J Balvin Trivia
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79 free J Balvin trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This J Balvin trivia quiz follows José Álvaro Osorio Balvín from Medellín club nights and a dog-walking job on Staten Island to Super Bowl halftime and the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The easy questions cover his hometown, the meaning of Vibras, the French producer on Mi Gente, the Cardi B album that gave him his first US number one and the Puerto Rican partner on Oasis. Medium questions ask about the sample behind I Like It, the Guess and Nike collaborations, the Latin Grammy wins for Colores and Con Altura and the Instagram filter that named Ginza. The hard and expert questions dig into his first song from 2004, the 122-week chart run of La Familia, the Voodoo Song origin of Mi Gente, the Colores video director, his mother's rare condition and his 2025 anime voice role. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Difficulty is shown on every question so you can build a Latin music round for a pub quiz or play the whole set solo. When you finish, try our other reggaeton and Latin pop quizzes.
30 of 79 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which Colombian city was J Balvin born?
Medellín
Medellín. He keeps the city's violent cartel-era past out of his songs, saying Colombians lived through it and want to move on.
Q 02Which fellow Colombian star teamed up with J Balvin on the 2019 single "Qué Pena"?
Maluma
Maluma. After years of fans waiting, the two finally shared a single: a mock apology to women whose faces they remember but whose names they can't.
Q 03Billboards of Puff Daddy and which other rapper inspired J Balvin in New York?
Jay-Z
Jay-Z. Balvin said the billboards showed him how far hip-hop reached beyond music, into fashion and marketing, and he went home to Colombia set on becoming a rapper.
Q 04As a teenage exchange student, J Balvin was placed in a rural town in which US state?
Oklahoma
Oklahoma. He landed in small-town Atoka, fell out with his host family and left for New York, where an aunt lived.
Q 05What job did J Balvin work while living with an aunt on Staten Island?
Dog walker
Dog walker. His music went nowhere in the United States, so he took the advice to go home and start from scratch, and broke through in Colombia instead.
Q 06What did J Balvin study at EAFIT University?
International business
International business. He walked away to chase music, having already formed the rap group MDL Crew with friends.
Q 07With which American group did J Balvin record "Ritmo" for the film Bad Boys for Life?
Black Eyed Peas
Black Eyed Peas. The track rides a slowed-down sample of Corona's 1993 Eurodance hit "The Rhythm of the Night", which will.i.am set out to reimagine with a reggaeton beat.
Q 08Which reggaeton star enlisted J Balvin for the 2018 global hit "X"?
Nicky Jam
Nicky Jam. He had moved to Colombia to restart a stalled career and found a fan, then a close friend, in the up-and-coming Balvin.
Q 09Which family member managed J Balvin's early career, before his 2013 Universal deal?
His father
His father. An economist whose own company had gone bankrupt during Balvin's teens, he took charge of his son's music career in its early years.
Q 10J Balvin reached new US listeners in 2015 on the official "Latino remix" of which Justin Bieber hit?
Sorry
Sorry. The original already leaned on a reggaeton-style beat, so Balvin's Spanish verses slotted straight in, and it gave him his widest exposure yet to American pop fans.
Q 11Which Puerto Rican singer features on J Balvin's hit "6 AM"?
Farruko
Farruko. The song became Balvin's first chart-topper on US Latin radio, his breakthrough in the United States.
Q 12J Balvin described "6 AM" as the Latin version of which Hollywood comedy?
The Hangover
The Hangover. Like the film's heroes, the song's two singers wake up piecing together a wild night, and Balvin pictured a car parked in the bedroom as they wrote it.
Q 13J Balvin joined the 2018 remix of "Mi Cama", a summer hit for which Colombian singer?
Karol G
Karol G. The remix helped her land her first number one on any Billboard airplay chart when it topped Latin Rhythm Airplay that August.
Q 21Which former One Direction singer teamed up with J Balvin on the 2018 bilingual single "Familiar"?
