‘We’re going nowhere’: J Balvin takes the global stage as a World Cup opening ceremony headliner

By Stefano Pozzebon, CNN

Barranquilla, Colombia (CNN) — Surrounded by rows of costumes, reggaeton superstar J Balvin fuels up in his dressing room as thousands of people in the coastal Colombian city of Barranquilla wait outside for his raucous five-hour live performance to begin.

The moment of calm belies what is turning out to be an unstoppable year for the Colombian, who FIFA announced on Friday as one of the stars headlining the World Cup’s opening ceremony in Mexico City on June 11.

Speaking to CNN exclusively before the FIFA announcement, Balvin called his headline act a “huge statement,” not just for him but for the entire Latino music scene.

“We keep piling up each artist to make our movement unstoppable,” the 41-year-old told CNN last Friday, while on the last leg of his “Ciudad Primavera” tour that has brought him up and down Colombia.

Alejandro Fernández, Belinda, Danny Ocean, Lila Downs, Los Ángeles Azules, Maná and Tyla are among other headliners who will kick off the “greatest show on earth,” as Mexican culture takes center stage for 90 minutes before the start of the first game.

It has been a year of records for Balvin and Latin music as a whole. In February, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny became the first Latino artist to headline a Super Bowl halftime show. In April, another Colombian star, Karol G, headlined the closing night of Coachella, in another first.

Balvin’s gig at the FIFA World Cup – which will see matches across 16 cities in North America – marks another milestone in Latin music’s global dominance.

Balvin is notoriously private about his politics, but as someone who first migrated to Oklahoma at 17 and has lived in New York City for two decades, he confidently asserts that the Latino community’s place in the US is more than assured.

“People thought reggaeton was gonna die 30 years ago… (But) we’re going nowhere, you know? Our numbers don’t lie, and we know what we represent. We know what we can give to the world: our skills, our talent. We embrace our culture more than ever,” he told CNN.

His journey, which began with selling mixtapes in New York’s Times Square in the early 2000s, long before he became the most streamed artist on Spotify in 2018, is a classic rags-to-riches success story.

“Obviously, I consider myself a migrant, the way I arrived in the US, but even those who are born there from other backgrounds are still migrants: the US is a country of migrants,” says Balvin, who worked illegally in the country as a roofer and house painter before his music career took off.

He may no longer be living the typical immigrant experience as an international celebrity, with homes in Manhattan and Medellin. But Balvin believes little has changed since he used to Skype his parents on free Wi-Fi twenty years ago.

“My home is here with me,” he says, touching his chest, “because I move all the time… I think to be Latino these days is to be a world citizen: we come from a giant culture, rich in music, food – we have people at NASA, scientists, sports stars, people who are changing the world.”

Giving back to his roots

The “Ciudad Primavera” tour is Balvin’s way of reconnecting with his roots and showing gratitude to Colombia. It is rare for international artists to perform outside the two largest cities of Bogota and Medellin. Rarer still, to select a crop of local artists to sing on stage to elevate the homegrown talent.

Balvin has done just that, acting as a mentor and a trailblazer for dozens of younger singers, whom he brings on stage at each concert to join the journey. In Barranquilla, local performer Vaech wore a sleeveless shirt carrying a reciprocal message of gratitude: “José opened the door, it was not luck, it was Balvin,” it read.

This week sees the release of his latest album, “Omertá,” in collaboration with Ryan Castro, another reggaetonero from Medellin who looks up to Balvin like an older brother.

Yet reconnecting with his roots also means looking at who opened the door for Balvin: last year, he took Puerto Rican salsa legend Gilberto Santa Rosa on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” to perform a duet that seemed like a passing of the torch from one generation to another.

“I think that when Gilberto and Celia Cruz, these huge artists who paved the way for us, they were not thinking about paving the way: they were just doing it with so much love and passion, they did us a huge favor,” he said.

“What I’m doing might pave the way for someone else, and that’s the reason why we are so collaborative: we love making songs with each other, and we know together we are stronger and more powerful.”

His magnetism has also brought international stars to Colombia. Last year, it was Ed Sheeran who made the trip to Bogotá to perform as a guest in Balvin’s concert.

Before heading off to shower and change for the Barranquilla show, Balvin assessed his expectations for his beloved Colombian football team at the World Cup.

“If we understand we are a team and leave our egos behind, and we think about it as a family, I think that can take us really far,” he said in advice that sounded similar to how he has been encouraging younger artists: on and off the pitch, unity is strength.

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