Earlier this summer, Luis Fonsi’s Despacito won the hearts of the people around the world no matter from which which region they belong to.It became the most streamed song of all time and broke the records,wherever you go you’ll hear this song.
Another Latin American song,Mi Gente, has replaced Despacito at the top of Spotify’s Global Top 50.
“It’s amazing. It’s such a blessing,” says singer J Balvin, the Colombian artist who’s behind the song Mi Gente.
Already a huge star in South America, Balvin has been credited with reviving reggaeton,a hip hop infused blend of reggae and rap that was originated in Puerto Rico in the late 90s.
Over the course of four albums, he’s taken the genre once called “reggae en Espanol” and infused it with African, electronic and Caribbean flavours.
“I’m Latino but I don’t do music for Latinos. My music is for everybody in the world.He claims that “My music doesn’t discriminate against anybody”, the artist responds.
“Music has to be a tool to unite people, to get people together. It doesn’t matter the race, the language, the culture. So that’s what I’m saying when I sing that line.”
José Álvaro Osorio Balvin,being born in Medellin(Columbia) known as the arena for drugs and was said to be the most dangerous city on earth due to cocaine trafficking cartel by none other than Pablo Escobar.
“The beautiful thing about streaming is that people are looking for this stuff,” stresses Balvin. “It’s like, they really want to play this music. They’re looking for it especially. It’s the people talking.”
Balvin has his own take on the phenomenon: “Well, I think right now kids and the whole world is more open minded,” he claimed.”People are just more open to listening to good vibes, even though they don’t understand the words.”That’s beautiful. That’s amazing. It’s like we’re showing the world this is not luck. This is really down to good faith and hard work”,states Balvin.
His last album Energia featured collaborations with Pitbull, Camilla Cabello and Pharrell Williams.
“I want to go bigger,” he says. “Everything started with a dream. I dreamt about having one of the biggest Latin albums, I dreamt I’d be a global artist.
“And dreams do come true”,he concluded.
