A petition through Change.org has called for reggaeton popstar Maluma’s concert in Spain to be cancelled. Thousands of signatures have been collected through the online petition platform claiming that the superstar’s lyrics are “sexist, misogynistic and degrading” and that his concert in Palencia, which was scheduled for September 4, shouldn’t go ahead as planned.
The petition was originally submitted by Carlota Lera and was directed at the Palencia City Council. At the time of writing 8,252 people concurred that the singer of Felices los 4 would be better off not headlining the San Antolin Festival this year. Without getting into specifics, Lera went on to write that “there exist many cultural alternatives more appropriate and respectful for whom an “artist” like this could be substituted.”
This isn’t the first time Maluma has been in hot water over his unsavoury lyrics. In 2016 he was criticised for his song 4 Babys, a tune that was about a man who laboured over his love for four different women, and included such lyrical gems as:
I’m in love with 4 babys
They always give me what I want
They fuck me when I tell them
None of them deny me
The first one gets anxious
Gets pissed when I come on her
The second one has a rubber
And pays me to drill her with it.
The third one calms me down,
Continuous fucking, we always come in threes,
Despite the controversy over the questionable lyrics, Maluma was honoured by the government of Antioquia with the state’s golden coat of arms (the highest civilian honour in the region) in 2017 for his contribution to music. At the time, communications manager of the Government of Antioquia stated that “the Governor of Antioquia believed that, despite the artist’s young age at 23 years, Maluma is an Antioqueño who has achieved a lot for music and who has left a mark across different styles in different parts of the world.”
Maluma continues to be one of Latin America’s hottest acts. Views of his videos rival those of other internationally acclaimed Latin crossover stars like Shakira and Marc Anthony, and his videos have been seen by over a billion people.
