Nicky Jam

Nick Rivera Caminero (born March 17, 1981), known professionally as Nicky Jam, is an American singer. He is best known for hits such as "X", "Travesuras", "El Perdón", "Hasta el Amanecer", and "El Amante"; the latter three are from his 2017 album Fénix. He has frequently collaborated with other Latin artists such as Daddy Yankee, J Balvin, Ozuna, Plan B and Anuel AA. While his early music exemplified traditional fast-paced reggaeton, his newer compositions place more emphasis on sung vocals and romantic lyrics.

Born in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to a Dominican mother and a Puerto Rican father, he moved with his family to Puerto Rico when he was ten years old. He began recording music at age fourteen with his first EP ...Distinto a los demás (1995), and eventually caught the attention of Daddy Yankee. The two formed the group Los Cangris, which was active from the late 1990s to 2004. The pair split acrimoniously, and Nicky Jam's career quickly took a sharp decline, followed by a period of legal struggles and substance abuse.

He then moved to Medellín, Colombia, where he rejuvenated his career and developed a more melodic style of music, which proved to be popular through the release of the singles "Voy a Beber" and "Travesuras" in 2014. His success was furthered by the 2015 single "El Perdón" and his 2017 album Fénix. He released the album Íntimo in 2019, which was a critical and commercial success. Nicky Jam has also acted in the films XXX: Return of Xander Cage (2017) and Bad Boys for Life (2020), and starred in and executive produced the Netflix biographical series Nicky Jam: El Ganador (2018).

Life and career 1981–1996: Early life and career beginnings Nick Rivera Caminero was born on March 17, 1981, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, to a Dominican mother and Puerto Rican father. Having been born on Saint Patrick's Day, he enjoyed attending parades for the holiday as a little boy. When Nicky Jam was ten years old, his family moved to the Río Hondo suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico, in an attempt to reconnect with the family's Puerto Rican roots. However, in an interview with Billboard, Nicky Jam explained that his father had become embroiled in a drug-related case and escaped bail, necessitating the move to Puerto Rico.

Nicky Jam initially experienced culture shock upon moving to Puerto Rico, having never spoken Spanish before arriving to the island. Despite the difficult start, he quickly made friends in his neighborhood and after spending time in the streets as a middle schooler, became inspired to pursue a musical career. He endured a difficult breakup with his girlfriend shortly after the album's release and the emotional pain of the experience led him to try cocaine for the first time at age fifteen. After the breakup of Los Cangris, Nicky Jam struggled personally and professionally, calling himself the "embarrassment of the Latin Caribbean music industry". Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias contacted Nicky Jam to collaborate on the 2015 song "El Perdón", which later won Nicky Jam his first Latin Grammy for Best Urban Performance.

His increased popularity during this time led Nicky Jam to reunite in 2015 with his mother who had been deported to the Dominican Republic; he had not seen her for more than twenty years. He recalled, "Most of my life, I was trying to be famous, do music to see if my mom could listen to me and see me...when [the reunion] happened, it was like a movie moment. My bodyguard was like, 'There's this woman outside. She's fighting with everybody saying she's your mom and she wants to see you'...and automatically, I knew it was her because I remembered her voice." The following year, he recorded a remix of the 1992 song "De Pies a Cabeza" with Mexican rock band Maná, a collaboration Nicky Jam described as a "blessing". In 2016, his song "Hasta el Amanecer" became his first song to reach one billion views on YouTube. The song won the Billboard Music Award for Top Latin Song at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards. It also won the Urban Song of the Year and was nominated for Single of the Year at the 29th Lo Nuestro Awards.

2017: Fénix The mural of Nicky Jam in Medellín, Colombia that later became the cover of his 2017 album Fénix (mural photographed in April 2018). On January 20, 2017, he released the album Fénix. The album cover consists of a mural painted in Medellín of Nicky Jam with the Spanish word for "Phoenix" (stylized ). This mural was painted by fans without Nicky Jam's knowledge, and upon discovering the existence of the mural, Nicky Jam was so moved that he proclaimed on Instagram that he would make the mural the cover of his next album. The record was nominated for a Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year at the 18th Annual Latin Grammy Awards, losing to Salsa Big Band by Rubén Blades with Roberto Delgado & Orquesta.