Liam Payne
Liam Payne. Balvin delivers his lines in Spanish on the track, and the pair performed it together on Stephen Colbert's Late Show.
Q 22Which superstar's remix of "Mi Gente" gave J Balvin his first US top-ten single?
Beyoncé
Beyoncé. She later worked the song into her 2018 Coachella headline show and brought Balvin on stage to perform it with her.
Q 23The 2017 "Mi Gente" remix's guest star gave her proceeds to which cause?
Caribbean hurricane relief charities
Q 14Which song won J Balvin his first Latin Grammy, the 2015 award for Best Urban Song?
Ay Vamos
Ay Vamos. Its chorus about a couple who fight, make up and carry on showed the tender streak that set him apart from harder-edged reggaeton.
Q 15J Balvin cancelled a July 2015 performance at which event over Trump's comments on immigrants?
Miss USA
Miss USA. Pulling out cost him what would have been his first performance on mainstream US television, a choice he called a matter of social responsibility.
Q 16J Balvin's hit "Ginza" was named partly after a photo filter he used on which app?
Instagram. Ginza was a filter he kept using on his photos; the name is also Tokyo's upscale shopping district, a fit for a singer who calls fashion a passion.
Q 17Which future reggaeton star, then working as a songwriter, co-wrote J Balvin's hit "Ginza"?
Feid
Feid. At 23 he was known around the studios for his lyrics, and Balvin, who had followed his work, took his idea around the world years before Feid's own fame as a singer.
Q 18Which 2016 album was the first by J Balvin to top the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart?
Energía
Energía. Its lead single "Ginza" had spent 22 straight weeks atop the Latin songs chart before the album was even out.
Q 19Which American artist sings the hook in Spanish on J Balvin's 2016 single "Safari"?
Pharrell Williams
Pharrell Williams. He also produced the track, and for Balvin it was a dream fulfilled: an American star stepping into Latin music instead of Balvin switching to English.
Q 20Which French singer and producer is credited alongside J Balvin on "Mi Gente"?
Willy William
Willy William. Balvin liked to point out that a song he wrote in Spanish with a producer from Paris went to number one in countries around the world.
Caribbean hurricane relief charities. She announced the gift barely a week after Hurricane Maria tore through Puerto Rico, and her pledge named Mexico and other Caribbean islands as well.
Q 24Which rapper released a "Mi Gente" remix after its shout was heard to resemble his signature grito?
Pitbull
Pitbull. Fans congratulated him on a guest spot he never recorded, so he answered with his own remix and later registered the yell as a US trademark.
Q 25"Mi Gente" was the first song sung entirely in Spanish to lead which chart?
Spotify's Global Top 50
Spotify's Global Top 50. It reached number one in August 2017 with no English verse at all; the star-powered remix only arrived the following month.
Q 26Whose record did J Balvin break to become Spotify's most-streamed artist in 2018?
Drake
Drake. Balvin passed him in June 2018 with over 48 million monthly listeners, and called it proof that songs in Spanish could stand beside the best pop on the planet.
Q 27Which Brazilian singer features with Jeon on J Balvin's 2018 single "Machika"?
Anitta
Anitta. Balvin cast the song's guests, a Brazilian star and an Aruban newcomer, to push reggaeton toward a global sound after "Mi Gente".
Q 28J Balvin's first Billboard Hot 100 number one came as a guest on which rapper's 2018 hit?
Cardi B
Cardi B. "I Like It" took Balvin's Spanish verses to the top of the US chart nine months after his own biggest single had stalled at number three.
Q 29J Balvin's first Hot 100 number one is built on a 1967 hit from which Latin dance craze?
Boogaloo
Boogaloo. Pete Rodriguez's "I Like It Like That" had already been revived once, for a 1994 film of the same name, before the 2018 hit borrowed its hook.
Q 30The music video for "I Like It" was filmed in which Miami neighbourhood?
Little Havana
Little Havana. The clip turns the district into a street party that spills into a nightclub, with costumes that nod to salsa queen Celia Cruz.