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Maluma welcomed Billboard to his estate in Medellín, Colombia, where, amidst horseback rides, coffee breaks and stunning tropical vegetation, he spoke candidly not only about his new music, but also about his mental health, the second baby he’s expecting with his partner Susana Gómez and the upcoming presidential elections in his home country.
“My country hurts me,” Maluma said in an exclusive interview with Billboard’s Leila Cobo, reflecting on the violence that shook Colombia in the ’90s and looking ahead to the May 31 elections. “We have to vote! I’m not telling you who to vote for, but I even feel like renting a truck and driving people [to the voting centers] on election day.”
“It’s an important topic and something that really matters to me,” he explained. “I want [my daughter] Paris to not experience what perhaps your generation or several generations went through — those who left and didn’t want to return because of the country’s problems.”
Maluma, who released his new album Loco X Volver on May 15, also fondly remembered the late Colombian popular music singer Yeison Jiménez, with whom he got to record the track “Con el Corazón” for this album. Jiménez died tragically in a plane crash this past January at the age of 34.
“We spent months where we were very close. Talking about him is really tough. The song is beautiful and everything, but yeah, that guy is sorely missed,” said Maluma, unable to hold back tears. “Life goes by in a flash, you know? You think about that guy, and it feels unreal, it feels unreal.”
He also spoke about how his relationship with fame has changed — “Today I prefer to be at peace in my home,” he said — and about prioritizing his mental health after feeling overwhelmed at the end of his last tour. He admitted that if he hadn’t taken a break, “something bad” might have happened.
“Life isn’t just music,” he expressed. “Life isn’t just fans, autographs […] life isn’t TikTok or Instagram. And I lived 24/7, 365 in that mindset, and of course, when I stopped, my brain was like, ‘Oh man, they took away my dopamine, they took away everything.’”
“I disconnected for months,” he continued, adding that precisely “that detox from social media was also one of the main keys that showed me I needed to stop.”
Watch the full interview (in Spanish) above.