Palo is a fantastic slang word that literally means "stick" or "pole", but in the world of music, it has a completely different meaning!
In reggaeton and Latin urban music, palo is used to describe a huge hit song or a "banger". In "Mi Gente", J Balvin boasts, "Es otro palo y ¡blam!", which translates to "It's another hit, and blam!", celebrating his track record of producing successful music. Learning this word will help you sound like a true reggaeton insider.
Colombian superstar J Balvin teams up with French artist Willy William to throw an unstoppable global dance party. Right from the start, Balvin drops the song's main rule: "Mi música no discrimina a nadie / Así que vamos a romper" ("My music doesn't discriminate against anyone / So let's break it down"). The whole track is an open invitation for everyone to nod along, whether William is chanting in French ("Mais fais bouger la tête" ["Just make your head move"]) or Balvin is rallying the crowd in Spanish ("Y dónde está mi gente" ["And where are my people"]).
There is a lot of fun, cocky party slang packed into these verses. When Balvin brags that the track is "otro palo" ("another hit"), he literally calls it "another stick"—which is Caribbean and reggaeton slang for a monster smash record. He shouts "vamos a romper" ("let's break it"), meaning to tear up the dance floor, and toasts with "botellas para arriba" ("bottles up"). With lines shouting out the Colombia-to-France connection ("Francia Colombia me gusta" ["France Colombia, I like it"]), the song keeps the vibe simple: forget your borders, put your hands up, and move.
J Balvin grew up in Medellín playing guitar in a teenage rock band with Nirvana and Metallica on repeat, and spent part of his teens in Oklahoma and New York picking up English. Born José Álvaro Osorio Balvín in 1985, he had been releasing music in Colombia for about a decade before anyone outside it paid attention.
"6 AM" with Farruko changed that in 2014, and "Ay Vamos" and "Ginza" followed: "Ginza" held number one on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart for 22 weeks, a record at the time. He kept singing in Spanish anyway, and "Mi Gente" reached number three on the Hot 100 once Beyoncé joined the remix, before "I Like It" with Cardi B and Bad Bunny went to number one in 2018. His albums run La Familia, Energía, Vibras, Colores (every track named after a color, and a Latin Grammy for best urban album), José and Rayo, plus Oasis, a joint record with Bad Bunny. In August 2019 he became the first Latino artist to headline Lollapalooza in Chicago.