Cris MJ

Roots in La Serena

Christopher Andrés Álvarez García was born on 16 September 2001 in La Serena, Chile, a coastal city where reggaeton was easy to hear but hard to make. He has said reggaeton videos replaced cartoons for him as a child, and at eight he imitated urban artists at school talent shows. Daddy Yankee, Jory and Ñengo Flow shaped his early taste, alongside American trap by Travis Scott, Drake and Lil Baby. There were only about two recording studios in town, so he filmed his own videos on his phone and drew his own covers.

Álvarez grew up in a public housing complex in La Serena. In a 2025 Billboard interview he described hard years at home as motivation rather than material for pity, saying he wanted to lift his relatives out of the neighborhood and refused to plan for any work other than music. He told the magazine that his father was shot in front of him and survived, an episode he framed as fuel for his ambition.

Learning the trade, 2019–2021

He began releasing music of his own around 2019, uploading Spanish-language covers and early originals while still in La Serena. The stage name Cris MJ pairs his first name with Mala Junta, the nickname of a friend group connected to his father. Moving to Santiago in 2020, he issued his first official single, “Como Tú Ninguna,” an urban-mambo song that put him on the Chilean map. Local support for reggaeton artists was scarce, he has said, so he built an audience on social platforms. Before the move, Billboard has reported, he went through a period of depression and nearly quit music.

Before albums, he worked at a furious pace. Independent singles and guest spots — among them Los Malvekes with Marcianeke and Simon la Letra, Me Arrepentí with AK4:20 and Pailita, and Marisola with Standly — carried him up Chilean and regional charts. Those songs fed his debut album, Welcome to My World, released in 2022, and its follow-up, Partyson, in 2023.

Those years also taught him self-reliance. He shot videos on his phone, made his own cover art, and uploaded finished songs himself, habits he later described to Billboard as necessities for an artist without resources behind him.

Una Noche en Medellín and the leap, 2022–2023

Released in January 2022, Una Noche en Medellín turned a hard-hitting perreo about Colombian nightlife into a TikTok phenomenon. It became his first Billboard chart entry, reaching No. 24 on Hot Latin Songs and No. 29 on the Global 200 that year, and it topped the Chile Songs chart while charting across Latin America. Karol G took notice; after an earlier attempt at a remix fell through, she brought Cris MJ onto the Quinta Vergara stage at the Viña del Mar festival in February 2023 to perform it live.

The studio remix followed in August 2023 with Karol G and Ryan Castro, issued on Karol G's Mañana Será Bonito (Bichota Season). It entered the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 68, his first appearance on the all-genre tally, and started at No. 12 on Hot Latin Songs. Around the same period, Marisola with Standly reached No. 70 on the Global 200, and a later remix added Duki and Nicki Nicole.

Gata Only and global stardom, 2024

In February 2024 Cris MJ reshaped a track by FloyyMenor, a fellow La Serena artist he had discovered online: he invited him to Santiago, reworked the song, and they filmed the video the next day. Gata Only debuted on the Hot 100 at No. 27, reached No. 3 on the Global 200, and spent seven weeks at No. 1 on Hot Latin Songs. The pair became the first Chilean act in about 25 years to reach that chart's top 10.

Billboard named it the top Latin song of 2024 on the year-end Hot Latin Songs chart, and reported it as TikTok's most-played song of the year in any language. The recording won the 2024 Billboard Latin Music Award for Global 200 Latin Song of the Year and, that December, the 2024 Billboard Music Award for Top Latin Song. His solo single Si No Es Contigo then debuted in the top ten of Hot Latin Songs in mid-2024.

That summer Billboard chose him as its Latin Artist on the Rise, a profile published ahead of touring through Mexico and Europe. Throughout 2024 he also sold out three nights at Santiago's Movistar Arena, a run Billboard cited as proof of his standing at home.

Apocalipsis and stadium scale, 2025–2026

Apocalipsis arrived on 27 June 2025 through Sonar, the Rimas-owned label distributed by The Orchard. Cris MJ described medieval Paris as the visual and musical inspiration for the 18-track set — his first album without featured artists — and framed it as a rebirth aimed at opening doors for Chilean music. Billboard noted the album kept his party reggaetón core while adding futuristic melodies and pop. A second 2025 album, LAS FILTRADAS, followed.

Forbes Chile included him in its 2025 30 Under 30 list in the sports and entertainment category. Live, he has escalated from club dates to national stages: after an Apocalipsis-era run through Europe and Mexico, he headlined the Estadio Nacional in Santiago on 17 April 2026 as the first Chilean urban artist to top a show there, with a stage reaching halfway onto the field and organizers reporting a sellout.

Weeks before the show, The Clinic reported that he had become the first Chilean artist to pass 10 billion streams on Spotify, with nearly 20 of his songs beyond 100 million plays. His stated aim remains the one he gave Billboard: keep growing, and open doors for Chilean music beyond home.