Very few Latin stars breakthrough from their niche market to the general US charts. Even fewer than that (like less than 30%) manage to slide past 25 million YouTube subscribers. Even less than that manage to have a successful performing career and be a household name for soccer (football) in their native country.

This isn’t a hypothetical, there is a man who has successfully done all this – and you know him as Maluma. Maluma isn’t his real name – the rapper/singer from Columbia was born Juan Luis Londono Arias. The reason he’s called Maluma will warm your heart. It’s a combination of the names of his mother, father, and sister – aka all the people he loves.

From Juan to Maluma

Juan didn’t start his life in Columbia thinking he was going to be a professional singer/rapper. Instead, he had his sights set on being a soccer (football) player, which he did professionally for eight years. Though he loved soccer, he always knew singing was an option for him. People had asked him to perform at parties and events with his smooth tenor voice since he could remember. But it wasn’t until the rise of the internet, specifically YouTube, that Juan thought to make singing his dream career.

Farandulera and the Future

It was in 2011 that Juan, now going by stage name Maluma, put out his first single. That single, Farandulera, got radio playtime and eventually led to him signing with Sony Music. Since signing with them later that year, Maluma has broken pretty much every limit any haters thought he had. He’s even made songs featuring Madonna and crossover success Daddy Yankee, for example. And if you can’t get enough of his music, you can watch a documentary about him, too.