It’s a hot afternoon in the Coachella Valley. About 500 meters from the festival, the fashion brand Guess Jeans has rented a complex of luxury villas for influencers and artists, such as Colombian singer J Balvin, 39, who has come with his partner, Valentina Ferrer, and their son, Río, who is three years old. In the garden, four people are trying to share a single bit of shade. Inside, two are playing Mario Kart and another is sleeping on the sofa. But the singer has not yet appeared. “How do we address him?” asks the photographer. “You can call him José,” says one of the singer’s employees in English. “José is fine.”
Time passes. No one dares to ask when the singer will arrive. Outside, the sun begins to set. The photographer and his assistant measure the light again to adjust the equipment. At that point, a voice is heard in the hallway. A door opens, and J Balvin appears, wearing a cowboy hat pulled down almost to his eyes. I have waves. “Shall we take the photos here?” he asks, pointing to the chairs in the living room. “We were thinking of taking them outside,” replies the photographer, who observes Balvin’s neat braids as he removes his hat. Together they walked out into the garden.
Balvin’s reappearance, after a year-and-a-half hiatus — a period in which he released no music and limited his appearances on social media to a minimum —, has so far been brief. Since his return to the limelight, he has given only few interviews to talk about the new album he has ready or his world tour that began on May 28 in Barcelona and has several dates in the United States and Australia in September. But he has not mentioned what is most striking: J Balvin does not look anything like J Balvin.
This idea fits perfectly with the concept of his new tour, which he presented at the Coachella concert, the day after this interview. J Balvin pretends to be an alien. For his Coachella concert, he created an entire alien imaginary, which culminated with the surprise appearance of actor Will Smith, dressed as his character in Men in Black. But what was most striking was the lack of color. There was no trace of the singer who went on stage with “peace and love” painted on her hair. The new J Balvin is visibly more muscular and projects an image, colloquially speaking, of a tough guy.
J Balvin returns from the garden after having his photo taken at the same time that Nicolai Marciano, Balvin’s close friend and creative director of Guess Jeans, enters the house. Balvin’s creative interests extend beyond music. He has collaborated with brands such as Nike and Air Jordan, and in 2020, he launched the capsule collection Colores with Guess, inspired by his album of the same name. He looks through the photos and finally sits down to answer.
Q. What did you do today?
TO. I was working on the show.
Q. And yesterday?
TO. I also worked on the show yesterday.
Q. Didn’t you go to the party last night? I heard that Justin Bieber and Leonardo DiCaprio were there.
TO. No, when I’m working, I prefer to stay in a kind of quarantine. I don’t go out. I don’t want distractions, no partying, no sleeping, no drinking. That’s later. When work is over, we’ll find time to enjoy ourselves. Because we know how to enjoy ourselves.
Q. It will be your first concert after many months.
TO. I have taken part in many festivals, but not a solo show until this new season. I feel recharged, in a different stage of maturity, ready to enjoy all the blessings and successes that will come, with God’s favor.
Q. How have you felt not releasing music for the past 18 months?
TO. It’s been difficult. I’m a competitive person. I love being in contact with the public and with music, but I felt that I needed to take a break. I went through some difficult times. After my son was born, I felt that it was the perfect opportunity to disconnect and reconnect with myself.
Q. What made you disconnect?
TO. There are times when it is difficult to maintain confidence in yourself… and in others.
Q. Do you find it difficult to trust others?
TO. Sometimes, like everyone else.
Q. What is fatherhood like?
TO. It’s a huge experience. I’m starting to see that my son has a lot of things from me. Not physically, because he looks like his mother. I see him and I see myself, in the way he sits and crosses his feet, also in the way he’s super obsessive-compulsive. It’s like he wants to learn something, and he has to learn everything. He sees a mess, and he has to put everything in line.
Q. To what extent do you consider yourself obsessive?
TO. For example, with this show, I have a mission, I want to make history with this concert. Working on it, and taking it as far as I can, becomes an obsession. When I get something in my head, I go all out. That’s good and bad. It’s good when you know the end is positive, it’s bad when you suddenly start to suffer for it. It’s part of life.
Q. What helps you to stay balanced?
TO. Sport, meditation, studying or reading help me a lot… Yesterday I didn’t meditate, but now I need to meditate. I usually do it every day. About 20 minutes of transcendental meditation.
This is not the first time that J Balvin — whose real name is José Álvaro Osorio Balvin — has performed at Coachella. He made his debut in 2019 in a historic concert, being the first Latino to headline the festival, a milestone that he has also achieved at Lollapalooza and Tomorrowland. In 2022, he participated as a special guest in Karol G’s performance, singing his hit My people. It is difficult to list the singer’s achievements without getting losing track: six Latin Grammysfive MTV Video Music Awards and seven Latin American Music Awards.
The singer also entered the Guinness World Records for staying at the top of the Hot Latin Songs list in the US for 22 weeks, and is the creator of the first Latin album — Oasis (2019) — to have all of its songs enter Spotify’s Global 100 Chart. In 2020, Time magazine included him on the list of the 100 most influential people in the world. His song My song (2019) currently has 1.6 billion plays on Spotify. He is one of the main people responsible, if not the main person, for making reggaeton one of the most popular music genres worldwide.
J Balvin has also been recognized for his efforts to speak out about mental health. In a Prime Video documentary, he said that his first experience with depression was during his time in Miami, when he would go out at night and pretend to be someone he was not in order to please others. “Although it looks colorful, it’s often dark inside, I pray for the mental health of all who need it, anxiety and depression are a reality, do not be afraid to accept and seek professional help, I know what it feels like, I live with it and understand those who suffer from it,” I posted on Instagram in 2020.
Q. How do you feel about the tour?
TO. Physically and mentally, I have worked hard to be fit and to endure. The training sessions are intense. I train with an oxygen mask to adapt to the different altitudes. Before it was just gym training, now it is training at the level of athletes, because right now I feel like an athlete. My trainer is the trainer of Jimmy Butler, the NBA player.
Q. You have a different look.
TO. I let my hair grow for a while.
Q. And your hair has fewer colors.
TO. One hundred percent fewer colors. I’ve already put a lot of colors in it for many years. Now it’s time to tone it down a bit, it feels more serious. The colors belonged to a less mature stage. But [I haven’t] lost the spice of the vibe, let’s say, of the energy. That remains. It’s more about the visual concept of this show. When you see it, you’ll say, “ok, the energy and the concept are very clear.”
Q. Do you still feel the need to return often to your hometown of Medellín?
TO. Yes, of course. Home is home, it’s where I am. Our son is the son of a Colombian and an Argentine, and we are working hard to ensure that he has a 100% Latin accent, even though we live in New York. That’s why I’m very worried. I don’t care if it’s not a Colombian accent, but it does matter if it’s Latino. That’s for sure.
Q. You must not feel nervous about anything anymore.
TO. Look, I was telling my friends yesterday, there are only two places where I get nervous singing: when I play in Medellín, at home, and when I play at Coachella, because Coachella is like a ghost that comes to see what you give, as if saying “I want to see what you have for me.”
Q. And don’t you sometimes feel like running away?
TO. Well, it’s best not to think about it.
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