Danny Ocean

Venezuelan singer/songwriter Danny Ocean is a bit of an outlier in the pop-reggaetón realm. In a genre that favours stars who are muscled, slick-haired and draped in gold chains, Ocean is a long, tall drink of water who conceals himself in the baggy clothes and hats of a surfer or a skater. The subterfuge doesn’t end there: Ocean also conceals the heart of a sensitive, old-school singer/songwriter inside his tropical pop songs. Born Daniel Alejandro Morales Reyes in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1992, Ocean had a peripatetic childhood, travelling between the French Antilles, Africa and Japan with his writer mother for years until the family ultimately settled in Caracas when he was 13. In the process, he became multilingual—he speaks fluent French, English and Spanish—and unusually globally focused. He began producing electronic tracks under the moniker Danny O.C.T. in 2009, but it was the painful experience of leaving his native Venezuela in 2015 that paradoxically gifted him with the seed of his success. Missing the girlfriend he’d left behind, he penned the aching, emotional “Me Rehúso”. The song became a viral sleeper hit, and it found a global audience. (The song was relaunched in 2017 with an English-language version titled “Baby I Won’t”.) In 2019 he released his debut album, the seductive 54+1, which wrapped thoughtful lyrics in irresistibly danceable beats.