Music
Rauw Alejandro: From Puerto Rico to global music star
Discover Rauw Alejandro's journey from Puerto Rico to global music stardom, his musical evolution and his next chapter in New York.
Part of this story
The way Rauw Alejandro moves through the world should be studied.
From soccer fields in Puerto Rico to sold-out arenas around the world, Rauw Alejandro has built an unpredictable, malleable career around movement, molding a singular life and sound for himself. Before he was known as one of Latin music’s most dynamic performers, he was an athlete chasing a professional soccer career. At age 20, when an injury forced him to reconsider that path, he redirected that discipline and ambition toward music.
What felt like an unfortunate setback ultimately became a turning point. And what started with songs uploaded to SoundCloud eventually became a global career defined not only by hits, but by continued, constant evolution.
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
Today, Rauw Alejandro is a singer, songwriter, dancer and performer whose music flows in and through reggaeton, R&B and pop. Since his initial uploads in 2014 to now, Alejandro’s work has grown increasingly connected to his Puerto Rican identity, from the futuristic world of Saturno to the roots-focused Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0. And now, that progression and expansion is taking another form with Red Bull Chapters’ inaugural show in a one-night-only experience in New York that will trace his past, present and future across three distinct acts. Get to know him before we officially kick off the new live concert series on Sept. 5.
Fact
Details
Full name
Raúl Alejandro Ocasio Ruiz
Born
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Raised in
Canóvanas and Carolina, Puerto Rico
Genres
Reggaeton, R&B, Pop
Career start
2014 (SoundCloud)
Former pursuit
Professional soccer
Latest Project
Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0
01
Who is Rauw Alejandro?
Puerto Rican culture remains central to Rauw Alejandro's identity
© Courtesy of Rauw Alejandro
Born Raúl Alejandro Ocasio Ruiz, Rauw Alejandro grew up in Puerto Rico surrounded by music and performance. Still, music wasn’t initially the career he imagined for himself.
Today, Rauw is recognized as one of the defining performers of contemporary Latin music, with a style that extends well beyond recording. His music is inseparable from his lauded choreography, fashion and visual world-building. That combination has made him particularly distinctive.
His evolution can be heard across his albums, too. 2020’s Afrodisíaco established his early blend of R&B and urbano sounds; 2021’s Vice Versa pushed further into romantic and pop territory; 2022’s Saturno explored futuristic reggaeton and dance influences; and 2024’s Cosa Nuestra turned toward a more cinematic world informed by New York and Caribbean history.
Most recently, Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0, released in Sept. 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.
02
Rauw Alejandro’s early life and Puerto Rican roots
Rauw Alejandro spent much of his youth pursuing a career in soccer
© Matthew Stith / Red Bull Content Pool
Rauw Alejandro 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, while artists like Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson became early influences. At the same time, Rauw developed an early passion for dance and performance, participating 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&B and dancehall.
Rauw spent much of his childhood and adolescence playing soccer, eventually earning a scholarship to the University of Puerto Rico before traveling to Orlando in pursuit of a professional career. An injury forced him to reconsider that path, shifting music, a lifelong passion, to the center of his life.
03
Rauw Alejandro’s rise in music
Rauw Alejandro began building his audience through early releases
© Courtesy of Rauw Alejandro
Rauw’s transition from aspiring soccer 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.
When did Rauw Alejandro start making music?
In 2014, Rauw Alejandro 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 get famous?
Hit songs and collaborations helped fuel Rauw Alejandro's global rise
© Courtesy of Rauw Alejandro
There was no single defining moment or song that elevated Rauw to fame, but rather a series of releases and opportunities that steadily built his success. Rauw’s breakthrough came through a combination of songs, collaborations, and a growing reputation as a performer. His early 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.
As is still the case today, Alejandro’s rise was quite collaborative by nature. 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&B, reggaeton and pop without settling into a single lane.
Then came Vice Versa in 2021. The era-defining album that’s home to favorites like “Aquel Nap ZzZz” and “Desesperados” 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.
From there, his ambitions became increasingly expansive and high standing in the industry undeniable. Saturno, released in 2022, was futuristic in more ways than one, while Cosa Nuestra and Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0 demonstrated an artist increasingly interested in looking backward as much as forward.
