J Balvin was born into a middle-class family in Medellín, Colombia on May 7, 1985. His father was an economist and business owner, and he grew up in a large home in the hills outside the city. . He grew up listening to rock groups such as Metallica and Nirvana, and states that he incorporates the grunge aesthetic into his personal style, having a Nirvana tattoo on his knee. He developed an interest in reggaeton after listening to Daddy Yankee. He recalls that “I was such a fan that I was copying his style, the way he moved onstage, his flows, his raps,” comparing him to the reggaeton equivalent of Jay-Z. His father’s business went bankrupt, and the family lost their home and car, requiring the family to move to a poorer neighborhood. On this period of his life, J Balvin notes, “When I would go to the barrio, people saw me as a rich person, but when I’m around rich people they see me as someone from the ghetto. It’s all perceptions. I like moving between worlds. I feel equally comfortable in both.”

He met his DJ and business partner David Rivera Mazo in a freestyle battle on the street in Medellín. The two became fast friends and started producing and promoting their own music without a record label. J Balvin’s early songs were described as “basically poor imitations of commercial reggaeton from Puerto Rico,” but he soon adopted a more relaxed, minimalist style in his music. He signed to EMI Colombia in 2009 and soon after released the single “Ella Me Cautivó,” which charted at number 35 on the Billboard Tropical Songs chart. He released his debut album, Real, in 2009. In 2012, J Balvin released a mixtape featuring many of his early hits in Colombia, including “En Lo Oscuro” and “Como un Animal.” His first international hit was the one-night-stand-themed “Yo Te Lo Dije”, and signed with Universal subsidiary Capitol Latin a year later.

In February 2014, J Balvin released a new track entitled “6 AM,” featuring Puerto Rican singer Farruko. J Balvin described the lyrical content of the song as the “Latin version of The Hangover,” where the two singers attempt to remember what happened during a night of partying. The song debuted at number 43 on the Billboard Latin Airplay chart in February and reached number one in May. His album La Familia reached number ten on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart, spending 122 weeks on the chart in total.

Shortly after, J Balvin released his second track in the United States, “Ay Vamos,” which solidified his mark in the Latin urban market. It won a Latin Grammy Award for Best Urban Song. This was a bonus track on the deluxe edition of J Balvin’s album La Familia B-Sides The music video is one of the most watched Latin music videos of all time, at over one billion views. The song went to number one on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart in 2015. The remix, featuring Nicky Jam and French Montana was used in the soundtrack to the film Furious 7. J Balvin performed the track at the 2015 Premios Lo Nuestro and the Billboard Latin Music Awards. J Balvin has been featured on remixes of “Sorry” by Justin Bieber, “The Way” and “Problem” by Ariana Grande, “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke, “Maps” by Maroon 5, and “Stuck on a Feeling” by Prince Royce. J Balvin was the first Colombian singer to record with “The Prince of Bachata” and establishing itself as an international artist.

In June 2015, it was announced that J Balvin had cancelled his performance on Miss USA 2015 to protest Donald Trump’s inflammatory comments insulting illegal immigrants, saying, “During [Trump’s] presidential campaign kickoff speech last week [June 2015], Trump accused illegal immigrants of bringing drugs, crime and rapists to the U.S.” His live performance had been scheduled for July 12, 2015 in Louisiana, which would have been J Balvin’s first performance on national mainstream television.

J Balvin has spoken out about the Venezuelan economic crisis and the situation occurring at the country’s border with Colombia, where thousands of Colombians have been forcibly deported. He called the situation “deplorable” and created the social media campaign #LatinosSomosFamilia (We Latinos are Family), encouraging fans to sign a petition to support the displaced victims. The petition was soon signed by other prominent Latin artists including Colombian singer Maluma. J Balvin’s campaign was launched shortly after cancelling his performance on Miss USA 2015 in protest of Donald Trump. He supports LGBT rights, explaining “It’s all about love. A lot of my closest friends are gay”, and dyed his hair rainbow colors to show support for Pride 2019.

On January 16, 2016, J Balvin premiered his new single “Ginza” from his upcoming album, at the Premios Juventud. Later that week, he premiered the music video on Vevo. The music video broke the record for the most views for a Latin music video in the first 24 hours, at over two million views. Since then, the video has racked up over 807 million views. The song reached number one on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart for the week of October 17, 2015. The song also set a new Guinness World Record for the longest stay at number one on the chart. J Balvin became the first artist to receive a diamond certification in the Latin field from the Recording Industry Association of America, denoting digital sales of 600,000 units for his songs “6 AM” and “Ay Vamos.” Andrew Casillas of Rolling Stone wrote that “with its deliciously liquid beat, [“Ginza”] among the finest three minutes in reggaetón history.”

