User:Bigbelugawhale/sandbox

LGBTQ Influence in Reggaeton
Reggaeton has traditionally been male dominated and heteronormative, known to "reinforce the most unpleasant aspects of machismo". The genre began to accept queer and trans artists into the mainstream after Bad Bunny publicly voiced his allyship to the queer community through challenging gender norms and homophobic notions. New generation artists like Villano Antillano, Young Miko, La Cruz and others have been challenging the stereotypes and values traditionally associated with the genre. In 2022 Villano Antillano, a trans-femme rap/reggaeton artist from Puerto Rico, broke the record as "the first transwoman to hit number 50 on Spotify" with Villano Antillano: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 51 in collaboration with producer Bizarrap. She began her music career as a male-presenting person under the artist name "Villano Antillano" and later decided to "step into [her] femininity" and transition. She has since kept her original artist name, but identifies as non-binary and is referred to as her legal name "Villana". Villana has spoken on her experience confronting the barriers for queer and trans people in the reggaeton and urban industry; she says, "all of these cis male artists, who are very close, aren’t going to collaborate with a trans woman. There are very few. We can count them on one hand." . In 2023 Young Miko, a queer trap and reggaeton artist from Puerto Rico, charted in the Billboard Hot 100 with her single "Classy 101". In the same year, she was featured on Spanish rapper Bad Gyal's "Chulo Pt2", along with Tokischa, a queer Dembow singer; as of October 2023, the song has over 100 million views on YouTube. In the start of her career, Young Miko grew a local following in Puerto Rico releasing music independently on SoundCould, but gained national visibility after Bad Bunny invited her on stage during his Un Verano Sin Ti tour. In June of 2023, reggaeton artist, La Cruz, from Venezuela released a music video for his single "TE CONOCI BAILANDO", which featured several homoerotic images including several shirtless men, locker room interactions and guys twerking in front of urinals. He challenged what is expected from traditional reggaeton music visuals by having gay men be the object of desire rather than women. The music video has amounted 2 million views on YouTube as of October 2023.