Maluma is the stage name of award-winning Colombian pop singer, songwriter, and rapper Juan Luis Londoño Arias. Possessed of a sweet, grainy tenor voice and streetwise yet romantic delivery, the pop urbano was able to cross over from a reggaeton audience to the mainstream thanks to infectious early singles such as "Obsesión" and "Miss Independent" (whose videos also went viral). His 2012 debut Magia endeared him to radio listeners across Latin America, while 2015's Pretty Boy, Dirty Boy broke through in the U.S., landing on the upper rungs of the Latin Pop, Urban, and Tropical charts. Since that time, Maluma has been charging toward world domination with a steady stream of videos, charting singles, and hit albums like 2019's 11:11 and 2020's Papi Juancho. He was also the subject of the documentary Maluma: Lo Que Era, Lo Que Soy, Lo Que Seré. His success continued in the next decade with the chart-topping 2021 single "Sobrio," his starring role in the 2022 Jennifer Lopez rom com Marry Me, and the release of The Love & Sex Tape. 2023 brought additional hits like "La Fórmula" (with Marc Anthony) and "Coco Loco," before the August release of his sixth long-player Don Juan.

Maluma's name is a tribute to his family. Before he began singing professionally, his now-famous stage name was a tattoo on his left leg. He made the word up from the initial syllable of his family's names -- his mother Marlli, his father Luis, and his sister Manuela. He adopted the name a few years later when he started singing and gained fame as a teenager. He originally pursued football as a vocation for eight years and was gifted enough to attract the attention of the media in his native Medellín. He initially sang for pleasure at hundreds of birthday parties, weddings, and celebrations. Given the rise of social media, and YouTube in particular, his already intense focus on music turned exclusive.

In 2011, at the age of 16, Maluma cut his first independent single, "Farandulera." Due to its internet popularity and emergent radio airplay in Colombia, the song gained the attention of Sony Music, which signed him. The following year, Maluma released Magia, his debut album. Several of its singles -- "Obsesión," "Loco," and "Miss Independent" -- received consistent airplay and hit the charts in Colombia and Latin America. His next single, "La Temperatura," entered the North American charts and earned him a Latin Grammy nomination in 2013. The following year, he was the featured vocalist on Elvis Crespo's hit "Ole Brazil," recorded for the World Cup.

Maluma returned in early 2015 with PB DB. The Mixtape, a compilation of hits with two new singles, "Me Gustas Tanto" and "Climax." The new tracks charted and set the stage for a brand-new album, Pretty Boy, Dirty Boy, which appeared in the fall. The recording was produced by Walter Kolm. In 2016, Maluma released a collaborative track with fellow Colombian star Shakira, "Chantaje," and the video became massively popular, racking up over one billion views online within five months. The track "Cuatro Babys," which reflected him as a swaggering Lothario with a rotating cast of women in and out of his bedroom, sparked a backlash when offended listeners called out the song's objectification of women. Some circulated a petition to have it removed from digital platforms. (It wasn't, but Maluma apologized.)

In 2017, Maluma was named "Artist of the Year" at the Premios Lo Nuestro, a Latin music awards show presented by Spanish-language television network Univision. That same year, he began work on his next album, writing songs in English as well as Spanish. In November 2017, he delivered an initial pre-release single, "Corazón," featuring Brazilian singer Nego do Borel, that peaked at number five at Hot Latin Songs. In May, he released the full-length F.A.M.E., produced mainly by the artist's Medellín camp, including Édgar "Edge" Barrera and "Rude Boyz" Kevin ADG & Chan el Genio, with further duet contributions by Timbaland ("Mi Declaración"), Prince Royce ("Hangover"), and Jason Derulo on the bilingual "La Ex." The album reached the top spot on the Latin Albums chart and number 37 on the Hot 200.

Early 2019 saw Maluma issue a remix of the single "Mala Mía," which featured contributions from Anitta and Becky G. A few months later, he collaborated with Madonna on the song "Medellín" from her album Madame X. The pair's hi-tech performance of the song at the Billboard Music Awards brought the house down with its use of holograms. That May, Maluma released his fourth studio album, 11:11, supported by the singles "HP" and "11 P.M." His collaborators on the record included Ozuna, Madonna, Daddy Yankee, and Ricky Martin. It entered the Top Latin Albums chart at number one in June while F.A.M.E. was still in the Top 20. Also in 2019, YouTube Originals premiered its documentary on the singer, Lo Que Era, Lo Que Soy, Lo Que Seré, directed by Dominican filmmaker Jessy Terrero.

