What’s the most difficult way to follow-up a terminally bleak, billion-dollar, Oscar-winning blockbuster superhero (adjacent) movie with no super heroes? Add in some live song and dance numbers, naturally. That’s what Joaquin Phoenix said the team behind the anticipated Joker: Folie à Deux decided to do, a choice that terrified the notoriously fearless actor from day one.

“How could we possibly do the music in the most honest way possible?” he asked in a joint interview with co-star Lady Gaga and director Todd Phillips that aired on Good Morning America on Friday (Sept. 27) about the bold decision to have untrained singer Phoenix and Grammy-winner Gaga sing together live on stage during the film’s fantasy sequences. “When we first started, I did not want anything to be spontaneous and I wanted to sound as good as possible,” said Phoenix, who was previously described as being “sick” with nerves over singing alongside Gaga.

Phoenix noted that it was Gaga’s idea to do it live, which he thought sounded great for her, since that’s what she does for a living. “You were really cool and kind of made me feel comfortable about that,” he said, with Gaga adding, “I can assure you that Joaquin using his natural voice was just so much more compelling than any lip synching would ever be.”

While Phoenix said that he just didn’t want his Joker ride to end after his Oscar-winning first spin as washed-up clown Arthur Fleck in 2019’s intense Joker, Gaga said that original film really interested her in joining Phoenix and director Phillips’ demented world. “I loved Arthur so much, like, who would be the love in his life?” the singer said she wondered.

Plus, she added, there was something “so completely freeing” about playing Quinn, including the ability to sneak some bits of herself into the character that she’s always been a bit embarrassed, or private, about. “When I first saw the film I was like, ‘Oh, that’s in there! That part of me that I want no one to know about,’” said Gaga of her third starring role in a major motion picture following her breakout in 2018’s A Star is Born and a strong showing in the all-star ensemble in 2021’s House of Gucci.

Though she seems to always be poised and powerful, Gaga said those moments she sees herself in Quinn are when her chracter seems “so uncomfortable… she’s like on the edge. There’s definitely been times in my life where I felt that way.”

Even more challenging, Gaga recorded an entire Joker-themed album, Harlequin, out today, in which she channels her character Harley Quinn on a series of classic covers and a few originals. “Lee’s not a performer and I am and in a scene as a different character it’s just completely different,” Gaga said of tapping into what makes the Joker’s equally off-kilter love stand out from Gaga’s stage persona.

“It’s Lee’s reality, it’s their shared reality, it’s coming from that character not from me as a performer,” she said. “I don’t just sing that way in this movie, I also sing with my full voice.”

The 13-track album features a number of Harley-fied covers of “Good Morning” (from Singing in the Rain), “If My Friends Could See Me Now” (Sweet Charity), as well as a soul-funk version of “When the Saints Go Marching In” (here titled “Oh, When the Saints”), “That’s Entertainment,” the Carpenters’ “Close to You” and “World on a String” as well as two originals, “Folie à Deux” and the rock-edged “The Joker.”

The surprise companion album to the film was recorded alongside the sessions for Gaga’s upcoming as-yet-untitled seventh studio album, which is due out in February, with a first single dropping next month. Joker: Folie à Deux opens in theaters on Oct. 4

Soul Asylum frontman Dave Pirner is a proud Minnesotan again after having spent 25 years living in New Orleans. So it’s not surprising he’s watching this year’s presidential campaign with even more interest since a home state horse, Gov. Tim Walz, is representing as Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate on the Democratic ticket. (Pirner was born in Green Bay, Wisc., but grew up in Minnesota.)

“I’m excited about it,” Pirner, who launched his music career in the North Star state drumming for the punk band Loud Fast Rules, tells Billboard from a stop during Soul Asylum’s recent Jubilee Tour with Stone Temple Pilots and Live. “There’s a certain amount of excitement in Minnesota going on. It’s funny to have a dude like that representing Minnesota ’cause he does remind you of a sports dad. There’s that, ‘Oh gosh’ kind of ‘aw shucks’ thing going on. I think it was a good choice because he seems like a nice complement to (Harris) in that good ol’ boy way or something. But he’s progressive and he’s well-liked.”

