Music
Rauw Alejandro: From football hopeful to global music star
From football fields in Puerto Rico to sold-out arenas around the world, Rauw Alejandro has built a career around music and movement. His next chapter is an exclusive music extravaganza in New York.
Rauw Alejandro is a singer, songwriter, dancer and performer of reggaeton, R'n'B and pop. Before he was known as one of Latin music’s most dynamic performers, he was an athlete chasing a professional football career, but at the age of 20, in 2013, an injury forced him to reconsider that path. He chose to redirect his ambition and creativity toward music.
Fans can see Rauw live at the Red Bull Chapters inaugural show in New York on September 5 and 6 – a musical experience that traces his past, present and future in three distinct acts.
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Rauw Alejandro’s early life and Puerto Rican roots
Rauw Alejandro spent much of his youth pursuing a career in football
© Matthew Stith / Red Bull Content Pool
Raúl Alejandro Ocasio Ruiz was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was raised on the island, growing up primarily in Canóvanas and Carolina.
Music was part of his family life from the beginning. His father, guitarist Raúl Ocasio, and mother, backing vocalist María Nelly Ruiz, helped introduce him to music from an early age. Artists such as Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson were early influences. At the same time, Rauw developed a passion for dance and performance, taking part in school talent shows and learning how to command a stage decades before performing for thousands of people.
His upbringing extended beyond the island, as he also spent time living in Miami and New York. This is where he encountered – and fell in love with – other genres including R'n'B and dancehall.
Rauw spent much of his childhood and adolescence playing football, eventually earning a scholarship to the University of Puerto Rico before travelling to Orlando, Florida, in pursuit of a professional career. An injury forced him to reconsider that path, shifting music, a lifelong passion, to the centre of his life.
Rauw Alejandro personal FAQs
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Rauw Alejandro’s rise in music
Rauw Alejandro began building his audience through SoundCloud releases
© Courtesy of Rauw Alejandro
Rauw’s transition from aspiring football player to recording artist was anything but linear. What began as a new creative outlet quickly became a career, as he found his footing within Puerto Rico’s emerging urbano scene and began developing his sound and style that would eventually take him far beyond the island.
In 2014, Rauw began uploading songs to SoundCloud, experimenting with his sound and steadily building an audience. He approached music with the same discipline he had brought to the field, releasing consistently, collaborating with emerging artists and slowly but surely carving out a place within Puerto Rico’s new wave in the urbano scene.
In 2016, he released his debut mixtape, Punto de Equilibrio, which featured collaborations with artists including Álvaro Díaz, Joyce Santana and Rafa Pabön. The project helped to establish his sound and gave listeners an early glimpse of the versatility that would become a central and defining characteristic of his career.
By the end of the 2010s, Rauw was no longer simply an artist to watch; he was becoming part of the next generation reshaping Latin music.
How did Rauw Alejandro become famous?
Hit songs and collaborations helped fuel Rauw Alejandro's global rise
© Courtesy of Rauw Alejandro
Rauw’s breakthrough came through a combination of songs, collaborations and a growing reputation as a performer. His 2017 single Toda, with Alex Rose, became his first entry on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart, while a subsequent remix featuring Cazzu, Lenny Tavárez and Lyanno expanded the song’s reach considerably.
His profile continued to grow, and by 2020 he had released his debut studio album, Afrodisíaco. The project introduced a wider audience to his ability to move between sensual R'n'B, reggaeton and pop without settling into a single lane.
Then came Vice Versa in 2021, which pushed further into romantic and pop territory. It debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Latin Albums chart, while its breakout single, Todo de Ti, became one of the defining songs of Rauw’s rise.
Rauw Alejandro continues to push Latin music into new territory
© Courtesy of Rauw Alejandro
His 2022 album Saturno explored futuristic reggaeton and dance themes, while 2024's Cosa Nuestra leaned toward a more cinematic world informed by New York and Caribbean history.
Most recently, Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0, released in 2025, explored Puerto Rican and broader Caribbean traditions, incorporating a range of genres and sounds including bomba, plena, salsa and bachata into a contemporary framework.
Rauw's creativity and hard work translated into major industry recognition, garnering five Grammy and 16 Latin Grammy nominations – and two Latin wins in 2021 and 2022.
Collaborations that put Rauw Alejandro on the musical map
Collaborations that pushed Rauw into the global spotlight included teaming up with Anuel AA on Reloj, and J Balvin for De Cora <3, both in 2020. Then, in 2022, he and Shakira delivered the energetic and rhythmic Te Felicito, which seamlessly paired their distinct styles and kinetic performance instincts.
He reunited with Shakira in 2024 for Cohete and has worked with a slew of other artists including Selena Gomez, Daddy Yankee, Wisin, Yandel, Juanes, Romeo Santos and Bad Bunny. His chemistry with other artists has become part of his appeal: Rauw can step into someone else’s sonic world without losing the identity that makes him recognisable and special in the first place.
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Rauw Alejandro’s evolution as a performer
Performance and movement are central to Rauw Alejandro's artistry
© Courtesy of Rauw Alejandro
Dance, and more broadly the art of performance, has always been a core part of who Rauw is as an artist. His background has given his live shows a physicality that distinguishes them from a conventional concert. Movement and choreography aren't simply elements layered into his performances, it’s one of the ways he communicates.
That instinct has grown more ambitious with each era. His shows combine choreography, staging, visual effects and carefully constructed worlds that create a theatrical visual universe around the music's narrative.
Rauw Alejandro's musical milestones
- 2014: Begins uploading to SoundCloud
- 2016: Releases Punto de Equilibrio
- 2020: Releases Afrodisíaco
- 2021: Releases Vice Versa
- 2022: Releases Saturno
- 2024: Releases Cosa Nuestra
- 2025: Releases Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0
Rauw Alejandro pursued professional soccer before turning to music
© Matthew Stith / Red Bull Content Pool
Long before music, I was an athlete, and that discipline, curiosity and drive to constantly push beyond my limits have shaped every chapter of my career
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How Puerto Rico influenced Rauw Alejandro’s music
Puerto Rico is much more than simply part of Rauw's biography – it’s part of the vocabulary of his music. The island’s influence can be heard in the reggaeton foundation of his catalogue, but it goes deeper than genre. Rauw’s more recent work has increasingly explored the broader musical history of Puerto Rico and the Caribbean.
Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0 is perhaps the clearest example. The 2025 album was conceived around his origins and ancestors, drawing from traditions that have shaped Puerto Rican and Caribbean music while translating them into a contemporary sound. It incorporates bomba, plena, salsa and bachata alongside the urbano and electronic influences that have defined earlier chapters of his career.
"It's my way of showing that the Caribbean is not the past, but a living present that continues to ignite the world,” he wrote on his Instagram page after its release.
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Bringing it all together in New York
Red Bull Chapters featuring Rauw Alejandro
© Red Bull
Rauw's ideas of evolution are at the centre of his immersive New York show. There’s the athlete who learned discipline on the football field. The teenager who discovered performance through dance. The young artist who uploaded songs to SoundCloud and built an audience one track at a time. The breakout star of Vice Versa. The futurist of Saturno. The artist who looks back with respect and vision through Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0.
And then there's the performer who’s still looking ahead.