[1][3][4][5][6][7] Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he decided to become a singer at age 12, drawing influence from the Latin American genres of reggaeton, salsa, and bachata.
He made his musical debut in 2012 with the song "Imaginando", which attracted the attention of recording labels and led to collaborations with Daddy Yankee and Anuel AA.
[20] His uncle often played music by Daddy Yankee, Don Omar and De La Ghetto, and the teenager would rap along with the songs on the microphone.
[20] To further his career, Ozuna took a job at a local bar called El Corozal, where his earliest musical performances took place.
[22] However, he viewed Washington Heights to be equally violent and impoverished as his hometown, and returned to Puerto Rico with his wife and two children after three years in New York.
In September, he released his most popular single at the time, "Dile Que Tú Me Quieres", which earned him a place at number 13 on the Billboard Latin chart at the end of the year.
Ozuna also had two other songs that made it to the ranking, "Si Tu Marido No Te Quiere (Remix)" featuring Arcángel and Farruko and "En La Intimidad", which reached the top 30.
[26] Ozuna regarded the single as his "big break" and credited Farruko and Arcángel with allowing him to gain recognition by including them as featured artists.
[25] In June 2017, VP Entertainment and Dímelo Vi president, Vicente Saavedra, signed an agreement with Sony Music Latin.
The deal included distribution for all artists represented by Saavedra agencies, starting with Ozuna's first studio album, Odisea, released on August 11.
[17] Odisea spent 46 weeks at the top of the Billboard Latin Albums chart, the second-longest run of all time after Gloria Estefan's Mi Tierra.
[30] The single "Te Vas" reached more than 710 million views on YouTube, making it Ozuna's most played song on the website at the time.
[34] Elias Leight of Rolling Stone described the remix of "Te Boté" as "one of the most indispensable songs released this year in any genre — a hit in both old-fashioned media like radio as well as the warp-speed world of YouTube".
[39][43] He was named YouTube's most-viewed artist globally of 2018, and in October of that year, Time included him on their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
[46] "China", released in July 2019 with Anuel AA, Daddy Yankee, Karol G and J Balvin, became his fourth number one on the Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart.
The album features collaborations from Cultura Profética's Willy Rodríguez, Snoop Dogg, DJ Snake and Diddy.
Both songs topped the US Latin Airplay chart, becoming Ozuna's 19th and 20th chart-toppers, respectively, and putting him in a tie with Daddy Yankee for third most number-ones.
[22] Ozuna has more than ten songs exceeding 200 million views on YouTube, echoing the beginnings of other successful Urbano artists, like Farruko and Maluma.
[16][20] He has compared himself to Canadian artist Drake, explaining that they are both "very careful not to denigrate women or to hurt young people" and that they both often alternate between singing and rapping.
"[23] Elias Leight of Rolling Stone described Ozuna's voice as "slim but slicing, precise and hard to imitate".
[35] Joey Guerra of the Houston Chronicle observed that Ozuna "isn't quite as adventurous as contemporaries J Balvin or Bad Bunny.
[66] On January 5, 2017, he was arrested along with his work team at the El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia, by immigration agents.
The incident occurred after he and his producer acted violently in the presence of the agents, which caused the reprogramming of a concert scheduled in Manizales.
On July 30 of the same year, during a concert at United Palace, New York, Ozuna struck a security guard on the head, with his microphone, for being on stage.
He said he heard the shooting and fled the scene leaving his vehicle, a Range Rover truck, and that the victim was his close friend.