Pirner does not recall ever having met Walz, a music fan who signed a bill renaming a stretch of the state’s Highway 5 after the late Prince. But Pirner says he’s “ready to go out there and support the home team. Put my name in the hat.”

He’ll have to fit any support appearances into a busy schedule, however. Soul Asylum has concert dates booked into early November, including with the Juliana Hatfield Three, but most importantly the quartet’s 13th studio album, Slowly But Shirley, comes out Sept. 27. The 12-song set is the follow-up to 2020’s Hurry Up and Wait, its debut with Blue Elan Records, and reunites Pirner and company with Steve Jordan, the current Rolling Stones drummer who helmed Soul Asylum’s 1990 album And the Horse they Rode In On, a highly regarded set that was eclipsed two years later by the double-platinum Grave Dancers Union.

“When we first worked with Steve, we weren’t that great,” recalls Pirner, Soul Asylum’s only remaining founding member. “We were still learning how to play together. And since then I’ve sort of embraced most of the things that Steve had passed on to me from back then. So I kinda knew what he wanted and I wanted to give it to him, and I think it came together in a really organic sort of way that I think you can feel on the record — I hope you can, at least. It did mark a progression.”

Pirner adds that what Jordan and the band were looking for was “just excitement and not too much thinking about what you’re doing. It was more like capturing the band playing the songs off of each other and really listening to the other people in the band and trying to come across in a way that it felt new, fresh.” To that end Jordan had the group — Pirner, drummer Michael Bland, guitarist Ryan Smith and bassist Jeremy Tappero — tracking together in the studio to capture the energy and attitude of live music.

“We’ve tried just about every single way to record something over the years,” Pirner notes. “Working on the previous records the home studio became part of the picture, and you could also take things home and work on them. It depends on the song…but in this situation each song was approached with the same sort of method, which was ‘Get out there and play it!’ It was great ’cause watching Steve and Michael work together was one of those musical experiences I kinda live for. Steve is such a player’s player, and he’s such a vibe guy in a way that he understands the concept of trying to capture lightning in a bottle, and I think that’s what we were going for. We didn’t overplay anything and we tried to get things on the third take or so. It came together pretty quickly.”

Pirner says Slowly But Shirley‘s songs came together in a variety of fashions — some jammed out by the band in rehearsals, others that he “had been working in in ProTools and computers and messing around and cutting pieces of songs together.” One track, “High Road,” has been around “forever” before being finished off this time. The album is a mélange of Soul Asylum styles, from the jangle of “Freak Accident” to the punchy rock of “Freeloader,” “Trial By Fire,” “The Only Thing I’m Missing” and “Makin’ Plans,” to the cool groove of “Waiting on the Lord” and the mellow melodicism of “You Don’t Know Me.” There’s also a funky edge to “Tryin’ Man” and “Sucker Maker,” which Pirner credits to his time in the Big Easy and having Bland, who spent seven years playing with Prince, in the band.

“I think I was subconsciously trying to take things in a direction that was a little more funky or groovy or swingy or whatever — without forgetting that I’m dealing with a four-piece punk rock band,” Pirner explains. “That’s what’s always made punk rock so interesting is it does have this kind of ‘ignorance is bliss’ adventure to it, where it’s gonna come out sounding like your sh-tty band. But sometimes people try things they probably shouldn’t be trying, and something new comes out of that. It’s discovery, which is the beauty of music.”

Pirner is planning on a long cycle for Slowly But Shirley, including more headlining dates before the end of the year and into 2025. “We’ll play at the opening of a letter, as we used to say,” he notes. This year, meanwhile, also marks the 40th anniversary of Say What You Will…, Soul Asylum’s Bob Mould-produced debut album, and Pirner says that the passage of time has not been lost on him.

