Celebrities shine at the 2015 Latin Grammys
Celebrities arrive at the 16th annual Latin Grammy Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
J Balvin made history last year when his single “Ginza” broke the record for most views of a Latin music video in the first 24 hours online.
Now the Colombian rapper is making history in the editorial world by becoming the first subject in FADER magazine to have an interview published in both English and Spanish.
“I want to keep making history in Spanish. I want to invite the mainstream into my world, and to my sound, and to what I’m doing,” Balvin told the magazine.
The 30-year-old artist has been touring non-stop since September and has been tirelessly working for more than a decade to build his fan base all over the world.
However, he says he can’t stand that in the U.S. Latino artists are treated as if they belong in a lesser realm of pop culture even though they are performing to sold-out stadiums around the country.
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“I want mainstream artists to respect me and accept Latino artists as equals, without us having to sing in English. I want them to know that I can compete globally with whomever, in Spanish,” Balvin said to FADER. “I want Rihanna to pick up my phone call. I want the biggest fashion designers in the world to send me clothes just like they send them to Kanye, and that’s starting to happen. One day designers will send me their whole catalogs for Christmas because they respect my art and I respect theirs.”
Slowly but surely it starting to happen, indeed. He has made inroads into mainstream music industry through bilingual collaborations with the likes of Justin Bieber.
“It was incredible to be making reggaeton with one of the most influential people in the world in music today,” the Latin Grammy Award winner said. “We’re breaking down all the walls of the market that tries to tell us we can’t do certain things. My medium is music, but my goal is to motivate people to dream.”