The momentum eventually translated into major industry recognition. Rauw has earned five GRAMMY nominations, including nods for Afrodisíaco, TRAP CAKE, VOL. 2, Saturno and Cosa Nuestra, while his work has also earned 16 Latin GRAMMY nominations and two wins. But the accolades are less a marker of arrival than a reflection of how consistently he has pushed his sound forward—from urbano and R&B to pop, electronic and the Caribbean-rooted influences of his more recent work.
The music that put Rauw Alejandro on the map
Rauw’s career can’t be reduced to a song or even three. His breakthrough happened through a succession of projects and singles that showed different sides of his musical and personal identity.
As we’ve discussed, his studio albums have really set the tone and colored the tapestry of his work. The throughline in both entire projects and singles isn’t a particular genre, but it always holds great curiosity.
While 2017’s “Toda” with Alex Rose gave him an early breakthrough, later hits like “Tattoo” and “Fantasías” with Farruko helped establish his melodic, R&B-inflected approach to urbano.
Then came the collaborations that pushed him firmly into the global spotlight. He appeared alongside Anuel AA on 2020’s “Reloj,” and teamed up with J Balvin for “De Cora <3” that same year. Then, in 2022, he and Shakira delivered the energetic and rhythmic “Te Felicito” which seamlessly paired their distinct styles and kinetic performance instincts.
Since then, his collaborations have continued to stretch across genres and generations, steadily keeping him on the charts and forefront of the Latin music space.
He reunited with Shakira for “Cohete” and has worked with a slew of other artists including Selena Gomez, Daddy Yankee, Wisin, Yandel, Juanes and Romeo Santos. 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 recognizable and special in the first place.
His work with Bad Bunny has been especially notable, from “Party” to “Qué Pasaría...” on Cosa Nuestra, bringing together two artists who have helped redefine the possibilities of contemporary Puerto Rican music.
Overall, Alejandro put himself on the map, and remained distinctly so, as a result of a catalog that’s built on a growing web of songs, artists and audiences.
04
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, turning an album’s ideas into something audiences can physically experience.
It is also why the distinction between Rauw the singer and Rauw the dancer can be difficult to make. Both are part of the same creative language.
His recent Cosa Nuestra era expanded that approach even further, building a theatrical visual universe around the music. The accompanying world drew from classic imagery and Caribbean and New York influences, demonstrating how Rauw increasingly approaches an album’s narrative with great intentionality. His latest work continues that trajectory, using music as a way to investigate identity, history and place.
05
How Puerto Rico influenced Rauw Alejandro’s music
Puerto Rico is much more than simply part of Rauw Alejandro’s biography – it’s part of the vocabulary of his music.
The island’s influence can be heard in the reggaeton foundation of his catalog, 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 in Spanish after its release.
That movement toward his roots doesn’t represent a retreat from experimentation. In many ways, it is another form of it. Rauw is taking sounds that existed long before him and asking what they can become in this day and age – and in his hands.
Year
Milestone
2014
Began uploading music on SoundCloud
2016
Released Punto de Equilibrio
2020
Released Afrodisíaco
2021
Released Vice Versa
2022
Released Saturno
2024
Released Cosa Nuestra
2025
Released Cosa Nuestra: Capítulo 0
2025
Headlines inaugural Red Bull Chapters
06
Red Bull Chapters: Rauw Alejandro in New York
Fittingly, that idea of evolution is at the center of Red Bull Chapters feat. Rauw Alejandro.
1 min
Every chapter tells a story. This one is ours.
Red Bull Chapters x Rauw Alejandro SEPT 5 - One Night Only in NYC.
On Sept. 5, Rauw Alejandro will headline the first-ever Red Bull Chapters event in New York at Forest Hills Stadium. The one-night-only experience will unfold across three acts, using custom-built stages, cultural iconography and performance evolution to tell the story behind the artist - from his inspirations and defining eras to the global legacy he is still building.
There’s the athlete who learned discipline on the soccer 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 is the performer who’s still looking ahead.
“Partnering with Red Bull feels natural because we share the same mindset,” he tells us. “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. I’ve always been drawn to movement, adrenaline, and the excitement of stepping into the unknown, whether that’s through sports, creating a new sound, or building a live show. Red Bull Chapters reflects that mentality. It’s about growth, evolution, and never standing still.”
We look forward to looking back so we can stand fully in awe of the present, and continuing to build this next chapter together.
Red Bull Chapters featuring Rauw Alejandro
© Red Bull
Part of this story