MALUMA music profile

Maluma music profile

About Maluma

MALUMA music profile
Maluma is the stage name of award-winning Colombian pop singer, songwriter, and rapper Juan Luis Londoño Arias. Possessed of a sweet, grainy tenor voice and streetwise yet romantic delivery, the pop urbano was able to cross over from a reggaeton audience to the mainstream thanks to infectious early singles such as “Obsesión” and “Miss Independent” (whose videos also went viral). He is one of less than 30 performing artists with over 25 million YouTube followers. His 2012 debut Magia endeared him to radio listeners across Latin America, while 2015’s Pretty Boy, Dirty Boy broke through in the U.S., landing on the upper rungs of Latin Pop, Urban, and Tropical Charts. Since that time, Maluma has been charging toward world domination with a steady stream of videos, charting singles, albums, and guest spots — including a 2019 duet with Madonna on “Medellin,” whose steamy video racked up 29 million views in its first few months. He was also the subject of the documentary Maluma: Lo Que Era, Lo Que Soy, Lo Que Seré.

Maluma’s name is a tribute to his family. Before he began singing professionally, his now-famous stage name was a tattoo on his left leg. He made the word up from the initial syllable of his family’s names — his mother Marlli, his father Luis, and his sister Manuela.

He adopted the name a few years later when he started singing and gained fame as a teenager. He originally pursued football as a vocation for eight years and was gifted enough to attract the notice of the media in his native Medellin. He initially sang for pleasure at hundreds of birthday parties, weddings, and celebrations. Given the rise of social media, and YouTube in particular, his already intense focus on music turned exclusive. In 2011, at the age of 16, Maluma cut his first independent single, “Farandulera.” Due to its internet popularity and emergent radio airplay in Colombia, the song gained the attention of Sony Music, which signed him. The following year, Maluma released Magia, his debut album. Several of its singles — “Obsesión,” “Loco,” and “Miss Independent” — received consistent airplay and hit the charts in Colombia and Latin America. His next single, “La Temperatura,” entered the North American charts and earned him a Latin Grammy nomination in 2013. Read more on Apple Music