"I lived a hell": J Balvin about burn out and Beyoncé | The music

EWhen he is covered, it's great to be José Álvaro Osorio Balvin. A turtle has just urinated on her Versace silk pajama suit, but the singer of the South American superstar remains serene. Looking at Anish Kapoor's sculpture, Balvin may be thinking of how rich he is. The musician owns several houses around the world and has so many expensive watches that there is a YouTube video dedicated to evaluating his collection out of 10 (he got a score of 7.5).

His private jet – a $ 4 million Dbadault Falcon 2000, according to the Internet – is idling at Olbia airport, ready to take him to Ibiza tonight for a show 90 minutes to Pacha, before depositing it here, a million pounds manor in Sardinia. This house, which he rents for the summer while he travels to Europe, offers views of a devastating beauty on the eastern peninsula and Kapoor artwork, Damien Hirst, Jeff Koons and Fernando Botero. His own house in Medellín features works by his current friends KAWS and Takashi Murakami. When Balvin is thirsty, he is content to note his butler Max, a slender and seductive man, omnipresent but discreet. A whispered request on his iPhone X asking for a black coffee is signed "I like you". Balvin is always polite, offering food and even slightly wet clothes from his back when he discovers that I've lost my suitcase. Before leaving, he insists that Max open a bottle of expensive champagne.

It may not be known in the UK, but J Balvin, 34, is arguably one of the most successful musicians in the world today . The Colombian is credited with reggaeton revival, with monthly streaming figures that currently outperform those of Drake, Justin Bieber and Cardi B. He is the second behind the unstoppable Ed Sheeran. His recent release, Oasis, an eight-track album with Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny, has been described as "historic" by Fader and Vulture, and has been released. "stupid but incredibly fun" from Pitchfork. It has recorded 40 million streams in a week. Admittedly, streaming can be a malleable metric, but overall, Balvin's numbers are phenomenal. "They made it official yesterday. I am [currently] the world's most watched artist on YouTube, "he explains as we sit at a mbadive vulva-shaped table.

Four of his videos have exceeded one billion views, placing him in the same category as Ariana Grande and Taylor Swift. How can he even quantify, let alone visualize, such figures? "It's hard to think about these numbers," he says. It's nice to see how far my music can go; she bluffs Mi Gente, 6AM and Ay Vamos. the numbers do not lie, "he shrugs as timidly as a bright pink haired man can do.

It's hot, then; so hot in fact that it is now headed by Scooter "JustinBieberArianaGrande" Braun, while Beyoncé, recognizing her presence in territories untapped by most English-speaking stars, joined her on the remix of Mi Gente in 2017. In 2018, she invited Balvin on stage at Coachella. "She was super nice, she treats everyone with respect. The more you show yourself small, the bigger the people you feel, not the reverse. The fat guys I met love [Beyoncé and Pharrell] they are so humble. They do not boast. This year, he played his own game at Coachella and became the first Latin artist to become the title of Lollapalooza.

His mix of reggaeton, which incorporates elements of trap, dancehall and dembow, is not particularly political – it's a lively music full of romance, entertainment, party – but IRL is a thoughtful person, endowed with a social consciousness. Even when he appears on pieces by Pharrell, Liam Payne and Cardi B, Balvin sings in Spanish. Unlike the previous record industry regulations, it does not slow it down in the least. "I want to be that guy who makes Spanish music a global brand, so I'm going to keep pushing it," he says. He does not sing in English because he does not need to do it, not these days. If people want it, they broadcast it. And they are, en mbade. "It's something I did not do myself, it's something that Latin Americans have been working on for 100 years and we're seeing the effects now," he says of predecessors Celia Cruz, Daddy Yankee and his Colombian Shakira.

If all of Balvin's riches, break the record and be fair, look too good to be true, that's right. A few years ago, as his career progressed, he experienced "a very stressful time in life, everything went crazy for me. I was lost in too many ways. His finances, he says, were in a mess, and "I let people do what they wanted." He began to feel anxious. "It's the heart, the feeling of being out of one's body, the feeling of not being aware of one's breath; it's the worst. And of course, this void here, he said, hitting his chest. "I have gone through this and it's hell, it's really hard."