“It doesn’t get easier,” he acknowledges. “It feels exactly like 40 years. It’s kind of a grind. It’s different when you’re starting out because you’re just excited about everything and you have a much higher tolerance level because everything is new. You’re living a fairly miserable experience, but it’s an adventure. I’m grateful for all of it; it’s just what I do and what I’ve always done and what I love doing. Sometimes it’s not fun at all, but I’m like, ‘Well, this is what I wished for my whole life, so shut up.’ And I much prefer this to digging a hole, I’ll tell ya that.”

Since earning his first Billboard Country Airplay top 5 hit with “All My Friends Say” in 2007, Luke Bryan has amassed 26 Country Airplay No. 1s — representing a mix of somber heartbreak tunes such as “Do I,” and a string of celebratory anthems revolving around rural settings and young love. As such, Bryan quickly ascended to headlining stadiums on the strength of his hitmaking (and yes, onstage hip-shaking), collecting five entertainer of the year trophies (two from the CMA and a trio of trophies from the ACM).

To be sure, on Bryan’s eighth studio album, Mind of A Country Boy (out Friday, Sept. 27 on UMG Nashville), there are hook-filled, rowdy party sparkers such as “But I Got a Beer in My Hand” and “Country On,” but embedded in the album are also songs that accelerate the country quotient, and songs that convey the perspective of an artist nearly two decades into his career, speaking from maturity as a husband, father and seasoned musician.

“I think it reflects where I’m at in life. I’ve had the party songs throughout my life and when I look at my career, I’ve put out the music I’ve always wanted to and this is the music I want out now,” Bryan tells Billboard.

That family aspect touches many songs on his new album, such as “Pair of Boots.”

“I have boys that were raised seeing their boots and cowboy boots everywhere,” says Bryan — who, with his wife Caroline, are parents to two teenage sons. “I think a pair of boots on a young boy teaches them about growing into manhood and I think it’s a tip of the cap to dads that start their kids off wearing boots. And certainly, if you’re a dad with boys, you get it.”

One of the standout songs on the album is “For the Kids,” which Bryan wrote with Justin Ebach and Old Dominion’s Brad Tursi. The song depicts a couple whose flame has fizzled out, but who are holding their marriage together simply for the sake of the kids. Though Bryan says the song’s story arc does not reflect his own nearly 18-year marriage to wife Caroline, he does feel it “might be one of the best songs I’ve written.”

Bryan says he and Caroline, who have been married since 2006, have been intentional about putting family first.

“I think we keep it all real,” he says. “There’s a time for me to go be a celebrity and there’s a time for me to go be a husband and a dad. It’s about communication and having a support group around you, a group of friends you enjoy being around and making sure you have positive people in your life. I think as you talk to people who have been married 30, 40 years, there’s always times in the marriage where there are bumps in the road, times that the kids might have been the thing that really held the whole unit together, and then there’s times when you’re an empty nester. I think this song touches on the journeys of marriage and what it takes to see it through forever.”

As a father to two teenage boys, 16-year-old Thomas (“Bo”), and 14-year-old Tatum (“Tate”), Bryan realizes his sons’ college years are not too far in the future.

“We’ve created a household where everybody hopefully wants to converge on [it when they can]. When they’re in college, you’re kind of empty-nesting, but when the fall breaks and Christmases and hunting seasons… when hunting season comes in, they start migrating back to the farm, where we can all hunt together. We take it year by year. The main thing is just to enjoy the time together, and get them through school and just raise them to be good boys and we know they’ll come back around.”

Another song on the album, “Jesus About My Kids,” written by Jeff Hyde, Tucker Beathard, Ben Stennis and Brad Rempel, delves even deeper into the role of fatherhood, contemplating how the approach to spirituality shifts as his kids grow older.

