Juan Basso (JB The Voice)

Juan Basso (1991 to 2026), known to his audience as JB The Voice (also styled J.B The Voice and JB the voice), was a Chilean urban singer and songwriter whose music and internet persona made him a familiar figure in Chile's online reggaeton and urban scene. He died in the early hours of 3 November 2026 in Santiago, Chile, at the Hospital San Juan de Dios, aged 35, after more than two months in hospital.

Before music became his main occupation, Basso worked in Santiago nightlife as an events promoter for nightclubs and as a public relations man, according to a profile in La Cuarta summarised by RadioActiva. Over time he chose to focus on his artistic side and began building a career as a singer. His musical career started during the previous decade, when he collaborated with performers from the early years of the urban genre in Chile, among them Shelo A Lo Loko.

He lived with serious illness for most of his life. RadioActiva, citing La Cuarta, reported that he had terminal chronic kidney failure and that, by his own account, doctors had once predicted he would only live to the age of 15. He outlived that forecast by two decades and kept recording and releasing music.

As JB The Voice he released a long run of independent singles, lyric videos and video clips on his official YouTube channel and on streaming platforms. Chilean media singled out "Chanel", "Fui tu amigo", "Piensas en mí" and "Duele" as the best known songs in his repertoire, and TVN also cited "Tiradera, Vol. 1", "Media Pera", "Mil Horas" and "En La Esquina". Several of his YouTube releases passed 400,000 views, and RadioActiva reported that his most popular track, "Aún Recuerdo", passed one million. At the time of his death he had around 6,600 monthly listeners on Spotify and more than 76,000 followers on Instagram, where he posted as @jbthevoice_tir. His channel also carried collaborations and remixes such as "Chanel Remix" and "Duele" with Bascania and Nicko Altain, "Guerrero" with ADN, "Bajo la luna" with Kemuel and "Ya era" with Mati Dru.

Much of his wider fame came from outside music. He became a prominent member of the so called "Torneo de Cell", a Chilean internet phenomenon built around viral social media personalities, their public feuds and the memes they generated, alongside figures such as René Puente and Papi Micky. RadioActiva noted that he was involved in many online controversies along the way, and he answered some rivals in song with "tiradera" (diss) tracks. El Ilustrado described him at his death as "un histórico del Torneo de Cell".

In mid August 2026 his health collapsed. He was hospitalised at the Hospital San Juan de Dios in Santiago in August 2026 (several outlets give 19 August as the admission date) after a hernia and cyst operation led to acute peritonitis and septicemia, and he went on to undergo multiple further operations. He used Instagram to keep followers informed. In one August message he wrote that he had come out of his second operation with one more to go, that he had many catheters and could not speak, and that "Estuve a punto de morir, aunque aún nadie sabe si vivo". In the same message he said his mother, sisters and nieces were suffering because of invented stories circulating on social media, and asked people to pray for him and his family. On 28 August he reported a fifth operation and a third leak in his intestine.

His last widely reported post came on 25 October 2026, a video from his hospital bed in which he tried to get up from a stretcher, captioned "Luchar por la vida no es fácil" ("Fighting for life is not easy"). He died just over a week later.

News of his death was first shared by the content creator and reality producer Diego González, who posted a photograph with him and wrote that he had been "un guerrero". Tributes followed from his manager and friend Iván Martínez, from the urban scene personality Bayron Fire, who asked God to give strength to "tu mamita y hermanas", from "Tío Rene" and from Héctor Hernán Pena. National outlets including TVN, Meganoticias, 24 Horas, ADN Radio, El Mostrador and La Nación covered his death, a measure of how far a self made singer and internet personality had reached.

Basso is remembered by his fans as a fighter who kept making music and joking with his audience despite lifelong kidney disease, and as one of the defining characters of a particular era of Chilean internet culture. Details of his funeral and resting place have not been made public.