First, he’s the Style Influencer of the Year; now, J Balvin is a Global Icon. At least that’s what Premio Lo Nuestro — the Univision awards’ show based in Miami — is declaring this year. The first Latin Music Awards show of the decade, Premio Lo Nuestro, will officially award the 34-year-old reggaetonero with their Icono Mundial award on February 20, 2020. With Premio Lo Nuestro’s 2020 mission to honor “The Globalization of Latin Music,” the choice of Balvin does make sense.
“To celebrate the evolution and global popularity of Latin Music, Premio Lo Nuestro 2020 will begin this new era honoring J Balvin with the Global Icon Award,” says Ignacio Meyer, Univision Senior Vice President, Entertainment & Music. “Having headlined world-famous musical events in 2019 such as Coachella, Tomorrowland, and Lollapalooza, on top of collaborating on more than 100 songs in his brief career, his music has conquered the world.”
Meyer adds, “But he’s never forgotten his ‘gente’ and has become an advocate for social inclusion, self-help, and mental illness awareness.”
J Balvin is also set to perform a medley of his recent hits at the show. (We can only imagine what a live performance of the royal clad “Morado” is going to look like.) Of the Icono Mundial award, he says, “Receiving this award reinforces that with belief in your vision and hard work, we can transcend any barriers.”
“It is an honor, and a privilege, to be able to utilize the rich ‘colores’ I see in music to help bring OUR language and OUR culture to the entire world,” Balvin adds. “I proudly accept this for Colombia and all the New Latino Gang … and pledge to keep working even harder.”
Meanwhile, Balvin is also up for a whopping nine awards at the PLN’s, including Album of the Year, Remix of the Year, Tour of the Year, Crossover Collaboration of the Year (for two different songs), Urban Male Artist of the Year, Urban Song of the Year, Urban Collaboration of the Year and Urban/Trap Song of the Year. Whew.
The Premios Lo Nuestro will air live from Miami’s AmericanAirlines Arena on February 20, 2020, at 7 p.m. ET/PT on Univision.
