At 21, Puerto Rican musician Lunay has a Hot 100-charting song with a remix that features Reggaetón’s two biggest names: Daddy Yankee and Bad Bunny, who both hopped on the relative newcomer’s smash hit single “Soltera,” in May of 2019. Clad in fur coats and surrounded by a procession of luxury cars, the trio appeared together in the music video to go with that has racked up over 750,000,000 views and counting. Born Jefnier Osorio Moreno, better, and sometimes lovingly called “El Niño,” a nickname the baby-faced musician embraced and made the name of his latest album, Lunay has been growing steadily since that breakthrough moment.
At around 15, Lunay started making music after reconsidering his first goal of playing professional soccer. From the time he started experimenting with his sound as a teenager, he discovered an innate ear for catchy hooks. His melodic approach to reggaetón puts him in line with the legacy of a predecessor like Daddy Yankee, who brought reggaetón’s signature dem bow rhythm to radios all over the world before Lunay was in grade school, and Bad Bunny whose inventive take on the genre has made him arguably the most visible person doing it. Lunay’s sound is smoother, and more R&B influenced, a take that makes his boyish good looks and steady commitment to learning new ways to write and record a perfect foundation for taking reggaetón in new and exciting directions. The future of music is in good hands with Gen Z.
Today, Lunay shares a management team with superstar Rosalía, and after spending the first year plus of his career locked in a studio making music, his name is all over the Latin Music charts with new singles and collaborations dropping at a steady pace, like the well-known “Aventura” alongside Anuel AA and Ozuna, or the latest “No Toque Mi Naik” with Nicki Nicole. At this stage in his career, Lunay is open to experimentation and feels comfortable laying down ideas and lyrics with different collaborators and in locations all over the world. Showcasing his prowess for creating on-the-go, in September of 2021 he made a song live on stage at Billboard Latin Music Week with collaborators Chris Jeday and Gaby Music, the producers who discovered him and ultimately gave him a shot at his first record deal.
Billboard spent some time with Lunay in Miami after Latin Music Week learning more about his on-the-go creative process, his growing love for performing live on stage – “the energy is just different,” he explains, as well as his commitment to keeping balance top of mind as he chases his dreams. Watch the video above to get to know more about Lunay, the heartthrob reggaetón fans everywhere deserve.