Rauw Alejandro

The Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, and dancer Rauw Alejandro has found his strength in vulnerability. Whereas earlier reggaetoneros had built their reps on braggadocio (with amorous conquests as the ultimate status symbol), Alejandro has flipped the script, bringing out narcotic, enraptured love songs that have topped the charts and pulled in a broad range of fans. Born Raúl Alejandro Ocasio Ruiz in San Juan, in 1993, he grew up in both the mainland US and Puerto Rico, and his first love wasn’t music—it was soccer. But an injury in his teens put his dreams of a pro career out of reach. Alejandro turned to music—his second love—as a kind of therapy, finding an outlet for his frustration as he learned to sing and write songs. While he honed his musical skills, his innate physicality drew him to clubs, where he made friends and a name for himself as an inventive and (unsurprisingly) athletic dancer. That gave him a built-in network when he dropped his 2016 debut mixtape, Punto de Equilibrio, which showcased both his deliciously lovelorn tenor and his penchant for eclectic, future-forward production. His 2019 EP Trap Cake, Vol. 1 drew trap in an ambient and emotional direction that was almost more in line with cloud rap. Such early feats of versatility set the stage for Alejandro’s dramatic ascent to mainstream stardom in the 2020s. “I don’t wanna be stuck in the same pattern,” he told Apple Music’s Zane Lowe in 2022. “Every project that I’m gonna do is gonna be totally different from the past. You’ll see my essence—you’ll see reggaetón and the Alejandro essence—but you’re always gonna find a new thing to listen to.” That thirst for reinvention yielded the triumphantly diverse SATURNO, released in late 2022 and expanded upon in early 2023. The album included “PANTIES Y BRASIERES,” a spirited collaboration with reggaetón originator Daddy Yankee. Their generational exchange felt like a crowning glory in the career of one of modern urbano’s most singular voices.