He was already on stage with Jennifer Lopez, now he is causing a scandal in his home country Colombia with a video.
Because reggaeton singer J Balvin (36) leads two women on a leash in the clip for the song “Perra” (bitch), there is great outrage in the Latin American country, even in government circles. The lyrics were also “sexist, chauvinistic and racist”, according to a statement by the Colombian Vice President and Foreign Minister Marta Lucía Ramírez, from which the newspaper “El Tiempo” quoted.
“Perra” therefore contains expressions that violate women’s rights by comparing them with an animal that should be controlled and mistreated. The video for the song from J Balvin’s latest album “José” also shows women with chains around their necks who are kept on a leash like dogs and have to eat from bowls in a dog house.
In 2020 the singer was on stage with Jennifer Lopez at the “Superbowl”Photo: AFP
Ramírez criticized that the message conveyed also had an impact in reality: In Medellín, for example, a man on the street led a woman in underwear on a leash like an animal. The background to the incident last week was unclear.
The singer, who performed the song “Mi Gente Medley” together with Jennifer Lopez at the “Superbowl” 2020 in Miami (USA), wants his song to be understood differently: It is about “that women, like men, can be rioters. If you are a player as a man, a woman can “bite” you – because she might be just like you, “said the 36-year-old, real name José Álvaro Osorio Balvín, when it was released in September. His music is “just sexy, and it does not attack women in any way.”
Reggaeton, a mixture of rap, reggae and other Caribbean sounds, is known worldwide – and successful. The rhythm is gripping, the texts are clear, the movements erotic: the genre has long since made the leap from Latin America to the world. Like hip hop, however, it is not without controversy. For many, the highly explosive texts are clearly sexist to misogynistic.