In early 2020, Maluma scored another hit with the single "ADMV," which paved the way for his fifth album, Papi Juancho. Released in August of that year, it featured appearances by Yandel, Yomo, Lenny Tavárez, Justin Quiles, and others, peaking at number two on Billboard's Top Latin Albums chart and reaching number 34 on the Billboard 200. 2021 began with the release of the #7DJ (7 Días en Jamaica) EP, followed by the chart-topping stand-along single "Sobrio." Among Maluma's other singles that year were "Imposible Amor" with Natti Natasha and "Mama Tetema" featuring Rayvanny. In 2022, Maluma starred alongside Jennifer Lopez in the romantic comedy Marry Me, and also sang on the soundtrack. A few months later, he revisited the steamier side of his sound with The Love & Sex Tape which yielded several hits including "Cositas de la USA" and "Nos Comemos Vivos" featuring Chencho Corleone. Subsequent single "Junio" hit number one in Colombia, and Maluma recorded "Tukoh Taka" with Nicki Minaj and Myriam Fares for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

"La Fórmula," a duet with Marc Anthony, became another Colombian chart-topper in 2023. Maluma followed with solo single "La Reina" and "Diablo, Qué Chimba" with Anuel AA. "Coco Loco" followed in June. In August, Sony released the long-player Don Juan. The whopping 25-track album, is, according to the artist, titled after an alter ego. The set includes collaborations with a range of singers and rappers like Carin Leon, Jowell & Randy, Ryan Castro, Don Omar, J Balvin, and Yandel, and boasts ten pre-release singles. ~ Thom Jurek

The Weeknd is the alias of Abel Tesfaye, an enigma turned superstar whose accounts of emotionally and physically toxic indulgences are related through morose alternative R&B ballads and fluorescent electro-pop throwbacks alike. The singer and songwriter rose out of Toronto in 2011 with three mixtapes that seemed to have no designs on mainstream appeal. Within only a few years, however, Tesfaye had scored a variety of Top Ten pop hits that made his aching tenor known on a global level. These included a duet with Ariana Grande ("Love Me Harder"), a dramatic ballad from the soundtrack of Fifty Shades of Grey (the Grammy-winning "Earned It"), a disco-funk collaboration with Max Martin ("I Can't Feel My Face"), and a sleek Daft Punk production ("Starboy"). Additionally, Tesfaye topped album charts at home and abroad and collected more Grammys with his second and third proper albums, Beauty Behind the Madness (2015) and Starboy (2016). He entered the next decade with his third straight multi-platinum LP, After Hours (2020), the source of the global smash "Blinding Lights," and followed with Dawn FM (2022), a conceptual refinement of his retro-modern aesthetic. Having delved into acting and screenwriting, Tesfaye then became a driving force behind the dramatic television series The Idol (2023). Its soundtrack added to his tally of Top Ten entries with "Double Fantasy" and "Popular."

Born in Toronto to Ethiopian immigrants, Abel Tesfaye debuted the Weeknd in late 2010 with three songs uploaded to YouTube. Made with producer Jeremy Rose, they served as a low-key prelude to three mixtapes self-released as free digital downloads the following year. The first one was House of Balloons (March), where clear traces of radio-friendly contemporary R&B à la Trey Songz, Jeremih, the-Dream, and Drake were synthesized with the progressive left-of-center likes of Spacek and Sa-Ra. Recorded in collaboration with producers Doc McKinney and Illangelo, among others, the set garnered widespread coverage within days of its release. A similar second mixtape, Thursday (August), preceded several appearances on Drake's album Take Care. Featuring a cover of Michael Jackson's "Dirty Diana," Echoes of Silence (December) completed the trilogy just before the end of the year. The following June, "Crew Love," off Take Care, reached the Top Ten of Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart. A few months later, Tesfaye was featured on another charting single, Wiz Khalifa's "Remember You."