Fénix featured collaborations from Sean Paul, El Alfa, J Balvin, and Kid Ink and included Nicky Jam's first English-language songs "Without You" and "I Can't Forget You". With the album, he hoped to maintain an organic reggaeton sound, feeling that genre had evolved into an overly "futuristic" sound in Puerto Rico. "El Amante" also reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100. The video debuted at the number one spot on YouTube's global music chart and amassed more than 200 million views in two weeks. Nicky Jam performed the song with J Balvin on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon while Jimmy Fallon danced onstage with the two singers. Reacting to the success of the song, Nicky Jam divulged, "I knew our music was going to be big, but I didn't think it was going to be the way it is now." Nicky Jam starred in the Netflix biographical series Nicky Jam: El Ganador, which explored the artist's struggles with drug addiction and his rise to fame and premiered in November 2018.

In October 2019, Nicky Jam previewed the release of his documentary, Behind Nicky Jam's Íntimo, which was produced through Apple Music. He released the album Íntimo on November 1, 2019. It contained the singles "X", "Atrévete" featuring Sech, and "Whine Up" featuring Anuel AA. Billboard called the album "17 songs of pure reggaeton magic". He collaborated with Daddy Yankee on the song "Muévelo" which samples Jamaican dancehall artist Ini Kamoze's 1994 hit, "Here Comes the Hotstepper". Nicky Jam appeared on Bad Bunny's surprise album Las que no iban a salir, released in May 2020.

In August 2021, Jam announced that his first official post-pandemic tour will kick off in early 2022. The 'Infinity' Tour will visit major cities across the U.S. and Canada, starting Feb. 3, 2022, at Boston's Agganis Arena.

Musical style and influences Listen filename=Nicky_Jam_-_Travesuras.ogg title="Travesuras" (2014) description=One of the first hits upon revitalizing his career in Medellín, the song demonstrates the melodic style the singer adopted upon his relocation as well as his reggaeton influences. format=Ogg filename2=Nicky_Jam_X_Sample.ogg title2 = "X" (2018) description2=Nicky Jam's collaboration with J Balvin features a synth trumpet hook and elements of reggae, reggaeton, Latin pop and Afrobeats. and reggaeton. Veronica Villafañe of Forbes wrote that Nicky Jam is considered "one of the architects of the Latino urban music movement". His music has been noted for both eliciting a party atmosphere and embracing overt sentimentality. His lyrics have also been described by Billboard as "catchy and flirtatious".

His earliest musical influence was Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video; he recalls that "I knew automatically when I saw Michael Jackson do 'Thriller' as a little kid that I wanted people to fall in love with my music." Jay-Z's The Blueprint (2001) "gave [him] an idea of how to do [his] albums in the Spanish market and give [his] fans that kind of vibe". J Balvin and Vin Diesel attended the wedding, which featured performances by reggaeton group Gente de Zona and salsa singer Jerry Rivera. That same month, he purchased a house in the Palm Island area of Miami Beach for US$3.4 million. On Valentine's Day 2020, Nicky Jam became engaged to model Cydney Moreau. The couple met on the set of his music video for "Atrévete", an encounter which the singer described as "love at first sight".

He endorsed Trump for president at a rally in Las Vegas on September 13, 2024, wearing a Make America Great Again hat onstage and stating, "We need you. We need you back, right? We need you to be the president." During his introduction, Trump, who was apparently unfamiliar with the singer, referred to Nicky Jam as "she" and called him "hot", which caused a social media stir. In response, Mexican rock group Maná removed the song "De Pies a Cabeza," which they had recorded with Nicky Jam in 2016, from all digital platforms, stating that "Maná doesn't work with racists."

Nicky Jam went on to delete his Instagram post endorsing Trump. He withdrew his endorsement on October 30 following racist roast jokes told by Tony Hinchcliffe about Puerto Rico at a Trump rally earlier in the week, saying he was "stepping away from any political conversation" and that "Puerto Rico should be respected."

Discography

Studio albums Vida escante (2004) The Black Carpet (2007) Fénix (2017) Íntimo (2019) Infinity (2021) Insomnio (2024) Sunshine (2025) Bohemio (2026)

Filmography Year Title Role Notes 2017 XXX: Return of Xander Cage Lazarus Film 2017 The Keys of Christmas Himself Film 2018 Nicky Jam: El Ganador Himself Biographical television series 2020 Bad Boys for Life Lorenzo "Zway-Lo" Rodriguez Film 2021 Tom & Jerry Butch Cat (voice) Film

Awards and nominations