Young Miko American Rapper With 8.3M Instagram Followers

Early life

Young Miko, whose birth name is Maria Victoria Ramirez de Arellano Cardona, was born on 8 November 1997 in Anasco, Puerto Rico. Music was a constant presence at home, where rock, hip hop and reggaeton were played, and she started writing poetry while attending a Catholic school in Mayaguez. Between the ages of 13 and 18 she played football for Puerto Rico's national women's side, including its under-20 team as a full-back, and she often left school early to reach training in Bayamon. She also tried karate, basketball, tennis and table tennis as a child; with no girls' basketball league available, she played on a boys' team.

She studied drawing at the University of Puerto Rico in Rio Piedras. After budget cuts reduced the credits available in her department, she moved to the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico in San German to study visual arts. Her earlier schooling included the Academia de la Inmaculada Concepcion.

Career

In 2018 she began recording raps over instrumentals found online and posting them on SoundCloud under the name Young Miko, starting with a song titled "Quiero". To cover living costs and studio time she worked as a tattoo artist for about five years. Her debut extended play, Trap Kitty, came out in 2022 and consisted of Latin trap tracks. Her work draws on anime, urban music and the cartoon series The Powerpuff Girls.

In 2023 her reggaeton collaboration with Feid, "Classy 101", reached number 99 on the Billboard Hot 100, her first appearance on that chart. That year she opened for Karol G on part of the American leg of the Manana Sera Bonito Tour and appeared on Bad Bunny's album Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va a Pasar Manana, where her song "Fina" peaked at number 14 on the Hot 100.

She performed at Coachella in 2024, and on 24 April that year released her first studio album, Att., short for "atentamente", meaning "sincerely". It includes guests such as Feid, Jowell & Randy, Villano Antillano, Elena Rose and Dei V, and it reached number 9 on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart and 129 on the Billboard 200. Her first acting work was a voice role as Tiffany in the film Sneaks.

In 2025 she appeared at the Governors Ball and Lollapalooza festivals and collaborated with the group Katseye on a remix of "Gabriela". In September she became the first Puerto Rican ambassador for the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Her second studio album, Do Not Disturb, followed on 7 November 2025 with sixteen tracks and a guest appearance by Eladio Carrion. In December 2025 she played two sold-out nights at the Jose Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan, her first headlining shows there, with a different set of guests each night. She took part in the Super Bowl LX halftime show, fronted a Gap campaign in March 2026 built around a reworking of her song "WASSUP", and issued a deluxe edition of Do Not Disturb, titled Late Checkout, on 29 May 2026. As of June 2025, her YouTube channel had about 2.5 million subscribers.

Recognition

In 2023 she was named among the Artists to Watch and won the MTV Europe Music Award for Best Caribbean Act.

Personal life

Young Miko is openly lesbian. Her manager, Mariana Beatriz Lopez Crespo, has been a friend since 2012, when the two met through the national football team. In 2018 Lopez Crespo introduced her to her brother Diego Amaury, known as Mauro, who became her principal producer, and the three have worked together since.