Balvin began seeking his career at the young age of 14. When J Balvin was 17, he moved to Oklahoma in the United States with best friend Jesus Marulanda, to learn English. Soon after, he moved to New York City to further study English and music. Over the next 10 years, J Balvin worked between the United States and Colombia finding the style that would define his career. He began performing at various urban clubs in Medellín, Colombia.

In June 2015, it was announced that J Balvin cancelled his performance on Miss USA 2015 to protest Donald Trump’s inflammatory comments insulting illegal immigrants. His live performance was scheduled for July 12, 2015 in Louisiana. “During [Trump’s] presidential campaign kickoff speech last week [June 2015], Trump accused illegal immigrants of bringing drugs, crime and rapists to the U.S.”[5][6] This would have been J Balvin’s first performance on national mainstream television.[7] J Balvin also began the #LatinosSomosUnidos movement through social media, to bring awareness to the struggles occurring on the Venezuelan-Colombian border. His campaign brought support from many of the major Latin artists.

On January 16, J Balvin premiered his new single “Ginza” from his upcoming album, at the Premios Juventud. Later that week, he premiered the music video on Vevo. The music video broke the record for the most views for a Latin music video in the first 24 hours, at over two million views. Since then, the video has racked up over 600 million views. The song reached number one on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart for the week of October 17, 2015. J Balvin became the first artist to receive a diamond certification in the Latin field from the RIAA, denoting digital sales of 600,000 units for his songs “6 AM” and “Ay Vamos”. On February 16, he performed “Ginza” at the Italian Festival of Sanremo.

On 24 June 2016, J Balvin released his fourth studio album Energia (album).

On 30 June 2017, J Balvin released his new single along with the official music video Mi Gente (J Balvin and Willy William song) featuring Willy William. Three weeks into its release, the video reached a total of 157 million views on YouTube. As of 20 July 2017, it reached position 4 of Global Top 50 on Spotify.