Bad Gyal describes herself as a “posh girl” from Barcelona.
And yet, when it comes to music, she has little patience for diva behavior—like when artists she’s collaborating with bring extra people into the studio.
“Let's not forget that [music is] our job,” she told Complex. “We're not just hanging [out] with friends. It's our fucking job. We have to make music. We have to make hits.”
That no-BS mindset might explain her success over the past decade. Since emerging in 2016 with “Pai,” a remix of Rihanna’s “Work,” she has become one of the most innovative young singers today, blending reggaeton, dancehall, and electronic into her own unique cocktail.
Those instincts for experimenting developed as a child. The Spanish reggaetonera grew up in Vilassar de Mar, a seaside village on the outskirts of Barcelona. As a child her taste was shaped by the range of CDs her family would gift her, from Destiny’s Child to Fergie to Sean Paul. “I did not even know Sean Paul’ was Jamaican because I was so young—maybe eight or 10—when The Trinity album came out,” she said. “I was obsessed with it.”
She was only 19 when she first started getting attention for “Pai,” her autotune-heavy, Catalan-infused remix of Rihanna’s dancehall classic. The video shows the singer wandering through the Carrer Joaquín Costa district in Barcelona. “'Pai' was the first thing that I actually wrote myself,” she said. “I was not aware of what I was doing, but I was doing good shit.”
She would continue “doing good shit,” releasing projects like Warm Up and La Joia, that stripped back some of the more refined global coating of contemporary reggaeton in an attempt to bring the genre back to its rawer Puerto Rican roots.
On her latest album is Más Cara—which dropped back in March—she flaunts her reggaeton bonafides, remixing the late Jadiel’s classic “Fashion Girl” and linking up with OGs like Chencho Corleone and Luny Tunes for “Choque.”
With the album out and a new tour spanning Europe, Latin America, and the United States, we figured now would be a good time to talk with Bad Gyal about her creative process, the new project, meeting her reggaeton heroes, and more.
This story has been edited and condensed for clarity
What's your writing process like?
To be honest, I go to the studio with my mind empty. The emptier the better. I don't prepare anything. I just let my brain and my heart and my soul get into the music, the beats, and then from there, it just comes out.
I'm a good songwriter. I enjoy writing songs and I enjoy doing music. And of course, it's been 10 years [so I have] experience, which allows you to know more [about] yourself… to just enjoy the process.
And I feel like the studio is one of the most hermetic, peaceful spots in the most positive way. This job comes with a lot of pressure, like social exposure… and I feel like the studio is a safe place where I don't feel judged, where I can just create. And if [a song] doesn't work, we don't use it, so I don't feel like no one is observing. And I feel super free to just say whatever shit comes to my mind.
What are your studio rules?
I don't have [any] specific rules… but it's nice if I can smoke inside. It's nice if I have candles. Please no junk food… stuff that doesn't put me in the dynamic of “get high and eat chocolate,” because then I feel like the sofa is a dangerous place.
I just like to keep being active. I need my coconut water, my coffee, my proper food, my chicken, my vegetables, my fruits, my tea, everything that makes my body be aligned like high energy. And of course, not random people just not working or doing. Like I did a lot of studio sessions with rappers where they come with 10 friends that [are] not doing shit, just sitting on the couch. I don't like the studio [being] crowded with people that [are] not useful. I [usually] have one friend—one girlfriend or whatever—who helps me or my assistant and then the producer. That’s it.
Have you tried your hand at production and making beats?
Not at all. I'm so busy with making songs and doing tours and all of the requirements of being an artist nowadays. But at some point [I will.]
During the pandemic, I was recording myself with Pro Tools. I can record myself on Logic Pro. So the engineering part, I would say I have it. But the producing part, not at all. But I'm a pain in the ass for the producers. I’m always there picking the line of the bass, choosing the drums… [I tell them] ‘Just open all the folders and let's check which instruments you have.’ I like to be involved in the process, but I wouldn't consider myself a producer.
So are you curating each beat specifically?
Of course!
For the new album, every [beat] was made from scratch [except] one song. But the rest, we were super involved in the process of the beats. And it's a very important part for me and my identity as well. I do not jump on random beats [unless…] I know that it is an amazing, unique beat. A lot of times, the producers come with the folders of [beats that are] working for the Latin industry. And I feel like that doesn't represent me.
I show the producers that are in the room, which music I'm listening to at the moment, what I'm excited about, and I try to do something inspired.
How did the beat and song for “Da Me” come together?
[The “Da Me” beat] was the only one that was already done.
It was a fucking masterpiece. Everyone in the studio, when we heard that beat was like… ‘Yo, send it to the producers now, like now, send it yesterday.’ …[The “Da Me” beat] was genius. If it's genius, what we're going to do? There's nothing that I can make better… It's exactly what I wanted.”
