J Balvin and Christian Nodal’s Unexpected Feud Was Not on Our 2022 Bingo Card

In a turn of events no one expected, artists Christian Nodal and J Balvin are in a serious feud — and it’s getting pretty ugly. If you’ve heard about the beef and are still scratching your head, we’ve got you covered. Here’s everything to know about Nodal and Balvin’s Instagram “tiradera,” which ranges from accusations of copying, low blows and even an upcoming diss track. 

So how did the beef start? Balvin took to Instagram to post a photo of Nodal, who can be seen with tattoos on his face and hands, nail polish and bleached hair with colorful designs on the side. The “Mi Gente” star added a photo of himself in the next slide, and captioned it with, “Encuentra las diferencias 😂😂 @nodal.” 

Immediately, fans and stars alike reacted to the image, with Balvin’s partner Valentina Ferrer commenting, “I’ll stick with the second” (aka Balvin). Still, others immediately defended Nodal, with one user replying, “That one actually sings and composes and the other is pure autotune,” and another writing, “That the first one sings.”

No one truly understands why Balvin decided to poke fun at Nodal without any prior beef between them — not even the “Ya No Somos Ni Seremos” singer himself. Quickly, Nodal took to his own Instagram stories to take on Balvin and began to fire shots in ways no one saw coming. 

Nodal shared the Colombian star’s post on his stories and wrote, “That I actually have talent, carnal, and I can proudly sing my compositions wherever, whenever, however with pride.” He continued, “That you chose your own photo and the press uploaded mine.”

At that point, things got uglier, with Nodal sharing a video of himself jamming out to Residente’s diss track famously directed at Balvin, titled, “Residente: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 49.” After singing along to the track that famously called Balvin “the copy of a clone, the Logan Paul of reggaetón,” Nodal posted a story captioned with, “Sorry I woke up in a funny mood, too.” 

Balvin then posted a cryptic video directed at Nodal, captioning it with, “Note: about the last photo, no bad intentions,” following it up with “la foto se Be linda.” While the caption looked fine to the naked eye, the “La Canción” singer was actually poking fun at Nodal’s former relationship with ex Belinda, using wordplay to diss the Mexican star. 

After that, Nodal took to Instagram stories again to talk about several aspects of Balvin’s diss that bothered him — and he did not hold back with the insults. Nodal said, “This compa didn’t wake up in a funny mood, he woke up without taking his pills because he is not coherent.” Yeah, low blow. He continued, “He has a documentary talking about peace, mental health, vibes, and energies, but in his Instagram account with millions of followers, he posted a photo so they can make fun of me.”

The 23-year-old singer went on, “Everyone knows I’m rising up from really difficult s— that I lived… and he has no right to do those things. You have to use social media in the right way.” Nodal then announced he will drop a new song by today aimed at Balvin, “Algo bien chingón… para este compa.” 

Nodal also referred to Balvin as someone “who hasn’t learned.” He said, “Residente kicked you in the ass but you didn’t learn, I think you liked it… but I use cowboy boots that hurt a lot more.” He also said he hopes Balvin actually responds to him, referring to the fact that he never recorded a song in response to Residente’s now-infamous diss track. 

Lastly, he said Balvin is an example of “everything that’s wrong with the music industry,” and said if the “No Me Conoce” star really wanted to make people laugh, he should sing in a live video on Instagram. Ouch!

Now, Residente has weighed in. The Boricua rapper posted a video of his Residente logo baseball caps on his Instagram stories, set to the tune of Nodal’s song “Nada Nuevo.” You can hear the lyrics, “I have my mom’s recipe, put lemon and salt on it, that nothing bad is going to happen.” The “Muerte en Hawaii” rapper then tagged Nodal in the story.

Meanwhile, “Felices Los 4” singer Maluma reportedly refused to take sides, with some fans reposting his now-deleted Instagram story on Twitter. According to fans, he posted photos of both Balvin and Nodal, simply writing the word “peace” in between them.

While we’re still waiting on the release of Nodal’s diss track aimed at Balvin, fans continue to react to the feud. The Mexican singer posted a photo on Instagram, and one user quickly commented: “Esto lo hago, pa’ divertirme, pa’ divertirme,” referencing Residente’s track. Another wrote, “Nodal, relax about J Balvin, I don’t think he did it in a mean way.”

Over on Twitter, fans continue to talk about the feud. One user can’t get enough of the beef, posting a meme captioned, “Órale, J Balvin & Christian Nodal are going at it on IG right now” with several others echoing the sentiment (yes, that’s definitely us, too).

One Twitter user weighed in, “the whole Balvin and Nodal situation just proved that Balvin doesn’t know or care about mental health like he advertises,” while another posted, “Cristian Nodal and J Balvin beefing when in reality all i see is dos pendejos idénticos.” 

Now, we’re just waiting on Nodal’s diss track!