cided to work it out,” says Braun. “I had a
great moment where Ed Sheeran, a friend
of mine, said to me, ‘You got J Balvin?
He’s huge!’ He’s so massive all over. Many
people don’t even realize how big he is.”
Braun adds that it was “vital” to keep
Acosta onboard, given his experience and
connections in the Latin world. “I don’t
think [my management is] about ‘better,’
but about ‘different,’ ” says Braun. “What
relationships can I bring to the table that
weren’t there before?”
After linking up with Balvin, Braun im-
mediately closed two major deals. First,
he helped renegotiate Balvin’s contract
and secured Balvin’s place in the com-
pany’s global priority program. “It wasn’t
a tough negotiation,” says Braun. “It was
a ‘Let’s continue this business together
and go stronger than ever’ [conversa-
tion]. They did right by José, and we did
right by them.” The second? He secured
Balvin’s halftime-show appearance. For75 seconds in early February, the biggest
stage in the world belonged to Balvin.N 2016, BALVIN WAS IN THE
studio with Pharrell Williams,
working on their song “Safari,”
when the superproducer gave
Balvin some advice: “ ‘Try to do
an album like Michael Jackson,’ ”
recalls Balvin. “Ten tracks, all his big-
gest hits and most iconic videos [in one
place].” Neither Energía — the album
that contained “Safari” — nor its follow-
up, 2018’s guest-packed Vibras, were that
lean, but Balvin is finally putting the idea
into practice with Colores: Ten songs that
will each get an accompanying music
video directed by Colin Tilley (Kend-
rick Lamar, Nicki Minaj, DJ Khaled)
and featuring psychedelic imagery from
Japanese artist Takashi Murakami. “I
love to collaborate, but albums are madeto create concepts and worlds,” says
Balvin. “I put all my energy into creating
10 songs and 10 videos.”
Helping him along the way is his
Mexico-born, Texas-bred creative
director, Oscar Botello, better known as
MLKMAN (pronounced “milkman”).
The two met at a Mexico City bar around
2014, and Balvin later recruited him to
work on the pop art-inspired visuals for
Energía. MLKMAN has since worked
with Balvin to develop every aspect of his
visual aesthetic, including the smiley logo
that appears on his merchandise and has
become his signature. Today, it’s common
for artists of all levels to hire creative di-
rectors, but in Latin music, Balvin was an
early innovator when it came to branding
himself. “I feel that before Energía, artists
in our world didn’t really have logos or
emblems,” says MLKMAN. “That role
didn’t really exist before.”
As ambitious and eye-popping as the46 BILLBOARD • FEBRUARY 29, 2020 Watch Balvin talk about performing with Jennifer Lopez at the Super Bowl at billboard.com/videos.