How was it experimenting with a new sound on “Última Noche” alongside Ozuna?
Last summer… I got obsessed with Kompa, which is a genre from Haiti. [So I told my team], “Yo, guys, let me play you like 10 songs of Kompa so we understand how it works… we need to have the instrumental solo and respect the structure because Kompa is a genre to dance to it.”
When we were at the studio, everyone was super excited… [the song] was supposed to just be myself. But I have a really close relationship with Ozuna… [and] I already knew that if I showed him that song, he would want to jump in.
Everyone in the studio was like, “This has to be by yourself,” But I didn’t give a fuck… I showed it to him… He was like, “No, I have to jump on this.”
He came earlier [to Miami] and jumped in the studio… There’s a TikTok that I posted of me guiding him through the process of the composition of it and which parts I wanted him to sing.
For me, it's important that we create a structure together to be able to build a song and do a back and forth. And it actually feels like a feature and not just someone jumping in then “bye.”
What did you learn from Luny Tunes and Chencho Corleone while working with them?
[Luny Tunes] started to [explain] all this history when they recorded Héctor el Father in the studio, [and he would say], “Yo, stop playing that bullshit, for this other artist project. Play my shit. Let's work on my song.” Like how [reggaeton] used to be so gangster and the real vibe and ambience that surrounded the reggaeton those years, which I'm a super fangirl of.
[I am] just a posh girl from Barcelona, but I still love my Héctor el Father verse. I'm a posh blonde Barbie girl, but if you play me like a Héctor el Father song in the club and suddenly I don't know who I think I am. I just love that. And being able to experience all those stories and to hear from them, I was just trying to absorb everything.
I feel that I'm super privileged. And to be honest, I feel like I have a lot of respect from the reggaeton industry. The first producer to actually record me in Miami when I was like 20 was Nelly “El Arma Secreta,” who now is my brother. I love him so much because he was one of the first to see my potential. After that Luny Tunes and then DJ Nelson, … I [did] sessions with them as well, and then I met Daddy Yankee and all these people like just giving me their blessing.
It's crazy me being a girl from Barcelona, like just closing the circle and meeting all my idols. They are telling me things like, “Yo, you're the shit. Keep killing it. You are unique. You are 100 percent yourself when you do this shit." I feel like you really have a passion for our culture, our music. It's not just a posture, you really, really love it and enjoy it.”
Daddy Yankee literally said that to me.
When did you meet him and what did you guys talk about?
I remember we were at J Balvin's birthday In Italy, and we were just hanging out. I have a really [good friendship] with Daddy Yankee's son and his wife. So I know them and we are super close. But I never met [Daddy Yankee]. At some point they started to tell me, “Yo, my dad fucks with you. He likes what you're doing” and [he said] “You're la dura, like you're killing it, like you are super different from all the other like proposals in the industry right now.”
I was a little nervous. But from the moment that I met him, everything was super smooth. He's the nicest. He's the sweetest. He's the most [easy-going] guy.
I remember on the second or third day, we were hanging out at the pool barbecuing or whatever. And I remember [Daddy Yankee] and Zion, from Zion & Lennox, [were] just chatting on a corner. I had to pass through the corner and I was like, “Yo, Esquinita Legendaria, like that's the legendary corner right there.” And Daddy Yankee was like, “You're missing. Sit with us.” And [it] felt like they both adore me in the most respectful way.
What is the creative vision for your album Más Cara?
This album was just me allowing myself to create with all the tools that I finally have in my career. I'm an artist that started in a very underground way. And now I [am at a] point where I'm super solid and I can choose producers. I can travel to Miami, and I can afford those expenses. I feel like resources give you a lot of freedom, so I just allowed myself to create the music that I love.
[Más Cara is] basically inspired by my own playlist and the music that I love, Kompa, reggaeton, dancehall or guaracha, just exploring the genres in the studio and allowing myself to enjoy.
And from there, with the results of the song with certain bars that I feel like they were representing the moment that I'm living, we pick the album name, we also pick the identity, the visual part of the album. Más Cara the name [means] More Expensive [and] is related to [how] I never in my life had so many resources, I never felt so solid with my career.
Did you know ROSALÍA or Quevedo, as you were coming up in Spain?
I remember Rosalia’s beginnings. [There] were not many people doing music, so it was a super small scene. And we all knew each other at that time. And we all saw the evolution in between us. So it's been super cool to see how everyone got their thing going on and evolved.
What's the rest of 2026 looking like for you?
Right now I'm super focused on tour[ing]. I just started here in Spain, and I have almost everything sold out. I feel like it's a time in my career where it's getting more crazy with the amount of people that are coming to the shows. I just did three shows in a row, which was almost 60k people in one weekend…And then after that, I want to come to the US. I want to go to Latin America as well, and just keep spreading my music.
