Hear
Salomón Villada Hoyos, better known as Feid, born in Medellín, Colombiaon August 19, 1992. Already as a child he discovered his passion for music, when as a seventh grade student at Colegio San José de La Salle he triumphed in a talent contest by singing the song “Rompe”, by Daddy Yankee.
That presentation and many others that preceded it, gave him the opportunity to meet Alejandro Ramirez SuarezLatin Grammy-winning producer Sky Rompiendo, who became his initial contact with the number one of Latin music.
At that time, Feid began composing songs for other artists and, in this way, he began a journey down a path that would make him the fashionable composer with whom artists like Thalía, Ximena Sariñana and CNCO wanted to work.
His first entry on the Billboard charts was with “How strange” with J Balvinwhich debuted at No. 26 on the Latin Digital Song Sales on October 29, 2016. “There are people who tell me that they follow me or discovered me with ‘How strange’“, he said in an interview he gave in September 2023 to Billboard.
From there, everything was dizzying: Feid collaborated with Maluma and Nacho; released his debut album, Así Como Suena, in 2017 and received a Latin Grammy nomination in 2019. Around that time, he also joined The Avengers, a collective of urban artists composed of Dalex, Dímelo Flow, Justin Quiles, Lenny Tavárez and Sech, which generated hits like “Cuaderno” and “Perhaps”.
In this way, little by little, he stopped composing for others and made his own way. “His music, which combines innovative urban rhythms with the essence of reggaetón from the early 2000s and lyrics about love. She always had a very strong identity, His biggest obstacle was learning to trust his intuition. instead of worrying about the opinions of others,” they described it in Billboard. And it took her a while, but the revelation came.
“I needed to look for myself as an artist”he said and assured: “I decided to put an arepa with cheese in my hand and say that I was paisa. I began to be more faithful to who I am, and to my Colombian roots.. I opened a door that, at this moment, is the coolest door I have ever opened in my life, which was my identity and that of Ferxxo. “It took me a long time to realize that this was what I had to do to connect really, really with people.”
The connection deepened so much that in the last five years, the nominated for the Latin Grammy Awards has collaborated with artists such as J Balvin, Bad Bunny and his then partner Karol G, managed to sell out Madison Square Garden in New York, as part of his tour, Ferxxocalipsis World Tourwith which he has also toured several cities in the United States and Canada.
Furthermore, in that journey he knew how to turn every setback into an opportunity. In 2021, Feid suffered a severe knee injury that left him unable to work, but far from being distressed, he began to compose a new album and generated a closer bond with his fans on TikTok, which became one of his greatest tools. marketing and attracted new followers outside of Colombia.
One year after the accident, in September 2022, after giving three consecutive sold-out concerts at the Plaza de Toros La Macarena in Medellín, before more than 30,000 people, he received the news that your album Happy Birthday Ferxxostill unfinished, had been leaked as a 39-minute voice note that went viral through a link on the Internet. “My spirits went down,” she recalled in conversation with Billboard. And she added: “I felt angry, but that lasted about half an hour. Later I spoke with my mother see how we took advantage of thatand fortunately we reacted quickly.”
Feid changed the album title to Happy Birthday Ferxxo We Pirated Your Albumand two days after the leak threw it. That was their first entry in the Top 10 of Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart, and it rose from No. 25 to No. 8 in its second week, on the October 1, 2022 chart.
Thus, overcoming one by one all the challenges that stood in his way, sure of his identity and faithful to the tattoo on his neck, which says “Never forget why you started”today will take another step as main artist of the inaugural show of the Copa América. For some this comes as a surprise, but for most of his fans it is a product of his authenticity and self-confidence. “I have always had a lot of faith in myself and my career; that’s why Ferxxo is called Feid”.
THE NATION
