Michael Brun Releases Telemundo World Cup Anthem ‘Positivo’ with J. Balvin + Announces Bayo Live Tour

Bringing Sounds of Haiti to Orlando (Jun 08), New York (Jun 15), Washington D.C. (Jun 16), Montreal (Jun 22), and Boston (Jun 23)

Listen to ‘Positivo’ here: https://spoti.fi/2w1A7cx

Tickets on sale Friday (5/4) at 10am ET here: michaelbrun.com

Local Pre-sale begins Thursday (5/3) at 10am ET

At the Billboard Latin Music Awards last Friday (4/27), Telemundo Deportes announced that J. Balvin and Michael Brun’s collaboration ‘Positivo’ would serve as the official song for the network’s coverage of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia. Today, the track is released worldwide.

The song will be used across Telemundo, Universo and all Telemundo Deportes digital platforms.

Brun also announced today that he will tour his Bayo event series this June across the East Coast. Brun debuted Bayo with a sold-out show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in November.  Bayo means “to give” in Haitian Creole, and is based off the impromptu street parties, typically soundtracked by mobile sound-systems, and the traditional rhythms of Haitian RaRa. These parties are essential to Haitian culture, providing an infrastructure that allows music to be heard and bubble up, artists a platform to DJ and perform, and a traditional gathering point for communities to come together and dance.

Bayo will transform the venues with the sounds and sights of Brun’s homeland. Crickets, birds and street sounds will move attendees out of North America, Haitian street art and bespoke production will set a scene, before the boom of Haitian bass puts you in Port au Prince.

Bayo will also host a line-up of contemporary Haitian artists curated by Brun.  These include Haiti’s pop sensation J Perry, guitarist and soul artist Paul Beaubrun and ‘Rara Tech’ pioneer Gardy Girault.

The last twelve months have been a whirlwind for Michael Brun becoming the first non-Jazz performer to close the Haitian Jazz Festival in Port-au-Prince, remixing and collaborating with the likes of Maxwell, Fletcher, One Republic, and racking up millions of plays and curating the first national playlist on Spotify, ‘Haitian Heat’.

About Michael Brun

“Michael Brun might be the biggest thing to come out of Haiti in the 21st Century” - Esquire

“A cultural ambassador for his island home” - TIME

Michael Brun spent his childhood on the sun-drenched Caribbean island of Haiti. Born to a Haitian father and Guyanese mother who loved music, Brun’s influences stretched from the percussion-heavy Rara and Afro-groove music of his native Haiti, to Hip-hop and RnB. He played guitar and piano from a young age, and took up DJing and music production as a hobby at 16 after winning a full scholarship to attend military school in the US, then going on to study Pre-Med at Davidson College.

Today Michael has emerged as the face for a new generation of Haitians, working with international stars and home-grown musical heroes to share the richness of his island’s culture with a wider audience.

The last two years have seen Brun depart from the club sounds that defined his early career, to work with Haitian artists like J. Perry, Baky, Lakou Mizik and BélO. His singular take on traditional Haitian sounds have caught the ears of tastemakers like Diplo and Arcade Fire, seen him land consulting work for Spotify, collab with superstars like J Balvin, sell out multiple headlining US tours and notch up tens of millions of streams across tracks like Bayo, Soweto, Gaya and Spice, his collaborative track with Grammy-nominated Kah-Lo.

Under his Bayo umbrella Michael is seeking to bring the energy, sound and alluring vibe of Haitian street parties to venues around the world.  In Haitian Creole, ‘Bayo’ means ‘to give’, which refers to both generosity in Haitian culture and the sense of duty that Brun feels to showcasing the best of his country. After multiple block parties in Miami and Haiti, Brun debuted Bayo with a sold-out show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, which was followed by a sold-out US tour.  2019 will see Michael expand upon the concept, bringing the show to nine major cities in the US and Canada.

2018 also saw Brun soundtrack the World Cup, with Telemundo picking his and J Balvin’s collab ‘Positivo’ as their official world cup anthem. Brun would also join Balvin as direct support for his sold-out ‘Vibras’ tour, taking the stage alongside Ghanian pop star Mr. Eazi

Brun’s non-profit work has seen him produce and host the Wherever I Go festival in Haiti, join the board of Paul Haggis’ Artists for Peace and Justice, and serve as the face of the Emmy winning Beatmaking Lab Program.