page_title: J Balvin
section_title: 2017–2018: International success: "Mi Gente" and Vibras
hierarchical_section_title: J Balvin / Life and career / 2017–2018: International success: "Mi Gente" and Vibras
context_page_description: José Álvaro Osorio Balvín is a Colombian reggaeton singer. He has been referred to as the "Prince of Reggaeton", and is one of the best-selling Latin music artists with sales of more than 35 million records worldwide. Balvin was born in Medellín, Colombia. At age 17, he moved to the United States to learn English, where he lived in both Oklahoma and New York. He then returned to Medellín and gained popularity performing at clubs in the city.
  Throughout his career, Balvin has won five Billboard Latin Music Awards, four Latin Grammy Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards and four Latin American Music Awards and received two Grammy Award nominations. In 2017, the BMI Latin Awards named him the Contemporary Latin Songwriter of the Year for his contribution in Latin music industry, and has won the first Global Icon Award given by Lo Nuestro Awards, in recognition of his contribution to spread Latin music worldwide. He became the first Latino to headline world-musical events such as Coachella, Tomorrowland, and Lollapalooza. The Guinness World Records acknowledged him as a "leader of a second-generation reggaeton".
context_section_description: On June 30, 2017, J Balvin released his new single along with the official music video "Mi Gente" featuring Willy William. On August 1, 2017, "Mi Gente" became the number one song in the world according to Global Top 50 on Spotify. It soon reached 1 billion views on YouTube. In September 2017, the song was remixed with American artist Beyoncé. The remix reached number three in the United States, giving Balvin his first USA top ten single. J Balvin and Willy William released six more "Mi Gente" remixes with Steve Aoki, Alesso, Cedric Gervais, Dillon Francis, Sunnery James & Ryan Marciano, and Henry Fong. Despite the song's success, "Mi Gente" did not win any awards at the 2017 Latin Grammy Awards, with many awards going to Luis Fonsi's hit "Despacito". At the ceremony, he performed "Mi Gente" as well as "Si Tu Novio Te Deja Sola" alongside Bad Bunny and his remix of "Unforgettable" with French Montana.
  On January 19, 2018, J Balvin released his new single along with the official music video "Machika" featuring Jeon and Anitta. His collaboration with Nicky Jam, "X," was released on March 1, 2018 and the music video received 288 million views on YouTube in less than a month. Nicky Jam stated that he attributes the success of "X" to J Balvin's contribution. He also appeared on Cardi B´s Invasion of Privacy album, with Bad Bunny on the song "I Like It." It became Balvin's first number one single on the US Billboard Hot 100.
  J Balvin released the album Vibras on May 25, 2018. The two lead singles from the album were "Machika" and "Ahora." On April 23, 2018, J Balvin announced the dates for his Vibras tour revealing the 27 cities where he will be performing. Vibras claimed the record for the most-streamed Latin album in 24 hours on the streaming platform for 2018. In the United States, it debuted at number one on the Top Latin Albums chart for the issue dated 9 June 2018. According to Nielsen Music, the record sold 22,000 album-equivalent units and became Balvin's second number-one album on the chart, following Energia in 2016. Additionally, Vibras scored the largest streaming week ever for a Latin album by an artist; its songs were streamed 16.1 million times. Subsequently, it debuted at number 15 on the US Billboard 200 and became his highest-charting album on the chart.
  In an interview with Ebro Darden for Beats 1 Radio on Apple Music in April 2018, Balvin described the sound of the record as 33% dancehall, 33% R&B, and 33% reggaeton. Balvin further elaborated that much love was put into the album's work and that contains different vibes, hence the name, Vibras, "The real meaning of this album was what's going on with Spanish music that's going so global, the fact that we did an album that the beats are so amazing that you don't have to understand what we say, you just have to love the songs."
caption: The cover of J Balvin's 2018 album, Vibras.