he said things like this: 'How can I have money to support my family?' He saw my fight setting up businesses. Because of bad partners, in some I failed. That served as a spur. When he started making music seriously, he went from rap to reggaeton for that reason: it is much more commercial. The concerns he saw at home marked him. ” This was how that restless teenager, who had begun to suffer from overweight and panic attacks and anxiety, who imitated Nirvana and Metallica with a rock band before doing rap rhymes, directed his steps towards the reggaeton sound that was consolidating in Latin America . "One of my father's financial failures took me out of my comfort zone," says J Balvin today. "I had to wonder what I was going to do to help my family."

Albite, a lovely 57-year-old lady, remembers that she had other plans for her son. “I wanted my Josesito to be a doctor. Even in the alphabet soup he would say: 'Doctor'. The seedbed of Medicine began at the University of Antioquia. But after a year he said to me: 'This is not my thing. Music is my thing. ' When I told that Josesito was going to devote himself to reggaeton, everyone was shocked. It was believed that the person who was dedicated to that genre did not have a brain, it was almost saying that one was a criminal. But we decided to support him. " The training in other urban musics had been forged with a stay during his late adolescence in Oklahoma, where the lady of the house where he lived became dangerously fond of him. He also spent a season in New York. And in Miami, where he painted houses with illegal work. Until he returned to Medellín. And one day he said to Diana Osorio, his girlfriend then and today a great friend: "I want to be like Daddy Yankee."

see photo gallery J Balvin (on the right), with singers Nicky Jam (center) and Jhay Cortez, in the back room of the Premio Lo Nuestro in Miami. Manuel Vazquez

That was precisely what screeched at Juan David Rivera, DJ Pope, during the first encounters with who today is his partner, friend and brother. "I used to see him in the discotheques and he would say: 'Who believes this, Daddy Yankee or what?' Remembers the 37-year-old man from Medellín, married and the father of two children, who has worked as deejay in the live shows of J Balvin since beginning of his career. They met through mutual friends in the industrial areas of the capital of Antioquia where freestyle street reggaeton was practiced. They ended up connecting. And they set out to conquer the Colombian market. Medellín, Barranquilla, Cali… Until they arrived in Bogotá. "There they were very radical against this genre," says DJ Pope. “They turned their back on us. But they were rocks that give an option to surrender or follow. Our ideal was that our music could be heard by a senior citizen or a child. It was always a global project. A new face of reggaeton. In Spain I think they still haven't fully understood it, but the process has been done. ”

For DJ Pope, the most complicated part of that process that started three decades ago has been living with the anxiety and depression of King J Balvin. “As a friend and brother, all I can do is be there and give you my best energy. In your case, and I have told you a lot, the trigger is overwork. I always say to him: 'If you don't have time for you, dude!' We speak it all. He is the most loyal person I know. We have been partners for 15 years and there is no signed napkin ”.

Albite, the mother, knows well that her son is not perfect. "And Josesito knows it too. He is an anxious person. He still has a few things to correct. But in the midst of darkness he has given light to the whole world by confessing that he is depressing. At the beginning of his career, someone told me to talk to him because he was sharing his feelings on social media. I told him that everything seemed to be perfect. And he replied: 'Now, mother. I will never change in that. The world has to understand that I cannot have a life for J Balvin and another for Jose. We are the same. As artists we suffer, we cry, we are angry… I cannot hide, mother, in a perfection that I do not have ”.

Albite's son lives today as best he can with the black dog that Winston Churchill was talking about: “My black dog is very young at the moment. It is not seen. And I recognize the factors that make it grow. I have been through anxiety and depression. The black dog has swallowed me and vomited a thousand times. But we end up being victorious. It makes you very vulnerable, as much as love. Between pain and love, vulnerability is exposed at its best. We all fall prey to both. I'm still taking medicine. I believe in my psychiatrist. With anxiety you feel like you don't want to live. It is the fear of fear. Not to get out of there. I am very open to talk about these issues. How many young people we will not have saved the life with these comments. I'm human. I am not a superhero. ”

“The black dog has swallowed me and vomited a thousand times. With anxiety you feel like you don't want to live. I'm not a superhero "

"Are you still afraid of death from your occasional panic attacks?"

-Yes. I believe in reincarnation, but I am afraid of death. If I died right now, I think I was a good son, a good brother and a good friend. But I would have to have children, start a family. My dream today is to be a father. The problem is to be conscious enough to build a family and human beings who do not have the fears and schedules that my parents inadvertently put in me.

"You haven't had any luck with women?"

"By cons, I think the women had no luck with me." There came a time when I don't know if the libido calmed down, or whatever that is called, and I start to burn facets that I thought were not going to calm down and start to calm down. The desire is always there. Consciousness is going to tell us whether or not it is worth doing. It is a very bitchy fight. Now that I am single, I am learning to know Jose. Sometimes it would provoke me to go to Thailand, or what do I know. But just like in Thailand my music sounds. It gives me hard when I feel that I do not have the company of the couple. But that ... will come.

- Has the oriental culture redirected your life?

-Hundred percent. I am a Catholic by cultural tradition. I am not from Opus Dei, although I studied at an Opus school. Nor am I the most practicing Catholic. I am more Buddhist. I believe in God. In the universe, whatever you want to call it, Allah or Buddha ... I believe in that creative energy, absolutely superior. Hundred percent.