After Tesfaye signed with Universal Republic, the three Weeknd mixtapes were remastered and bundled with three new songs for Trilogy, issued in November 2012. Despite consisting of material previously available for free, the set debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 chart. The following April, Tesfaye won Juno Awards in the categories of Breakthrough Artist of the Year and R&B/Soul Recording of the Year. Trilogy was certified platinum by the RIAA the next month. Kiss Land, much darker in tone than its title implied, followed in September 2013 and debuted at number two. Only "Live For," featuring Drake, touched the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart. Tesfaye had much more success with a series of non-album singles in 2014. "Often" was a Top Ten R&B/Hip-Hop hit. He was then featured on Ariana Grande's "Love Me Harder," which reached the Top Ten of the Hot 100 and went platinum in the U.S. "Earned It," featured in Fifty Shades of Grey, repeated the same feats.

In 2015, Tesfaye issued "The Hills," a booming, nightmarish ballad co-produced by Illangelo, and "Can't Feel My Face," an upbeat Max Martin collaboration, as the first two singles from Beauty Behind the Madness. Both songs topped the Hot 100. The album was issued that August and debuted at the same position. At the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, it won in the category of Best Urban Contemporary Album, while "Earned It" received the nod for Best R&B Performance. Through the end of 2015 and into 2016, Tesfaye was featured on Disclosure's "In the Night," Kanye West's "FML," Future's "Low Life," and Beyoncé's "6 Inch." "Starboy," produced by Daft Punk, was released in September 2016 as the lead single from Tesfaye's album of the same title. It became the singer's fifth Top Ten pop single before the November arrival of Starboy, which landed on top of the Billboard 200. The album's success was sustained with the second single, its other Daft Punk production, "I Feel It Coming."

Appearances on singles by Nav, Lana Del Rey, and French Montana were scattered through 2017. The following year saw Tesfaye appear on the track "Pray for Me," with Kendrick Lamar -- one of the lead singles from the official soundtrack for Marvel's Black Panther. In March 2018, he issued a surprise EP titled My Dear Melancholy,. The release flashed back to the darker aesthetic of Trilogy and crowned the Billboard 200, propelled by the Top Ten single "Call Out My Name." Toward the end of 2019, after a handful of intermediary collaborations and soundtrack contributions, Tesfaye issued the first two singles off his fourth proper album. "Heartless," co-produced by Illangelo and Metro Boomin, topped the Hot 100, and "Blinding Lights," another Max Martin collaboration, went Top Ten before After Hours arrived in March 2020. The heartache-filled set, which also featured a handful of collaborations with Daniel Lopatin (aka Oneohtrix Point Never), became Tesfaye's fourth straight number one release on the U.S. and Canadian album charts. "Blinding Lights" eventually reached the top spot on the Hot 100 and was soon his biggest single on a global scale, topping the pop charts in Canada, the U.K., Australia, and several European territories.

The following February, Tesfaye performed at Super Bowl LV, which coincided with the release of a career-spanning overview entitled The Highlights. The compilation topped the Billboard 200 and was followed later in the year by the standalone single "Take My Breath." A clutch of collaborations, such as featured appearances on Top Ten hits from Kanye West ("Hurricane"), Swedish House Mafia ("Moth to a Flame"), and Post Malone ("One Right Now"), also preceded the January 2022 arrival of Dawn FM. Among the contributors to Tesfaye's fifth proper Weeknd album were Jim Carrey (who provided narration) and Daniel Lopatin, as well as Quincy Jones and Tyler, The Creator. The album reached number two on the Billboard 200 and again topped the Canadian and U.K. albums charts. A tour supporting both After Hours and Dawn FM was documented with Live at SoFi Stadium, recorded at a pair of November 2022 performances and released the following March.

Tesfaye had done assorted television and film work, co-writing an episode of American Dad!, recording voices for episodes of Robot Chicken and The Simpsons, and making a cameo in Uncut Gems, among other endeavors outside music. In 2023, he further branched out with The Idol, a drama series he co-created, wrote, produced, and starred in. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival before airing on HBO that June. Each of the five episodes featured new music from Tesfaye and fellow cast members such as Lily-Rose Depp, Suzanna Son, and Troye Sivan. Tesfaye's bleary "Double Fantasy" (featuring Future) and Neptunes-inspired "Popular" (with Madonna and Playboi Carti) peaked respectively on the Canadian pop chart in the seventh and tenth positions. ~ Andy Kellman