Maluma Taught Second Graders How to Turn Their Ideas Into a Business

If you asked us what Maluma might teach a room full of young students about something he’s an expert in, we’d guess music. But when he recently took over a classroom, his lessons were about something different.

The Colombian singer appeared in an episode of Celebrity Substitute, hosted by Julian Shapiro-Barnum, where he visited a second-grade classroom at a school in New York City’s Spanish Harlem. Instead of leaning on his musical expertise, he delivered a lesson in business acumen and entrepreneurship, urging kids to start building their skills as soon as possible.

Maluma told the class he started making moves as a teen—still ten years older than the students he was speaking to. “I started making businesses when I was a kid. 15, 16 years old,” he said. “I saw that there were some kids in high school that were not taking lunch, so I started cooking sandwiches with Mom at home and the next day going to school and selling them. I made them with love and really needed the money.”

To this day, music isn’t his only hustle. Maluma breeds horses and owns several restaurants in his native country.

Afterward, he helped the class with an assignment to start their own business projects from the ground up, pitting them against each other in a friendly, capitalist competition that reflected a real-life scenario in a lighthearted way.

During the episode, the singer seemed to have a great time with the students, reflecting on his own childhood, answering questions about his music career, and even dancing to his song “Corazón.”

Still, it was a bit strange that Maluma would rather talk shop than teach songwriting, singing, or stage presence to a roomful of young fans. Of course, business should be taught in school so people understand how the real world works, and maybe he thought this would be a more valuable lesson. But we would have loved to learn a little more about music from this Latine music icon.