“I think a lot of parents can relate to the sentiment of praying for their kids,” Bryan says. “When they’re young, you try to lay the groundwork. We’re a Christian household and we’ve raised them that way to have those morals, and we try to set the tone at an early age of teaching them to be respectful and kind and polite. Then you hope that they can take that into the later years of their lives and be respectful, humble, with good manners. They’re doing good right now — we’re not having to bail ‘em out of any jails.”

Though Bryan has had a hand in writing many of his own songs, including “Someone Else Calling You Baby” and “We Rode in Trucks,” this time around, of the new album’s 14 songs, a dozen of them are outside cuts from many of Nashville’s top-shelf writers including Rhett Akins, Chase McGill, Hillary Lindsey, Ben Hayslip and Dallas Davidson.

“It’d be scary to know how many we went through, but I think we probably recorded a total of 18 songs, three of the ones that didn’t make it, I think I had a hand in writing,” Bryan says. “I always overcut [songs for an album] and then if mine make the cut, then they do. But this time I leaned on a lot of writers around Nashville and I always loved the opportunity of doing that.

“I’m a fan of the Nashville songwriting community, and I feel like that whole songwriting machine is one of the most amazing things in entertainment,” he continues. “I just get the songs to listen to and rarely know who writes them. I just like to try to use the mindset that the best song typically wins. And when those writers get cuts on the album, they always walk up to me and they’re appreciative and it’s endearing, and I’m always happy to be able to get the town fired up about one of my albums.”

A close listen to the album also finds Bryan and his longtime producers Jeff and Jody Stevens employing subtle ways of upping the ante, such as Bryan’s use of falsetto on the song “Closing Time in California.”

“I knew it was an opportunity to show that I had that in my bag, in my arsenal,” Bryan says. “We’ve heard the story [in this song] a million times—a small-town girl moves to Hollywood and there’s always that love interest that gets left behind. But you can feel the pain of all of that in the song, and the first time I heard it, I knew it was special.”

Over the course of his career, Bryan has performed for over 14 million fans, and is steadily adding to that count on his current headlining Mind of a Country Boy Tour, which runs through October, while his annual Farm Tour also takes place next month (Bryan’s Farm Tour aids farming communities and since its 2009 inception, has awarded over 80 scholarships to students from farming families who attend local colleges and universities). He also keeps pushing himself in terms of his work on television. On Nov. 15, Bryan will host the new Hulu series It’s All Country, which finds Bryan exploring the stories and inspirations behind a slate of classic hit country songs. Next year, he will return as a judge on ABC’s American Idol, alongside Lionel Richie and Carrie Underwood.

He says whether he’s in the studio or onstage, he’s still always aiming at setting the creative bar higher.

“No matter how many years I’ve been kind of in the mix, and as long as I can find songs that push me to new boundaries, we’re always trying a new musician here and there, always trying new sound engineers and mixing people, just always trying to stay on top of my game,” Bryan says. “I’m always trying to go above and beyond, try to just outdo myself a little bit every time.”

Young Miko is sitting, legs criss-crossed, atop her purple bed, surrounded by bookshelves, a boombox and a big Tamagotchi. A microphone clutched to her chest, she’s visibly emotional, almost teary-eyed.

But she’s not alone in what appears to be her bedroom. On this September evening, she’s onstage at Miami’s Hard Rock Live, and a crowd of 7,000 is chanting the 26-year-old urbano star’s name — even though she hasn’t yet said a word. The bed, the centerpiece of her set, is a reference to the cover art for her latest album, this year’s att. And the satisfaction on her face is a reaction to an anything but private moment. She’s gazing in awe at the crowd of mainly Gen Z girls whose effortlessly chic looks mirror her own Y2K aesthetic — oversize T-shirts, baggy pants, ultra-pink girly ensembles with shimmery makeup and pigtails. Young Miko — clad in a sparkly baby blue checkered two-piece and pristine white sneakers, her hair in her signature slicked-back half ponytail — soaks it all in.