He slipped into a depression. "It was the worst time of my life," he says simply. "There is a lack of information about depression. There is one thing – to be sad – that is emotional, the other is depression, which is a chemical in your brain. Depression is a different kind of monster that you can not handle if you do not have the right drugs. At that moment, his entourage did not help. they could not understand why he was shot when he seemed to have everything. "Yes, I have everything. Yes, I am depressed. It is not related and in any case it depends on what everything is for you. "

He was reluctant to try a therapy, baduming it was for the "crazy", so he explored various holistic alternatives. Nothing worked. "I did everything, but the good thing was to go see the person who can check my brain," he says. "It was the last gesture, but it was the most important thing, and that's where I understood it best. So when I had depression, the last thing I did was go see the shrink. "

Part of the reason he is based in Sardinia is for his mental well-being. Its current program may involve eight performances in eight countries over eight days; this week alone, he has performed in Greece, Finland, Germany and Spain. But he now takes precautions to take care of his health: he always takes medication, even if things are not so intense. He makes coloring books to relax and he does not drink, smoke and do not take drugs. He has a mentor, a rich old man from whom he has already tried to get the girl out, who gives him a solid spiritual direction. He wakes up every morning at 5am, he says proudly, to meditate and train.

"Hey Max, tell him, what time do I get up?"

"5am", approves Max immediately. "Everyday."

Meditation, he says, "saved my life".

Balvin also uses his program to spread his moral code. He openly expresses his support for LGBT audiences: "It's all about love. Many of my closest friends are gay – and dyed her rainbow-colored hair for this year's Pride. He also retired from a performance at Miss USA in 2015 after discovering that Donald Trump was in part the owner of the show. This was to be his first-ever US TV performance, but Balvin was outraged when the presidential candidate at the time called Mexican illegal immigrants rapists, thieves and narcos. "You can not buy ethics, ethic is not negotiable," he insists. "I was working illegally[ly] in the United States while I was trying to find my dream. I painted houses, I was a dogwalker, I made roofs. So when [Trump] said that, I thought, "He's crazy!" "He's taking a momentary pause." "You know, I do not know if he's crazy or he's really smart." He wants to make you feel like he's crazy so everybody's talking about him, so he's popular and really very smart, maybe he knows exactly what he's doing. "

In search of the American dream, Balvin moved from Medellin to the United States – first in Oklahoma, then in Staten Island, New York – at the age of 18. He grew up in a family of musicians, played the guitar and idolized Kurt Cobain. He has a Nirvana tattoo on his knee. "Kurt, Tupac, Biggie – they are revolutionary guys," he says. "Now that I'm touring Europe and seeing how imprudent and hopping young people are, I realized it was the revolution Kurt was talking about. Children have a lot of things to do inside and they just want to let them go, which is why we are here. Maybe my words are not social words, but I can help let that energy go. Kurt Cobain, Tupac, they are masters: they taught me to do and not to do. "

He had a relatively privileged life in the Colombian capital – Balvin's father was a wealthy businessman – but it was still the flagship city of drugs, the city of Pablo Escobar in the 1980s and '90s. Medellín is essentially the place where evil is born, "he says with an ironic smile. "I was aware of the violence since birth. It was part of your reality even if you were not part of this life. Kidnappings and mbadacres, we grew up listening to this every day. But it's nice to see how the city looks. After hell, the only way to go is to go to heaven and that's what happened in my city. It's such a beautiful place, people are so positive; everyone wants to help each other, "he says. "Now, when we see something happening, we say," No, we do not want to come back at that time. "There are many excellent sportsmen and musicians doing great things for Colombia, we are all motivated to embrace our culture and give hope to children."

I wonder if he ever considers how his privilege has been beneficial to him – both his education and the fact that he can be considered a white man – and if he has any ideas about appropriation, given that the his music is a Panamanian heritage. This is the only time in our conversation that he is small and his phone is suddenly distracting him – and therefore his answer is vague. "One hundred percent [I think about it]. I know that I have a mission and the mission is to inspire, to inspire the whole world. Good vibrations. He wants to talk about mentoring other musicians, a leader, a voice for his people. "I represent culture, I represent young people, I represent people who follow me. Because we have power, people listen to us. "

We will have to wait to see what it will do with that influence next, but it seems like it can be significant. Alongside Rosalía, Becky G, Bad Bunny, Maluma and Ozuna, Latino artists have proved that modern music transcends translation. "Being an artist in a conservative country, especially in a place that is not known for reggaeton and comes from a difficult place, it's always risky to do it. But you know what I'm saying, "he smiled, finally taking Max's handkerchief to wipe the little one. "The bigger the risk, the bigger the victory."

Oasis album by J Balvin and Bad Bunny has just been released