Maluma is bringing Latin music to the masses. The Colombian artist released two new albums within the past year, and this fall he makes his Hollywood debut starring in Marry Me opposite Jennifer Lopez. Fame is in the L'OFFICIEL Hommes global coverstar's DNA, and it’s clear he’s just getting started.

Photography Pamela Hanson Styled by Ryan Young

Hardly anyone has taken more advantage of pop music&rsquo;s march toward globalization than Maluma. Born Juan Luis Londo&ntilde;o in Medell&iacute;n, Colombia, the singer and rapper came up in the worlds of reggaeton and Latin trap, making music that was thunderous and sexy&mdash;equal parts romantic and dirty, swaggering and sensitive. As the Latin crossover wave swept the world, Maluma continued to find bigger and bigger platforms by going pop and cleaning up his lyrics, culminating with his breakout smash albums F.A.M.E. and 11:11, from 2018 and 2019, respectively.
By the time the pandemic hit in early 2020, Maluma&mdash;a portmanteau of his mother&rsquo;s, father&rsquo;s, and sister&rsquo;s names&mdash;had scored multiple billion-view songs on YouTube, VMA and Latin Grammy nominations, collaborations with bold-faced names like The Weeknd and Madonna, and non-stop sold-out shows in arenas across the globe. His rugged good looks and smoldering cool made him a favorite in the high fashion world, and his charisma caught Hollywood&rsquo;s attention, too&mdash;he plays Jennifer Lopez&rsquo;s lover boy in the upcoming romcom Marry Me.
The singer is captivating and enigmatic enough that his name was thrown around by the tabloids as a potential romantic interest of Kim Kardashan in the post-Kimye divorce rumor mill. He has the kind of effortless magnetism&mdash;plus a chiseled jawline and a smattering of tattoos that adds a Bieberian bad-boy edge to his image&mdash;that translates globally. By every metric imaginable, Maluma has transcended the label of Latin pop star&mdash;and even transcended what it means to be a pop star, full stop. He&rsquo;s simply a star.
To hear Maluma tell it, his rise was not purely a product of hard work, talent, or good timing. There&rsquo;s also something much more intangible at play: &ldquo;I just try to keep it real&mdash; to explode my essence,&rdquo; he tells me repeatedly over Zoom, dialing in from his newly remodeled home in Medell&iacute;n. Even over a video call, this essence is palpable: Maluma, sporting a casual denim jacket, lights up the computer screen, chatting with enthusiasm and candor, grinning often and easily slipping into a more reflective mode. At one point the artist explains that entertainment&mdash;fashion, acting, music&mdash;is simply in his nature. &ldquo;I just have it in my DNA,&rdquo; he says.

While the rest of the music industry ground to a halt in 2020 on account of the global pandemic, Maluma got to work. After nearly a decade of non-stop touring, he had several months at home in Colombia, mostly alone, to refocus on his music and record two new projects: Papi Juancho and 7DJ. Rather than continuing to move into a commercially viable global pop space, Maluma took a few steps back and returned to the reggaeton and Latin trap sounds that made him. (He’ll tour his new music in arenas this fall.) No matter what path he decides to take, he’s making the smart bet that his fans will follow along.

L&rsquo;OFFICIEL: Your Zoom name says &ldquo;Hercules.&rdquo; 
MALUMA: [Laughs] I like Hercules.
 L&rsquo;O: You split your time between your native Colombia and Miami. Where are you now?
M: I&rsquo;m in my hometown right now, sharing some time with my family and my animals. Everything is good over here. I rebuilt my house. What matters is what we have outside&mdash;the trees, nature, the mountains. I love Miami, but sometimes it&rsquo;s too much for me. I prefer being more chill, and here in my house, there&rsquo;s not even a little noise. I really love being at home. Of course Miami&rsquo;s nice when I have to work. I just got a new place there, a beautiful place, but Colombia is better.
 L&rsquo;O: So much of the music industry came to a standstill during the pandemic, but you released two albums. Can you talk about how you spent your time during lockdown? 
M: It was hard, because I spent three or four months at home [in Colombia]. That had never happened to me before&mdash;I was on tour for like eight years, nonstop. And then when everything happened, well, to be honest I was happy to be back at home. I built this house four years ago and never had time to enjoy it. But after three months, I was like, No, I need to work. I&rsquo;m pretty much a workaholic.

L&rsquo;O: How did you find the motivation to record while alone in your home during a pandemic?
M: It was nice, because no one could come to my house&mdash;not an engineer, not the producers. So I had to record by myself again, the way I used to do it 10 years ago. I had no one next to me trying to tell me what to do. I was recording the kind of music that I love. It was very inspiring to go back to my roots and to the kind of music that I used to love making.
 L&rsquo;O: Did you have any rituals to keep you centered? 
M: To be honest, I was drinking wine every day. I know everyone did, right? So every morning I was kind of, oh, feeling the headache. I would go to the pool and try to work out a little bit later, at 12 or 1 p.m., and then have some time with my mom. Before bed, I love praying. That was the best ritual. I knew that there were so many people dying, and I was here, enjoying my house and just being able to share that time with my family. I felt pretty grateful because of that.

