If Coachella is in the throes of globalizing, no artist better represents the future of the fest than J Balvin.
The Colombian pop-reggaeton crossover just played the most high-profile set of any Spanish-language act in Coachella‘s history.
On Saturday, Balvin made his case that old limits around language and genre don’t matter — and they might actually point the way to the future.
If Blackpink’s set Friday night was a signal that K-pop can thrive here, Balvin’s set was maybe an even more radical assertion: that Spanish-language, Latin American artists are as much a part of the mainstream in the U.S. as anyone.
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Billie Eilish on stage April 13 at Coachella 2019.
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Fans cheer Billie Eilish.
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Billie Eilish performs.
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Christine & the Queens on stage at Coachella.
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Fans get caught up in a performance by Tame Impala at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival on April 13.
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Tame Impala performs at Coachella on the second day of the annual music festival.
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Christine & the Queens on stage.
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Coachella fans ride the Ferris wheel as the sun sets April 13.
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Festival fans head for late afternoon shows.
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Fans walk through “Spectra,†a seven-story immersive art installation.
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Billie Eilish on stage.
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A security guard stands watch atop the “Spectra†art installation on the festival grounds.
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Juice WRLD performs during the first weekend of Coachella.
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Rivers Cuomo fronts the Los Angeles rock band Weezer on the Main Stage.
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Rivers Cuomo and Weezer.
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Weezer performs as a barbershop quartet at the start of the band’s Main Stage appearance.
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A hovering astronaut is a 45-foot art installation by Poetic Kinetics.
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The sun sets April 13 at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio.
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The “Spectra†installation at the festival.
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Chilean indie electro-pop musician Javiera Mena takes the Sonora Stage at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival.
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Javiera Mena performs on the Sonora Stage on April 13.
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Fans of Chilean indie-electro artist Javiera Mena enjoy the vibe.
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Javiera Mena performs at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival.
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Nigerian singer Mr Eazi on stage at Coachella.
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DJs spin in front of a projection of Mr Eazi.
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Mr Eazi performs at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
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Dancers accompany Mr Eazi on stage at Coachella.
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Music festival security guards take a break from the sun under a large mobile art installation.
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The “H.i.P.O†art installation -- which stands for Hazardus interstellar Perfessional Operations.
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Francis Kéré’s art installation “Sarbale ke†is a set of towers at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) When he tucked into a globe-spanning track like “Mi Gente†or “Safari,†the sheer crossover took on new dimensions out here. Is it even fair to treat a Spanish-language hit like something other than completely American at this point?
The lurching drums and slinky horn samples in his tracks felt Latin as heck, even in his cobbled-together version of Cardi B’s “ I Like It Like That,†where he had a guest verse and paper-mache stand-ins for the song’s leads.
But at this point in the steady ascent of Latin pop, Balvin’s ideas felt like an inevitable future, one where a diverse young crowd recognizes the music on its merits, and even mainstream Coachella-goers know it as the pop music it is. Plenty of Spanish-language acts have played here before, but none had the hits and self-assertion that Balvin did about his own place in pop.
There’s a reason Beyoncé wanted in on his remix: artists like Balvin and Bad Bunny and Rosalia (and Blackpink, for that matter) are bigger than their own genre scenes or regions.
They represent the coming future of Latin and global pop where language is less a barrier than an invitation. There’s no better place to prove that than the biggest stages at Coachella, and in this pointedly global year, they’re making their case with aplomb.
FULL COVERAGE: Coachella 2019 »
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