Maluma confesses: "Very few believed in me"

Entertainment The Colombian singer confesses exclusively, tells us about his fears, the secret of his career, his childhood, his idols, football and what he wants to teach the youngest.

By José Fortza

Maluma is not limited to telling us exclusively what success means and what has been the key to achieving it, in addition to remembering his childhood in Medellín and what he has learned from the confinement that, like many of us, forced him tostop and reflect.

One almost forget that around a team of people who do not stop occupying that everything comes out with the flow that touches, the rhythm of time that is needed and the security that these moments demand these moments moves..The view and attention are concentrated in the charisma and the image of the man who is going to start talking in front of the camera, with the Sun and the Miami Sea as a backdrop.He is 27 years old and his public name moves millions of people.And it is that MalumYour natural syncopa...Now nothing else sounds like a paisa accent, without hard or arrogant star poses.The one who looks at us fixed and speaks transparent is a man like you and me: Juan Luis Londoño.

His childhood, football and a complicated start

“I have beautiful memories of my childhood, happy moments.My parents gave me everything and I grew up with very special friends who are still part of my life today.Obviously, we went through ups and downs, like everyone else, but they were rather economical, because I grew up with a very strong mentality, ”he talks about his home, school, his stage in sport and returns to his parents."Thanks to them I played football, I went through different teams in Colombia and this sport is that I have become the disciplined and dedicated person that I am currently".

And the music appears.“My beginnings in the industry were also beautiful, although difficult and very complicated because, to be sincere, very few people believed in me.At school all my friends laughed at me.They believed that things were not going to be so, that I was not going to succeed in music, but that served as motivation to continue growing and become who I am today ”.

Ten years ago, an artist could talk about the album industry and references were the same as colleagues who tripled age.Not now.“I had the time of the digital era.In spite of that, when I started, records were still sold, not many, but there was the culture of going to buy them.Then, as five years later, that died, it ended, and the digital age really seized the industry.I can say that I had a little of that before and that after, when the albums were stopped and this social media began.That was really one of my strong when I started my career ".

Maluma, a movement

We tell you that social networks work, but they are also full of fakes.Nods."I appropriated my networks with honesty.People know that what I upload is myself, what happens on Twitter with my posts is me the one who decides it and on Instagram, also.The truth was a process that facilitated to reach the followers, but at the same time, not everything was so positive, because at the same time too many artists began to leave.Everyone wanted to leave, everyone wanted to make reggaeton, everyone wanted to make urban music, and that was where I decided that I did not want them to consider me as a reggaeton, but that they would look at me as a movement: the Maluma movement ”.

Thus the idea drops us and knows that we are processing it.Pause.Talk about something that moves at sea and that looks like a dolphin.When he says about the "Maluma Movement", he is not referring to a horde of fans, but to a man who understands his work as something that has many parts and all matter for the answer they generate.An artist who does not stay still.So, follow: “As for music, it's about not fitting me.I can do reggaeton, that a ballad, I can make a ranchera, like the one we end up with Carlos Rivera and that is working very well in many countries, specifically in Mexico.So I feel happy and grateful ".Previously, Maluma confessed to which artists he would like to collaborate.

A passion from the soul

The truth is that Maluma impacts from his image and his music to many levels, and something that happens with very few artists: it is followed by diverse people in lifestyle, origin, gender and age."I think the secret of everything is doing things with love.I do everything from the deepest of my heart.I am not going to deny that I have always been very ambitious, but in the good sense of the word.I always wanted to reach the greatest number of hearts, so I've worked music that goes to different groups.Just before the Covid I did massive concerts in Europe and saw people in about 80 years among the public, but really fans, it was not that they were accompanying the grandchildren, but they were there for them and they, even with my shirts on.Then I watched children aged eight or ten also singing my songs...So I think all that happens because I work with love, brother.That is real, it's true and you can see it in my songs.When I am on stage, in a study or in interviews, I do things because I like it, not because I must do it.That is the secret of my career: work from the soul ".

Another pause after a phrase that can describe the essence of this person who, while speaking, transcends the character.If there was any swollen ego feature at one time, at this point it was lost a long time ago.“My music is so diverse because I listen a lot, because I work with different producers, with different composers.I am also a composer and, of course, my songs have a large part in my musical career, but at the same time, I like to collaborate with producers of different ages and experiences.There are, for example, Pelaos de Medellín who are 17 or 18 years old and are already stars, true geniuses.But I also like to sit with a teacher like Sergio George and make good music.So I also think that is a very large fan that is represented in what I do.Experiment, as long as I don't miss my identity, because if in any of the songs my essence is not there, it really will not work.I must recognize my DNA in everything I do, but I work with different teams, I like to listen and I like to create ”.

