Machika
by J. Balvin (featuring Anitta)

Album: Vibras (2018)
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Songfacts®:

  • "Machika," is a Spanish language single recorded by J Balvin with Aruban singer Jeon and Brazilian songstress Anitta. The title is a word from the Papiamento language, which is spoken on the islands of Aruba, Curaçao & Bonaire, and it means to smash, crumble or crush.

    "There's a lot of people that just go wild first time they get money," Balvin told Genius. "They just wanna go crazy and spend it all. That's what I was thinking. I was thinking about the whole hoods and everything that be like, 'I just like to spend the whole thing.' I save, you know. I invest a lot. But I think it's cool just to go wildin.'"
  • Jeon is the originator of the song and first made his own version in his native language of Papiamento. When Balvin heard the tune he decided that he wanted to redo it in Spanish. He recalled to Los40.com:

    "One day DJ Blass, a well-known producer from Puerto Rico, put a video of him singing and I loved it. Then I realized that Jeon was my neighbor. When I came back to the gym I found him and I asked him if it was him and … let's go to work! … and that's where Machika was born."
  • The song was co-produced by Suriname native DJ Chuckie. He told Billboard that "Machika's instrumentation utilizes the Dutch Caribbean house style called "bubbling."

    "The sound of 'Machika' is the of sound of the evolution of bubbling," he said. "There's such a rich history behind it. A lot of the grooves are sounds I was using back in the '90s. It's kind of reinvented itself for this new generation of kids."
  • The video was shot in Medellín, Colombia. The clip was inspired by the film Mad Max and is set in Machika - a fictional dystopian city of the future created by Balvin himself.
  • This was the eighth #1 for Balvin on the Latin Airplay chart and the first leaders for both Jeon and Anitta. "Machika is not conventional reggaeton; it's a dancehall song, with another dimension and at a different speed," Balvin told Billboard. "It's a song to dance to instead of a lyrical song, and I like to take risks. To earn a #1 is a blessing."

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