Onstage, Young Miko is graceful and charming, or “very demure, very mindful, very cutesy,” as she jokes in English with her zealous fans, who roar as she flashes them shy, flirtatious smiles. Tonight, she runs through her early hits, like the trap anthem “Lisa,” as well as newer ones, like att.’s “Rookie of the Year,” a song that perfectly captures Young Miko’s rapid rise to fame. She even brings out Colombian star Feid, one of her earliest supporters, to join her for two songs, including their first collaboration, “Classy 101,” with which she made her Billboard Hot 100 debut last year. “Thank you for the love you guys have given me,” she tells the audience at one point, speaking in a mix of English and Spanish. “Today, I’m very emotional and I don’t have the words to describe just how much your support means to me.”

It’s the final show of Miko’s 24-date XOXO U.S. tour, her biggest trek yet, swiftly following her 2023 Trap Kitty world tour. Last year, “we played 40 minutes,” Miko explains backstage hours before her performance. “Now I’m onstage for two hours. Our crew was like 10 people; now it’s more than 50 of us,” she adds, her eyes growing wider. “Everything has multiplied.” Her mixture of excitement and incredulity is understandable. The gifted singer-rapper born María Victoria Ramírez de Arellano in the northwestern Puerto Rican town of Añasco has had a meteoric rise, becoming one of the most promising global artists of her generation on the strength of her attitude-heavy trap songs and refreshing songwriting, which draws inspiration from her queer identity.

In the past year, Miko, who uploaded her first songs to SoundCloud in 2019 and signed with Puerto Rican indie label The Wave Music Group two years later, opened for Karol G’s stadium tour; collaborated with Bad Bunny on his track “Fina”; made her Coachella debut; and delivered her genre-bending debut album, att., which became her first Billboard 200 entry (short for atentamente, the title translates to “sincerely”). To date, she has had six entries on the Billboard Global 200 and Global Excl. U.S. charts, and 319.9 million on-demand official streams in the United States, according to Luminate.

“I take everything one day at a time,” says Miko, who was a tattoo artist before she committed to music full time. “Opening for Karol in stadiums, that helped me loosen up. Seeing her up close and personal and how she connected with her fans, that was huge. It helped me grow onstage, as a person and as an artist. It’s been a process, and I’ve learned to embrace every stage of my career.”

Supporting Karol G’s tour was a “turning point” for Miko, says Hans Schafer, senior vp of global touring at Live Nation, which produced both Karol’s and Miko’s recent tours. “It solidified her presence in the Latin market and expanded her reach globally. Miko can potentially be one of her generation’s defining artists. She’s already proven she can headline [a] tour, and her ability to evolve musically while staying true to her roots is a critical factor in long-term success in the touring space.”

Miko’s achievements on the touring front and beyond reflect the slow but steady diversification of Latin music — and more specifically urbano music, which has been ruled by male artists for the past 20 years — and have made her rise feel even more momentous. The significance isn’t lost on her.

“Our generation is much more receptive and inclusive — what a time to be alive,” Miko says. “People just don’t give a f–k anymore; they care that you’re a good person. I remember how refreshing it was to hear Ivy Queen doing reggaetón and now you can name so many women in the genre; the change is here and you can’t deny it. It doesn’t mean we can now just lay back either. I’m excited to be part of a movement and a moment in history when people look back and say, ‘I remember Karol and Young Miko, and this one, and the other one.’ ”

That turning tide inspired Young Miko and her team, which includes her manager (and best friend), Mariana López Crespo, and her longtime producer, Mauro (who is also López Crespo’s brother), to launch 1K, a company they describe as a creative collective comprising 20 individuals who are all also part of Miko’s team. “I don’t want to eat alone at the table,” Miko explains. “We’re very passionate about growing 1K into an empire — think Death Row Records — by signing and investing in new artists and content creators. We’re all in it to learn, grow and help others.”