Fashion

Maluma is also an influencer in fashion and style.Until this conversation we imagined that it depended on people from his team, in charge of his image, but it is not the case.“I am a fashion lover since I have reason of reason.As a child he opened the closet to decide what he wanted to put me.Also thanks to my parents, who gave me freedom of expression.I know many stories of children and young people who wanted to dress in one way, but they leave another because their culture or their family repress them.In my case it was not like that.I say it openly: my parents believed in me, in my personality and, since then, I have dressed my way.They have put all possible labels for the mere fact of putting on a lot of colors.When everyone was in black to go to a quinceañera party, I put on a pink shirt with green pants.The reality is that I have always loved art as an expression of individuality, which through fashion manifests itself a lot.I am an art collector, I have important works, and I also collect clothing, sneakers...I dress like this because I love artistic expressions.People know that what I do and how I do it comes out of my heart, including expressing myself through my fashion style.For example, my favorite accessory, without a doubt, are the glasses.Before they were the jewels and I have a large collection of watches and chains, but, to be sincere, I have burned that stage a little.I feel more energized by the stones and I have understood that the issue does not go for an economic value, but for a spiritual value, which is something that represents much more ”.

Maluma's fears

Every time you talk about your spiritual values your gestures become different.It is an impression impossible to describe, but quite noticeable.At that time, Juan Luis is a guy who can meditate aloud over loneliness or old age, about time with himself during a pandemic that has changed us all."I'm afraid of being alone.I don't like loneliness at all, that's why I have so many pets.I have dogs, horses, cows, sheep...If the people around me are busy and do not walk with me, some of them can always accompany me.In my old age I do not think yet and I think it does not scare me, but I fear the old age of my grandparents or that of my parents.That causes me some anxiety.Pandemia has been sad and terrible by the people who have left, and has made us think.Personally, I, like Juan Luis, have taken it as a year of meditation, to reflect on many things, with time to mature.I have been more in my house, in my environment, in Colombia.I have been able to get up in my same bed and see the same house, the same things, the same people, my clothes.I have been able to feel that I belong to my family.This year I reminded me of the value of simple things and that must be more everyday.It has been important to spend those months enjoying what I have built and what is the testimony of my effort intimate and personal.I have been far from scenarios, hotels, restaurants, airplanes, of all the massive that many times does not connect with the soul.It has been a very big teaching and generated things that can no longer change ".

Maluma's idols

We continue talking and mentions his admiration for Héctor Lavoe, as a musician, and by Michael Jackson.He comments that "personally I also have anonymous idols, of which I imitate the best".And there is his theme, as an idol of so many new artists and younger people.“I have not thought about it because I feel that I have much to do, much to fulfill professional and personally.I need to grow as a human being, form my family.That inspiring model seems more important to me than people tell people that you have made a lot of money as a measure of success.The empty extravagance is not at all.What fills the pockets does not necessarily fill the soul.I would like to inspire the youngest to be good people, to thank, to help others and think about others ”.

Creation behind 7 days in Jamaica

Maluma has not stopped working and there is an album there to prove it: 7 days in Jamaica.“It is a very ambitious project out of the concept, as normal that is happening in music.As I said at first, I like to dare to do things that fill me, because if I am not happy with my creation, I will not be able to transmit it.One day I got up and said: ‘I want to go to Jamaica with my friends to make music and get away from a very saturated life with too many concerts, too chaos’.I wanted to make my album with peace, calmly and looking for it to be a work of art.We were seven people, for seven days to make seven songs that were connected with seven videos.It is a very special project ".

Your passage through cinema

And it will also be in the cinema.“I always wanted to be an actor, it was my dream parallel to music.From a very young age I was in children's works.Then, with my work as a musician, I also arrived in action, but I knew I had to wait for an important project that was going to arrive.This is how Jennifer Lopez appeared for this production with Owen Wilson.The movie is called Marry Me, we recorded it in New York and it was a spectacular experience to work with them.My character is called Bastian...And, well, I will not tell you much to see it ".

Soul

The day has to continue, the agenda does not stop and the photo session is missing.Maluma's manager gets nervous and reminds the editor-editor that time passes...But I still have to ask the final question: What would Maluma say to the child who was Juan Luis Londoño?“I would say: my congratulations because you dreamed, because you dared;Because, at the end of the day, many people did not give it to you and you went against wind and tide to show that love and talent can.I would also advise you not to be so stubborn, to make better decisions...Although that stubbornness, to some extent, also helps to achieve what you propose ”.As soon as you would add to advise something that the artist already said in the interview: "Work from the soul".