On June 24, 2016, J Balvin released his third studio album Energia. Energia debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart, signifying his first time topping that chart. It had the third-best debut sales of any Latin artist in 2016, after Juan Gabriel’s Los Duo 2 and Banda Sinaloense MS de Sergio Lizarraga’s Que Bendicion. It also debuted at number 38 on the all-genre Billboard 200. The album featured collaborations with Daddy Yankee, Juanes, Pharrell, and Yandel. He launched 3 hit singles from the album, “Bobo,” “Safari,” and “Sigo Extranandote,” which all reached the top 10 of the Latin charts. “Bobo” spent a week at the top of the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart. Mario Prunes of Allmusic described Energia as “an album that knew it was going to be an international blockbuster almost a year before its release,” due to the success of “Ginza”. Rolling Stone ranked the album number four on the magazine’s list of the 10 Best Latin Albums of 2016.

In August 2016, the singer was involved in a plane crash while leaving the Bahamas. While returning from a vacation with his family, the plane failed to take off properly and crash landed shortly after departing from the runway. He posted a photo on Instagram of the small private plane after having landed in the bushes. Nobody was injured in the accident, and J Balvin called it “a miracle.”

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.”

The musician appeared in Ovadia and Sons’ Spring 2017 catalogue. He debuted pieces that he designed in the Colombiamoda Fashion Week show in Medellin in July 2018, where he presented his collaboration with the clothing brand Gef France. The collection was inspired by the colorful, bright aesthetic of his 2018 album, Vibras. In January 2019 Balvin launched another Vibras-inspired clothing campaign with the Guess x J Balvin clothing collection, becoming the first Latin man to collaborate with the brand. J Balvin explained that he “grew up with the Guess brand” and “always respected and identified with the Marciano brothers’ history of taking influence from the country and culture of their heritage, and fusing it with the spirit of the United States”.

On June 27, 2019, J Balvin released his new album in collaboration with Bad Bunny titled Oasis. The record was released overnight and was deemed a “surprise” release. The two artists first met at a J Balvin concert in Puerto Rico, when Bad Bunny was working on releasing music on SoundCloud, and then collaborated on the 2017 track “Si Tu Novio Te Deja Sola”. The chemistry between the two was so strong that they came up with the idea to release a joint album. Oasis peaked at number nine on the Billboard 200, and topped the Billboard US Latin Albums chart. The album was nominated for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album at the 2020 Grammy Awards and was named one of Rolling Stone‘s Best Latin Albums of 2019.

In August 2019, J Balvin and Bad Bunny headlined the Uforia Latino Mix Live concert series to raise money for victims of the shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas. The concert series consisted of two performances in Texas, one in Dallas and one in Houston, and featured openers Wisin y Yandel, Reik, Sech, Ozuna, Natti Natasha, Pedro Capo, Sebastian Yatra, Tito El Bambino. J Balvin’s collaboration with Spanish singer Rosalía “Con altura” won Best Urban Song at the 2019 Latin Grammy Awards. The song received positive reviews from critics and Billboard ranked it 5th on their list of 100 Best Songs of 2019. J Balvin was a guest performer in the Super Bowl LIV halftime show headlined by Jennifer Lopez and Shakira. He also collaborated with Major Lazer and Dominican dembow singer El Alfa on the single “Que Calor” in September 2019.

In November 2019, J Balvin released the music video for the single “Blanco”, which introduced a “futuristic, all-white environment filled with hypnotic dancers and flying cats”. On March 20, 2020, J Balvin released the album Colores, in which every song is named after a color except the song “Arcoíris” (the Spanish word for rainbow). The album contains influences from dancehall, R&B, and electronica, and features Nigerian afrobeats artist Mr Eazi on the song “Arcoíris”. Suzy Exposito of Rolling Stone called the album “sophisticated show of Balvin’s sonic palette”. The album artwork was created by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. Balvin collaborated with Murakami for the music videos and album and single artwork, which notably feature Murakami’s flowers, as well as American clothing brand Guess on a capsule collection inspired by the album.

In 2020, it was revealed that J Balvin contracted COVID-19, but he has since recovered.