She and López Crespo, who is also a queer woman, first met when they were teen soccer players. Together, they learned a valuable lesson. “The goalkeeper can’t save the game, the midfielder supports the defender, the defender is nothing without the forward, the midfield is nothing without the bench, and the bench is nothing without the coach,” Miko says. “We apply that mentality to everything we do today.”

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López Crespo and Young Miko first met in 2012, when they were both trying out for the Puerto Rican women’s national soccer team. They both made the team — and instantly became best friends. Besides sharing a love for fútbol, the teenagers discovered they had the same taste in music, from Puerto Rican reggae band Cultura Profética to Lauryn Hill to Gwen Stefani. “She was the one on the team who was always blasting music on the speakers — she knew all the verses, she was charismatic, you could tell she really enjoyed performing,” López Crespo recalls of Miko.

After four years of playing together on the national football team (Miko as midfielder and López Crespo as forward), the two went their separate ways. Both were attending the University of Puerto Rico’s Río Piedras campus, but then Miko transferred to Inter American University and López Crespo moved to Costa Rica to play soccer, though she eventually returned to Puerto Rico after an injury. Around 2018, she reconnected with Young Miko — or Vicky, as López Crespo still calls her — who showed her some of the music she had recorded using her iPhone and the built-in microphone on her Apple headphones. “I told her that she had to take this seriously because there was something there — her songs had personality,” López Crespo recalls. “I said, ‘Maybe you don’t have the resources now, but you have the discipline. Don’t stop.’ ” Miko’s response? “I’ll pursue this only if you are my manager.” “Fine,” López Crespo remembers thinking. “I’ve never done this, but I like a challenge, so vamos pa’ encima [let’s do it].”

Trained to be on an attack’s front line as a forward, López Crespo hit the ground running and started assembling a team that would help develop the plan for Young Miko’s career. One of the first people she approached was her brother Mauro, a trained musician who was also just starting his career as a producer.

“My sister told me that Vicky was making music and showed me two songs she had on SoundCloud,” Mauro remembers. “I immediately told Mariana, ‘There’s something here — she has the look, the swag, the voice, the bars. It’s raw, but it’s all there.’ ” A saxophonist who graduated from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras with a bachelor’s degree in music, Mauro had taught himself to produce after being mesmerized when he saw one of his peers create a beat on a laptop. With the help of YouTube videos and patient producer friends, by 2020, he had posted some of his beats to Instagram.

“Things are always meant to be, they’re already written in our destiny,” Miko says. “When I was starting in music, Mauro was also starting to produce, so we grew together. I would give him that space to explore with me and he would give me space to explore as a songwriter, a singer. He forces me to open up, and I do the same with him. It’s been that way from the beginning.” She adds, categorically: “There would be no Young Miko without Mauro.”

Just as Miko and her team were getting going, the pandemic hit — but they used the COVID-19 shutdown to their advantage. López Crespo and Miko rented a mountaintop Airbnb in Rincón to host their inaugural songwriting camp. It was the first time that Miko’s “core” team, including producers and creatives, “locked ourselves in,” López Crespo says. “Not for the purpose of needing to get something out there, but rather to explore, get to know each other and build trust. I remember saying we’d give this process two years, and if we didn’t see anything happening, we’d reconsider. But it was clear that there was a special feeling in that camp. There was uncertainty, yes, but a lot of desire to grow.”

Although the songs created during the camp were never officially released, Miko’s older material on SoundCloud still managed to catch Angelo Torres’ attention. The executive came across Miko’s SoundCloud link while scrolling through X. “I was instantly captivated when I heard her tracks,” he told Billboard when Miko was named Latin Rookie of the Year in 2023. “There was something undeniably intriguing about her sound. [I thought], ‘I really need to meet this person.’ ” He not only met her but signed her to The Wave Music Group in 2021, which he had recently launched alongside producer Caleb Calloway, who has since co-­produced some of Miko’s biggest hits. Last year, Capitol Music Group locked in a long-term distribution deal with the label.

