The Mi Gente hitmaker received the accolade at the African Entertainment Awards this week, beating nominees Japanese, Dubosky, Italian Somal, David L, Nacho, Sami Boy, Bad Bunny, The Ganez and Iza.
Balvin, who hails from Medellin, Colombia, acknowledged the award in an Instagram post, stating: ‘I am not Afro Latino.
‘But thank you for giving me a place in the contribution of the afrobeat music and movement.’
Naturally, Balvin’s win was met with a wave of backlash, with one music fan commenting: ‘J balvin, a white latino, shouldn’t have accepted this award over actual afro-latine artists.’
Referring to a scene in one of Balvin’s recent music videos, another said: ‘J Balvin is the same man who put Afro Latina women on leashes. Those are his parents below. Y’all gotta wake up. No me gusta J Balvin después de este video.’
One other weighed in: ‘J Balvin is not an Afro-Latino artist. Just like Bruno Mars is not a Black artist. Just like Ariana Grande isn’t a racially ambiguous artist.Just wanted to provide clarity on this today.’
Another tweeted: ‘J Balvin is NOT even Black. Out of all the talented Afro-Latinx artists that could have won this, they give it to this white Latino.’
The backlash prompted the African Entertainment Awards president Dominic Tamin to address the criticism.
Tamin explained: ‘I wanted to address the Afro-Latino category and why we came up with this category. This is for the people who have contributed to the African culture.
‘Not based on your race. Based on the contribution to the African culture.’
He continued: ‘Some folks have said that one of the winners are not Black and there was major concern. I just wanted to address it.
‘Our category is not based on colour. It’s based on, again, the contributions of this artist who are contributing to the African American culture.
‘Yes, you can be Black-Latino and be nominated and you can also be white Latino and be nominated, just like we have Black and white Africans. That’s how we see it.’
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