Ivy Queen
Martha Ivelisse Pesante earned the title Queen of Reggaeton at The Noise club in the early 90s. On the edge of Viejo San Juan in 1991, DJ Negro's place was so small you could barely move—a sweaty rap battle mixed with a rave, the coolest party in the world to kids from the hood who flocked there every weekend. Ivy Queen showed up one night and refused to leave the stage until everyone knew her name. One of the genre's few prominent women, she pioneered bachata-reggaeton fusion on her 2003 album Diva. She hosted the Spotify podcast LOUD, weaving together the full history of reggaeton across 10 chapters and five countries, bringing authority and lived experience to a story often told without the people who lived it. Few genres have taken the world by storm in recent years quite like reggaeton, and Ivy Queen—Puerto Rican singer, rapper, and songwriter—was there from the beginning.
Listen
Featured in
Discography
Diva
Released in 2003, this album established Ivy Queen as the undisputed Queen of Reggaeton and pioneered the fusion of bachata with reggaeton rhythms. As one of the genre's few prominent women, she carved out space in a male-dominated scene, proving that women could command the dembow with as much authority as any man. The bachata-reggaeton fusion opened new sonic possibilities, showing the riddim's adaptability. This was proof that reggaeton could bend, could incorporate other traditions, could make room for voices that hadn't been heard.