The Stereo Picnic Festival is taking place at the Briceño 18 Golf Course in Bogotá. On its second day, attendees overflowed the different stages of the event, with the expectation of enjoying the Comeback of this musical experience that has not been lived since 2019.
One of the most anticipated concerts of last Saturday night was that of J Balvin, the Antioquian went on stage with practically the audience of the festival at his feet. He opened with the worldwide success of Mi Gente and was followed by other of his greatest hits, which were unabashedly chanted by the spectators.
However, and despite the fact that the party atmosphere never left the two-hour concert, the surprise was that this Sunday, social networks such as Twitter woke up crowded with comments that discredited the presentation of “El niño de Medellín”.
Well, it seems that the disappointing thing for many was that Balvin presented hits made in collaboration with other artists such as Nicky Jam, Rosalia or Bad Bunny. In this way, these voices were heard, while on stage, José, with a modest staging, lent the microphone to the audience to sing.
The truth is that Balvin's verses were heard impeccable, natural and without any pretensions other than to deliver to the spectators the hits that everyone went to dance to. Key moments of the night thrilled the audience such as the tribute to Taylor Hawkins and La Etnia, a legendary group of bogota rap that inspired the paisa in its beginnings.
In the meantime, the artist was grateful to the attendees of this concert that broke record attendance with 40,000 people in the fields of the festival that returned to make history.
The first notice of this unexpected creative encounter was posted by Sheeran on his social networks, in a photograph in which the two new friends appear together. The Briton gave a brief account of how he personally met the Colombian reggaeton.
Universal Music defines it as an “EP”, acronym for “extended play” in English or medium-length album, although in reality its length is more like a single and it lacks its own title.
“The first two songs we wrote were 'Follow' and 'Forever My Love' and I absolutely loved them. He wanted to take me to his world and I wanted to take him to mine. It was a real challenge to learn Spanish for this and I had a lot of fun doing it. I hope you like it as much as I do and stay tuned for everything to come,” Sheeran posted his networks.
'Sigue' is the most urban-Latin song in the British soloist's discography. 'Forever My Love' the acoustics. In both, Sheeran starts singing in Spanish, although it is not clear from his English diction, listening to the British singing Spanish is the most significant thing that happens both songs, he has managed to break all the bets that would have been made on the joint fruit of the artists.
The two performers leave their comfort zone to present this ballad in Spanish and English in which we see English jumping from one language to another without apparent problem; and J Balvin playing an acoustic guitar.
His message about a love that Sheeran and Blavin will want “forever, no matter what”, hardly means anything anymore. 'Sigue' presents the typical reggaeton bass drum and tropical sounds just out of 2017, and the ballad 'Forever My Love' sounds even more fancy.
“I wanted him to be on a theme in the world of reggaeton and he invited me to his world. It was brutal to hear it in Spanish and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do,” said J Balvin on his social networks.
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