L&rsquo;O: Can you talk a little bit about the inspiration behind 7DJ [7 Days in Jamaica], your new album, which is heavily influenced by dancehall and reggae?
M: Since I started making music, I wanted to make an album in Jamaica. That was a dream for me, but I never had time because of being on tour every day. I feel like I was getting to a point in my life where I was doing too many commercial songs. I just wanted to do the things I wanted to do. I decided to stop my tour, and told everyone I wanted to go to Jamaica. I went there for eight days with my friends, who are my producers, and we had this amazing time. We went out to all the underground parties, and I had the opportunity to enjoy Jamaica 100 percent. So I decided to tell the whole story, the whole concept of the album [based on that trip.]
 L&rsquo;O: You said you&rsquo;d been on tour for almost eight years straight. Tell us about returning to the stage this fall. 
M: It was an ambitious plan, to be honest. Nobody was touring when we announced we wanted to do the <a href="https://maluma.online/events-maluma-en/?lang=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Papi Juancho USA tour</a>. But I&rsquo;m pretty sure it&rsquo;s going to work. It&rsquo;s going to be 360; the show is going to be in the middle of the arena. I have new musicians and dancers, and a whole new concept. I feel like this tour is going to be insane. <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/men/nino-cerruti-kim-jones-interview-menswear-design" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kim Jones</a> and the Dior team will be coming to design about 20 looks for the tour. He&rsquo;s one of the greatest in the industry. I have a great relationship with him too, and it&rsquo;s not only about working together. We have a friendship. He&rsquo;s amazing not only as a designer, but as a human.

L&rsquo;O: You&rsquo;ve really crossed over from the Latin world to become a global pop superstar. With Papi Juancho, the album from last year, you went back to your roots a bit. How do you juggle your Latin American audience with your global audience? 
M: It is very difficult, to be honest. But I just try to keep it real&mdash;to explode my essence, you know? I always talk about this. I don&rsquo;t feel that I have to sing in English to go to different markets. I just want to be me and enjoy the music that I really love doing. If people want to listen to it, I&rsquo;m very grateful. But if not, there are a lot of artists out there, and if they want to listen to songs in English, it&rsquo;s fine too. Right now I feel like my essence is working. What I&rsquo;m doing is working. And hopefully people can enjoy it as much as I do. When I&rsquo;m straight to my roots, I feel people can feel it too.
 L&rsquo;O: Coming up, did you always imagine you&rsquo;d go global? 
M: I always wanted to be a global star. People in high school used to laugh at me. And of course my family, I don&rsquo;t know. They were kind of afraid I wouldn&rsquo;t make it. Then I started working, and I had a lot of discipline. I feel like I had the keys to make it happen. I&rsquo;m in the middle of the route, but it&rsquo;s going to happen.

Right now I feel like my essence is working. What I'm doing is working.

L&rsquo;O: Was there a moment that made you realize it was really happening?
M: It was when I did my first tour in the states that we wanted to do the arenas. And when I saw that every country was sold out, I was like, Wow, something big is happening here. When I went to Israel and saw that 50,000 people were at one of my concerts, I was like, Wow. Then I got nominated at the VMAs, these big global awards.
 L&rsquo;O: When did you realize you could have such a big impact in the fashion world as well?
M: To be honest, I felt this from the beginning. When I started my career, I saw that there were Colombian brands that wanted to work with me. They wanted to send me clothing, and I really felt like people were not only looking at me as a singer, but as a fashion icon. Then the big labels started inviting me to all the fashion shows they were doing in Europe. It&rsquo;s something that I have in my DNA. It&rsquo;s not something that was difficult for me. I was born with it, maybe because my mother and father love dressing well.

L&rsquo;O: Did you succumb to sweatpants like everyone else did during the pandemic? 
M: I was wearing sweatpants every day. Just chilling, slippers. I had been dressing up every day of my life before. I needed to enjoy my house. It&rsquo;s not a bad way to enjoy your house, wearing sweatpants and a sweater.
 L&rsquo;O: You&rsquo;re going to be in the upcoming J.Lo movie, Marry Me. What was your mindset like when you were on set, trying to learn a new art form?
M: I got nervous. I was there with Owen Wilson, too. That was my first movie, and it was a Hollywood movie, you know? When I went to the set for the first time, I felt that I was made for it. And well, working with Owen Wilson was difficult because he&rsquo;s a big, big actor. But the first scene when we saw each other he was like, Wow, man, you&rsquo;re doing amazing. For me, that was everything to calm my nerves. It was a beautiful experience working with Jennifer Lopez&mdash;she&rsquo;s such a master. She&rsquo;s got a lot of discipline. She loves having everything on point. I learned a lot about her. I&rsquo;m not tired of talking about Marry Me, because it&rsquo;s one of the biggest dreams I&rsquo;ve had in my life.

L&rsquo;O: I have to ask: Where did the rumor that you&rsquo;re dating Kim Kardashian come from?
M: I don&rsquo;t even know! Right? We were together at the Dior show. I met her for the first time there. I was also there with Kourtney. People just started talking about it. I don&rsquo;t know why they started asking her that. Maybe because she was getting her divorce and everything, you know? But no, we are good friends. We don&rsquo;t talk that often, but yeah, we are good friends and we always wish the best for each other.

L'OFFICIEL Hommes' Centennial Issue is now available to pre-order online <a href="https://store.emags.com/lofficiel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> and will be hitting newstands on October 19, 2021.

GROOMING Luis Rivcera MAKEUP Tina Echeverri DIGITAL TECH Carlos Rojas PRODUCTION Beth Alonso and Gerrit Kretz TAILOR Sara Lassalle PHOTO ASSISTANTS Milton Arellano, Robert McKim, and Fabio STYLIST ASSISTANT Lauren Constantine PRODUCTION ASSISTANT John Beltran

Maluma Fronts L'OFFICIEL Hommes' 100th Anniversary Issue

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