José Álvaro Osorio Balvin, known professionally as J Balvin, is a Colombian reggaeton singer born in Medellín, Colombia. At 17, he moved to the United States, specifically 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.
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. The song, along with the single "Ay Vamos", bolstered sales of his album La Familia (2014). In 2016, he released Energia, which included the hit singles "Ginza", "Bobo", "Safari", and "Sigo Extranandote".
In June 2017, J Balvin released the single "Mi Gente" featuring Willy William. On 1 August 2017, "Mi Gente" topped the Global Top 50 on Spotify, and later reached 1 billion views on YouTube. The song, and its remix featuring American artist Beyoncé, helped J Balvin achieve international fame.
J Balvin was born into a middle-class family in Medellín, Colombia on May 7, 1985. His father was an economist and business owner, and he grew up in a large home in the hills outside the city. He developed an interest in reggaeton after listening to Daddy Yankee.
When J Balvin was 17, he participated in an English-exchange program in Oklahoma, but was disappointed by the experience. Soon after the program, he moved to New York City to further study English and music, living with an aunt on Staten Island and working as a dog walker. During his time in New York, he became fascinated by the business savvy of New York rappers 50 Cent and P. Diddy.
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 were rock groups such as Metallica and Nirvana. He has collaborated with artists such as Pharrell, Major Lazer, and Sean Paul. Despite working with many English-speaking artists, J Balvin continues to sing almost exclusively in Spanish, and hopes to introduce Spanish-language music to a global audience.
J Balvin was enrolled at the prestigious Eafit University in Medellín for seven semesters, studying international business. At age 19, he began to seriously pursue a career in music and adopted the stage name J Balvin "El Negocio", meaning "The Business" in English.
On January 16, J Balvin premiered his new single "Ginza" from his upcoming album, at the Premios Juventud. Later that week, he premiered the music video on Vevo. The music video broke the record for the most views for a Latin music video in the first 24 hours, at over two million views. Since then, the video has racked up over 600 million views.
