Juan Luis Londoño Arias, better known as Maluma, is a Colombian singer of pop, reggaeton, and Latin trap, born in Medellín, Colombia on January 28, 1994. His stage name is derived from the first two letters of his mother Marlli's name, his father Luis's name, and his sister Manuela's name. After dedicating more than 8 years to football, a sport he is passionate about and in which his father hoped he would become a successful athlete, he decided in 2010, at the age of 16, to start vocal training in order to change his life and fully commit to singing, which ultimately launched him into stardom.
In 2011, he released the single "Farandulera," which catapulted him to fame in Colombia and attracted the attention of Sony Music, with whom he signed a recording contract in mid-2011. Subsequently, other songs such as "Loco," "Obsesión," and "Pasarla bien" were well received until the release of his first album "Magia" in 2012, which sold over ten thousand copies in his home country.
With the song "La Temperatura," it topped the charts in the United States and Latin America in 2013 and earned a Latin Grammy nomination in 2013 for Best New Artist.
With a career that was beginning to solidify and after a second album, Pretty Boy, Dirty Boy (2015), featuring the track "Solos" recorded with the Cuban El Micha, Maluma released the single "Felices los cuatro" in early 2017, which catapulted him to fame. The music video became the most viewed Latin video in the world within its first 24 hours, earning the singer a Vevo certification.
The bold lyrics that address the love triangle between Maluma and a married woman, played by Cuban-Croatian model Natalia Barulich, who later became his partner, do not go unnoticed. In the middle of that same year, Marc Anthony recorded a salsa version with the artist and appeared in the music video for this version filmed a month later.
Both versions are part of their third single, F.A.M.E., which won the Latin Grammy for "Best Contemporary Pop Vocal Album" and achieved Gold and Platinum certifications in various countries worldwide due to the number of copies sold.
The friendship between Maluma and Marc Anthony has developed over the years, and it is common to see them sharing stages and projects. In 2019, the Colombian wrote the lyrics for the song "Parecen Viernes," a single included in the American's thirteenth studio album, Opus.
In 2019, one of the most significant collaborations in the singer's career occurred when he became part of Madonna's album Madame X. Medellín, the album's lead single, reached the eighteenth position on the Hot Latin Songs chart and became Madonna's 47th number one on the Dance Club Songs chart, further extending her record as the artist with the most entries at the top of that list. Two months later, the artists teamed up again for the track Bitch I'm loca, which is also part of the same album.
That same year, in 2019, the Colombian artist released his fourth album, 11:11, under the Sony Music Latin label. The album features collaborations with Ricky Martin, Ozuna, Nicky Jam, Zion & Lennox, Sech, Ty Dolla $ign, Chencho Corleone from Plan B, Farina, and once again includes a song with Madonna, in which they perform "Soltera."
Among his most notable collaborations is "Clandestino," with Shakira in June 2018. Rolling Stone ranked the song number six on its list of the 20 Best Latin Singles of 2018, and it placed number 14 on Billboard's critics' choice for the 20 Best Latin Songs of 2018.
In 2018, he was chosen by People magazine as the sexiest man in the world.
In 2019, as a guest on the famous show Jimmy Fallon The Tonight Show, he confessed to the host that he would like to have a musical collaboration with Justin Timberlake, who has influenced his musical style.
In 2019, he began filming his first movie, Marry Me, alongside Jennifer Lopez and American actor Owen Wilson, marking the Colombian artist's debut in cinema. In September 2020, Lopez announced through her social media that she collaborated with Maluma on two songs, Pa 'ti and Lonely, which will likely be part of the soundtrack for the movie in which they both star, and that still does not have a release date.
