Jennifer Lopez And Maluma Reveal How They Are Breaking Ground For Latinx Artists

Jennifer Lopez and Maluma are the biggest names in Latin music. Their recent Billboard cover story also makes it pretty clear that they want to put the spotlight on the success of Latin artists.

As a part of Billboard Latin Music Week, the duo sat down for an interview. They discussed how both of them have broken barriers for other Latin artists during their time.

Jennifer said it was her goal when she started her career. The singer said, “I never just wanted to be put in a box. I wanted to always be a person, you know? Like, look at me like I’m a person. Don’t look at me like I’m one type of person over here and I can only do these things.”

She said she can do anything and urged to let her play as the president of the United States to prove that. The actress said she should be able to do that and that has been her goal. She shared she is keen on showing diversity in different things and characters that she can play. However, she said her goal has been to let her Latinx roots shine through.

The artist further talked about her heritage and said everybody knows she is a Puerto-Rican girl from the Bronx. She explained, “It’s not something I’ve ever tried to hide or ever thought I should hide so I can get ahead. I always felt that that individuality is what made me different from every other actress that was out there.”

Jennifer makes it clear that she will not stop bringing up her Puerto-Rican heritage because she is proud of that. She thinks there is no reason for her to hide that part of herself to be successful. The singer names it as the secret to her success.

Jennifer Reveals She Is Always Working On Her Spanish Album

On the other hand, Maluma does not want anyone to forget he comes from Colombia. It is one of the reasons why he hasn’t stopped singing in Spanish. He questioned why should a star only sing in English and recalled how he has gotten fans to sing along to his songs all over the world. The singer said his essence is singing in Spanish and doing urban music and continue to do things that represent them.

Jennifer talked about her long-anticipated Spanish album and revealed that she is always working on a Spanish album. However, she said her album will not be coming soon but fans can expect the Marry Me soundtrack to feature a bilingual tracklist.

The singer shared, “I wanted to make an album in English and Spanish. I wanted it to be the first English movie that had a bilingual soundtrack”. The actress said they started thinking about the hottest Latin guy who is making music and someone who could act.

The answer being Maluma, which leaves him in absolute disbelief that his first movie was opposite Jennifer and Owen Wilson. Having Maluma locked in, that helped them to broaden the musical world of Marry Me. The duo took on the challenge of creating songs for Bastian and Jennifer’s Kat Valdez.

Jennifer said, “This album was actually really difficult because I wasn’t making a J.Lo album. I wanted it to be different than the things that I had done. And also, I was weaving in the songs and writing them for the story.” The singer added that after Maluma came on board they figured out a way to incorporate his sounds and songs into the already finished product.

Maluma noted that the songs are very different from each other but they connect. We have already gotten two songs from the film, ‘Pa Ti’ and ‘Lonely’. However, one of the songs had a different name initially and it turned out to be a controversial title: ‘Negrita del Bronx’. Which means ‘Little Black Girl from the Bronx’. The title was loved by both the stars of the movie.

Jennifer said “they” liked ‘Lonely’ better not specifying who the air quoted “they” actually are. The duo also did not specify why it was changed to ‘Lonely’. “But we like ‘Negrita del Bronx’ better,” Maluma added.