Karol G

Exciting audiences with her música urbana tracks, the singer has experimented with many other genres from reggaeton and Latin trap to Spanish hip hop and pop. Whipping up some of the most amazing Latin music collaborations of the 2010s, including a huge hit with none other than Bad Bunny, her star remains on the rise into the 2020s.

Interested in a singing career from an early age, Karol G got into the game young and has persistently grown in popularity ever since. Her first big foray into the music business was when she participated as a contestant on the Columbian version of The X Factor. Even though she didn’t win, her performance garnered her an early early contract with Flamingo Records.

After a few early releases failed to gain much traction, Karol G realized she needed to level up her understanding of the music business. To that end, she enrolled in classes at the University of Antioquia, supporting herself by doing backup vocals for other professional singers, including Reykon. Trying to parlay these experiences into another label deal, the future star was turned away by Universal Records in Miami, which was unsure about women singing reggaeton.

This led to two major decisions which changed the course of Karol G’s career. First, she toured Columbia extensively, racking up hits in her native country such as “Ricos Besos.” Such successes helped her score collaborations with bigger artists like Nicky Jam, whom she worked with in 2013. By 2016, she landed a deal with Universal Music Latino. That same year, she recorded the single “Hello” with then up-and-coming star Ozuna.

In 2017, Karol G had her biggest breakthrough. Teaming up with international Latin music superstar Bad Bunny on the song “Ahora Me Llama,” both singers garnered over a billion views on YouTube and reached #10 on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs charts. With her reputation sealed, Karol G now had the ability to forge her own path with her own album, Unstoppable, which she released in 2017.

In 2019, along with a number of singles like “Secreto,” Karol G released her next record, Ocean. Inspired by experiences she had on various beach islands, the album went platinum over ten times. That same year, she released another massive crossover song, “Tusa,” with superstar rapper Nicki Minaj. For that effort, Karol G was nominated for both Record and Song of the Year at the Latin Grammy Awards.

Never one to rest on her laurels, Karol G kept cranking out hits. Her collaboration in 2020 with the Jonas Brothers on “X” made it to #33 on the Billboard Hot 100. Then her third album, KG0516, went on to reach #1 on the US Latin charts. Landing endorsement deals with Smirnoff and already well into her next album, Karol G continues to deliver fans the musical goods.

The fact that Gomez has claimed that Christina Aguilera and Jennifer Lopez are two of her biggest influences is indicative of two of the key facts you should know about her. One, that she aims to emulate other major pop stars with Latin roots of the past decade or so; and two, that despite occasional forays into hip hop in the way that she delivers her own brand of pop, she’s by no means a conventional rapper. That’s not to say that she had an upbringing that was incompatible with typical hip hop rags-to-riches stories, though; her childhood in Los Angeles was marked with financial difficulty.

She got her break, as with so many young pop stars of the digital age, through her YouTube channel. In particular, a take on the Watch the Throne track ‘Otis’ caught the attention of revered producer Dr. Luke, who snapped her up for his Kemosabe Records label. She’s gone on to high-profile guest spots on tracks like ‘Oath’ by Cher Lloyd and ‘Problem’ by will.i.am, and released a remix of her hero Lopez’s ‘Jenny from the Block’, titled ‘Baby from the Block’. She has also toured with Katy Perry. Her debut album is entitled ‘Shower’.