Torres was also one of the first people with whom López Crespo talked business. “He’s someone I’m grateful for because it’s people like him that really encourage you and want you to grow,” she says. “They may be veterans and you are the new one, but they see that hunger in you.”

Young Miko’s eyes light up when she talks about having her closest friends as part of her team, knowing she’s surrounded by people who believed in her from day one — especially the person she has won championships with on — and now off, in a sense — the field. “Mariana has been my sister for as long as I can remember and I’m so proud of her. We’ve always been a dynamic duo. It gives me great pride to know that when we are no longer here, they will mention a name as great as Mariana López Crespo and I will be next to that name. Damn, I got so gay today, bro,” she says as she walks over to hug López Crespo, who is crouched in a corner of the Hard Rock Live green room, hands covering her face. “Don’t cry, it’s what I feel. And I don’t tell you often, but sometimes we need to stop and smell the roses.”

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As Young Miko sees it, the foundation of her life hasn’t really changed even as she has catapulted to stardom. “It doesn’t have to,” she says before inadvertently evoking an anthem by one of her favorite ’90s acts: “I’m just a girl,” she adds with a sweet smile.

She still lives in Puerto Rico and hangs out with the same group of friends she did before she became a global star. “I feel like we hustle just how we used to hustle back then,” she adds. “We enjoy the feeling of being an underdog. Having bets against you and responding with ‘No, we’ve got this’? Best feeling.”

It’s her parents’ lives that she says she has changed. “I take my parents everywhere with me. They are my biggest fans. They are just super grateful and excited. The other day they told me, ‘We feel like we just started living and we’re 60-something,’ ” she says, pausing and taking a deep breath. “I get emotional.”

And while she’s no longer on the soccer pitch, she has a new squad cheering her on. “I think [Bad Bunny] and Karol saw something of themselves in me. It came from their hearts to want to support or contribute to my career. It also gives me a lot of motivation because they are artists that I admire and are examples I want to follow. When I have people like them telling me, ‘You can 100% do this,’ then I have to,” she says. “Karol would take me to her sound check, show me things she did to warm up; she didn’t have to do any of that stuff.”

Earlier this year, Karol released the music video for “Contigo,” in which Young Miko plays her romantic interest. Especially for an urban artist, it felt like a big statement in support of the LGBTQ+ community — though Miko says the genre is more accepting of queer artists today than it has ever been. “I used to do things that were so innocent to a certain extent that I didn’t even realize I was causing a shift in the pendulum,” she explains. “Now looking back, I understand how shocking these things can be. I’m already thinking of new ways to grow a bigger space for everyone and keep changing things.”

To that end, Miko is also working to get people registered to vote ahead of the U.S. November election. A few weeks ago, she encouraged her Instagram followers — all 7 million of them — to make sure they’re registered, adding that she’ll be voting early because she won’t physically be in Puerto Rico on Nov. 5. “It’s something I’m very passionate about — my whole team is,” she says of joining the significant number of Latin and non-­Latin acts alike who’ve used their platforms to engage their fans in civic action. (She hasn’t yet supported a specific candidate.) “It is very important for the future of my island, the future of my people. I was very excited when I saw [Bad Bunny] posting; I saw myself in him as a person who lives in Puerto Rico. I think it is important to bring at least a little bit of awareness — like, ‘Hey, educate yourself on what you believe is right for you and your country.’ ”

It all feels intrinsically connected to another topic that makes Miko perk up: her vision for her future, which feels limitless. “It can look scary, but I know I’m capable of doing everything I set my mind to. I tell Mariana that I want to be in movies, that I want us to grow together as businesswomen — whether opportunities come to us or we go out and get them ourselves,” she says with determination. “I want to look back and be able to say that I did everything I wanted and squeezed everything I could out of this life.”

This story appears in the Sept. 28, 2024, issue of Billboard.