Ozuna

Juan Carlos Ozuna Rosado (born March 13, 1992), known simply by his surname Ozuna, is a Puerto Rican singer, born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico to a Dominican father and a Puerto Rican mother.

Hoping to escape the violence and poverty of his neighborhood, he moved to the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City in 2010.

While there, the artist learned how to produce and promote his own music videos, and made his first video with a budget of under US$100.

However, he viewed Washington Heights to be equally violent and impoverished as his hometown, and returned to Puerto Rico with his wife and two children after three years in New York.

He made his musical debut in 2012 with the song "Imaginando", which attracted the attention of recording labels and led to collaborations with Daddy Yankee and Anuel AA.

Ozuna debuted as a singer in 2012 with the song "Imaginando".

He previously went by the name J Oz. He worked with Musicólogo & Menes before gaining popularity.

In 2014, he signed a recording contract with Golden Family Records and began to publish his songs on YouTube.

The following year, he focused on gaining a following by performing more than 300 shows in Puerto Rico.

That same year, he started his ongoing popular streak with his breakthrough hit "Si Tu Marido No Te Quiere", originally featuring D.OZi when released to streaming platforms and websites, though he was taken down when the song hit radio.

The song achieved success on radio and was eventually well known across Latin America.

He has since performed in many shows across South America.

Manager Vicente Saavedra heard Ozuna's music playing at a basketball game in Puerto Rico, inspiring Saavedra to pursue and eventually sign the artist.

Saavedra strategically focused on radio hits to build a following for Ozuna.

He released several singles before signing with Sony Music Latin in 2017, who funded the recording of his debut album Odisea.

Five of his studio albums have topped the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart, with Aura (2018) charting at number seven on the Billboard 200.

His musical style is primarily defined as reggaeton and Latin trap, although he has collaborated with several artists from different genres and his music takes influences from a wide variety of genres, including pop, rock, hip hop, R&B, reggae, bachata, dembow, and electronic, amongst others.

Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he decided to become a singer at age 12, drawing influence from the Latin American genres of reggaeton, salsa, and bachata.

His second studio album Aura, released on August 24, 2018, debuted at number seven on the US Billboard 200.

His 2018 collaboration with DJ Snake, Cardi B, and Selena Gomez on "Taki Taki" was certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA.

He released his third studio album, Nibiru on November 29, 2019.

On 1 February 2019 Ozuna had the most one billion-view videos on YouTube of any artist and he has won two Latin Grammy Awards, five Billboard Music Awards, twelve Billboard Latin Music Awards, four Guinness World Records, among other accolades.

In 2019, Time included him on their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.

He made his acting debut in the film Que León.

He appeared in F9, the ninth film in the Fast & Furious franchise.

In 2022, he played the song "Arhbo" for the 2022 FIFA World Cup along with GIMS, which they also performed during the closing ceremony.

Ozuna was born in San Juan to a Dominican father and a Puerto Rican mother.

He grew up listening to traditional Latin genres such as salsa and bachata, which have influenced his musical style.

He additionally enjoyed reggaeton artists Daddy Yankee, Don Omar, and Wisin y Yandel, which he refers to as "the real, real reggaeton", as well as fellow American hip hop and R&B artists Jay-Z and Usher.

As stated in the eponymous opening track from his album Odisea, he grew up poor and was mainly raised by his paternal grandmother.

His father, who worked as a dancer for reggaeton performer Vico C for three years, was fatally shot when Ozuna was three years old, and his mother was not financially stable enough to raise him.

Ozuna was raised in his grandmother's three-bedroom apartment built above a bodega in San Juan.

His grandmother instilled a strong Christian faith in him.

He explained that her philosophy centered around the ideal "that nothing is given to us, that you have to work for what you get...a pair of sneakers—we bought those with sacrifice. She would say the same of a pencil, an eraser, simple things. We had to sweat in order to get it."

Drawing influence from the Latin music he grew up on, he decided to pursue a singing career at age twelve.

That same year, his uncle, who served as a father-figure since his father's death, gifted him his first microphone.

His uncle often played music by Daddy Yankee, Don Omar and De La Ghetto, and the teenager would rap along with the songs on the microphone.

To further his career, Ozuna took a job at a local bar called El Corozal, where his earliest musical performances took place.

His fourth studio album, ENOC, was released in September 2020.

Since the beginning of his career, he has sold around 15 million records, making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all time.