Nio García

Nio García may be part of the new school of urbano artists who move effortlessly between R&B, trap and reggaetón—but in reality he’s an old-fashioned triple threat (singer, dancer, actor) and his story is one of continual self-reinvention. Born Luis Antonio Quiñones García in 1989 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, García was an obsessive dancer growing up, and he turned professional at the young age of 15. Within a few years he was the world-class dancer and choreographer known as Che Robótico, touring with other artists. Then he tried his hand at acting in 2013 (while he was still at university) and took a starring role in Reggaetón: The Movie, in which he played a barber with musical aspirations. With that under his belt, he decided to get behind a microphone to see what would happen, and—as is often the case for García—the results were promising. He discovered his keening, romantic tenor, a quality that is in high demand in contemporary reggaetón. A few demos made their way to DJ Nelson of the influential label Flow Music, and the rest is history: early singles like 2015’s “Infinitamente” performed well, and in 2016 a remix of his single “Borracho y Loco” with Bryant Myers and Randy landed him on the charts for the first time. He continued releasing singles in 2017, but his real commercial success came with the 2018 monster hit “Te Boté”. In 2019, he unleashed a flood of dance-floor-filling singles, and a year later he issued his debut LP, an assured collaborative effort with Casper Mágico titled Now Or Never.