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Review: J Balvin flexes his dino-sized pop dominance at the Yuengling Center in Tampa

The Latin pop superstar brought dinosaurs aplenty to fairly full house.
 
Published Oct. 28, 2018

Was it the giant inflatable Tyrannosaurus rex? Yeah, probably. It was probably the giant inflatable Tyrannosaurus rex.

That was J Balvin's No. 1 flex on a night chock full of them — dancing dinosaurs, B-boy skeletons, fireworks and confetti and thousands of green glow sticks strobing throughout Tampa's Yuengling Center. The T. rex, though, that was the kind of flex only a man with J Balvin's resume can pull off.

Balvin's eye-popping Vibras Tour, which played to 4,000 fans Saturday night, comes as the 33-year-old singer-rapper has emerged as perhaps the hottest Latin pop star in America, and according to his Spotify numbers, the world. He has a leading eight nominations at next month's Latin Grammys, including one for Album of the Year and two for Record of the Year, and co-starred on one of summer's biggest singles in Cardi B's I Like It. He's basically the Colombian Drake. Or maybe Drake is the Canadian J Balvin. It's hard to keep track these days.

Like Drake, the thing Balvin most has going for him is an uncanny ability to hitch his wagon to a hit, either someone else's or one of his own. Which in a roundabout way proved the most memorable thing about Saturday's stimulating show: Despite all the flashy imagery, it was Balvin's hooks and fine burgundy purr that resonated the most.

J Balvin performed at the Yuengling Center in Tampa on Oct. 27, 2018. (Luis Santana | Times)

The tour came with an overt but flexible Jurassic Park theme — an inflatable man-sized dino who DJ'ed the warm-up music, others who roamed the floor before the show, and a parade of dinosaur shadows that paced across the curtain, their roars filling the arena. And that T. rex! It wiggled and jiggled, dipped and chomped, as Balvin rose up from the stage on the explosive Machika, then watched as he cavorted with dino-masked dancers on the slinky Cuando tu Quieres.

Balvin dipped into his back of hits early, getting huge responses for smashes Ginza and X, with a disembodied Nicky Jam providing vocals as Balvin admired the crowd from atop a giant googly-eyed sphere. The pre-taped track routine was a theme of the night; such is the price of being the guy everyone turns to for a feature. Whether it was the Pharrell-produced Safari or frequent partner Bad Bunny on Si Tu Novio Te Deja Sola, Balvin had a good amount of time to just hang out and wait for his verse or hook. For I Like It, he didn't even return to the stage until two-thirds of the way in, as dancers and a giant wiggling palm tree cavorted to cartoons of Cardi B and Bad Bunny's verses.

But when Balvin did have a lot to sing, he really made the most of it. His softer side — less streets, more sheets — oozed out the slow-rolling champagne-room banger Ahora Dice and bright, pan-cultural No Es Justo. The whoa-oh-ohs of Sensualidad would play in any language, and they certainly played in Tampa, a market that rarely gets arena-level Latin shows, but brought fans waving Colombian, Mexican and Brazilian flags on Saturday.

J Balvin performed at the Yuengling Center in Tampa on Oct. 27, 2018. (Luis Santana | Times)
J Balvin performed at the Yuengling Center in Tampa on Oct. 27, 2018. (Luis Santana | Times)

The dinosaur imagery toned down across the night, as Balvin switched to a smaller B stage in the middle of the arena for a handful of songs, including Downtown, a duet with Brazilian singer Anitta, who sang while delivering a seductive lapdance. But it perked back toward the end, when a huge kraken tentacle rose up to wiggle around during Safari and Ay Vamos. And it was fully back by the time Balvin re-emerged in a giant dino egg, surrounded by skeleton-costumed dancers, for the spark-filled finale Mi Gente, a hit that had the stadium seats shaking.

Balvin's taste for cool stage toys is another thing he has in common with Drake. But Drake is the thirstiest dude you've ever seen in concert, leeching hard to the crowd until even the cheap seats fall for his wily Canadian charms. Balvin, on the other hand, comes off as more happy-go-lucky, with little intense choreography (no one's counting the extremely mild flossing on No Es Justo) and more simple shaking, swerving, kicking and grinning.

And there was quite a bit of grinning. Because it's a good time to be J Balvin, and when you're J Balvin, you don't need to dance like a fool for approval. You've got a giant inflatable T. rex. That's really the ultimate flex.

J Balvin performed at the Yuengling Center in Tampa on Oct. 27, 2018. (Luis Santana | Times)

— Jay Cridlin