—Through his belief in reincarnation, he has had childhood memories of poverty that do not correspond to what happened in his parents' house when he was little. What life do you think you have lived before?

see photo gallery “When I get up, the first thing I do is brush my teeth and face. And to meditate ”. Here, after the trance. Manuel Vazquez

"I have memories of living in misery, but it was not in this ... Memories of being under a bridge, in an apartment with rats ... As a child and as an adult."

"What do you think will be reincarnated?"

-Who knows. So the task in this life passes ... That's why I try to prepare the conscience, because so that they send me to repeat this ... What laziness!

If he reincarnated in himself, he would live a reggaeton baptism like that of 2004. And he would have to conquer his country again as he did with the album Real in 2009. And expand his footprint with the album La familia and the rest of works by the past decade. And collaborate with every imaginable pop star, from Beyoncé to Pharrell Williams and Rosalía, with whom she participated in last year's bombshell With height — what attracts her is her mystery: “Rosalía can't be read, well and not well, but it's sexy ”-. And burst it with Oasis, a half-signed album in 2019 with Bad Bunny - "it's like a little brother with whom I don't speak and understand myself" -. And feed on echoes that come from the salsa of Héctor Lavoe and Celia Cruz to the rap of Mos Def and Nas from the East Coast of the United States, passing through an amalgam that enriches their music with a universal vocation. And share manager, Scooter Braun, with Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber. And lead a generation of Latino artists who, after the batch of Ricky Martin, Jennifer Lopez (JLO) and Shakira —who still had to sing in English to conquer global markets—, today triumph with lyrics one hundred percent in Spanish. And reign in the shadow of JLO in the last edition of the Super Bowl, where his friend Bad Bunny also accompanied Shakira on stage in a vindication of Latin power in the United States. And having the same obsession with metrics to analyze every detail of your brand, a global brand. A product that sells millions and the fashion brands raffle, with which it collaborates regularly. And fall off the poster, as he did in 2015, of the Miss USA event due to statements by Donald Trump, then owner of the pageant, in which he called Mexicans liars, rapists and drug traffickers. "Later I did not agree with him as president. Thank God, I have been able to live with Obama. If I had Donald Trump in front of me, I would have the best conversation of my life. I would like to know what is your point of view, why this type of comment and how you see life. What am I going to tell him, to take it up the ass? On the contrary, he would take advantage to understand why his apparent unconsciousness works that way. "

"With Donald Trump I would have the best conversation of my life. I would take the opportunity to understand his apparent unconsciousness "

The night of the recent Lo Nuestro Award gala in Miami, the singer arrived with meticulous punctuality minutes before the start of the show. When the host of award nominees had already crossed the red carpet, J Balvin stepped out of a shirt-sleeved Mercedes saloon, allowed one of his assistants to adjust his black blazer, and began the stroll with calculated parsimony. His most trusted retinue followed. Rick and Maxi, assistants; Fabio, personal manager; Fabio's daughter, who collaborates in the company; DJ Pope and his teenage son, and a young reggaeton player named Matt Paris who has joined the troupe these days. Between the screams of the fans posted behind the fences, the idol took selfies with them and stood up to attend to all the media that asked him for some words. The photographer who nurtures his Instagram account took several portraits on the red carpet for immediate publication on social networks. The entourage stood up and circled the photographer's camera for five tense minutes until the chief approved two snapshots. He then continued to walk behind the scenes of the American Airlines Arena, coming across all sorts of stout vigilantes, chorus girls and stunning dancers, hysterical sound technicians, and operatives carrying and bringing drum cymbals and double bass for mariachis. Impassive, the star greeted everyone who crossed his path, right and left. Without leaving anyone behind. Controlling the staging down to the last detail.

see photo gallery J Balvin, surrounded by fans on the red carpet of the Premio Lo Nuestro gala in Miami. Manuel Vazquez

When it was only a couple of minutes before the singer Thalia gave the starting gun to the show, the king's court burst into the interior of the pavilion where the rest of the colleagues had spent a while sitting at various circular ceremony tables that occupied the court of the enclosure. Someone shouted over the public address system: "J Balvin has just arrived from Medellín!" A couple of hours later he performed on stage with a four-beat medley and collected the world icon award. He returned to the dressing room with kisses and hugs to Becky G here, Anuel there, and he barricaded himself in the room where a motley troop was waiting for him, ready to pay homage. Before midnight, he ran off to the hotel while continuing to greet everyone who crossed his path.

The next day, it dawned mid-morning. Despite being his only day off in a long time, he remained faithful to his ritual. Maxi, one of his personal assistants, brought a coffee to his suite at the Four Seasons in Miami Beach. "When I get up, the first thing I do is brush my teeth and face. And to meditate. Then straight to the gym. And then I start the day. " Coming down accompanied by his personal trainer on the way to the hotel gym, his eyes still looked sleepy. He carried a towel and a mobile phone with a red case from which he never separates and with which he wasapea all the time. “I see myself all my life in music, supporting new talents and watching them grow. I feel like I can be 10 or 15 more years in the ring . Now, selecting one with whom to fight. Transcendental meditation helps me a lot. Repeating the mantra, always looking for how to handle all this ... Life!

"Life, what a strange thing."

"That is the word." Life is weird. And also beautiful. But there are times when you just don't understand.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-03-22

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