Malu Trevejo is a name that's recently come into the pop culture lexicon, thanks to an announcement of a Travis Scott Cactus Jack signing which has since seemingly been overturned (more on that later). The young star was born in Cuba, and immigrated to America at the age of 12, settling in Miami, Florida with her mom, where she would grow her now-impressive following.
Malu, who has been belly-dancing since she was a kid, began to find followers through the app Musical.ly (now TikTok), thanks to a series of viral dancing videos, eventually amassing a following of over eight million; while her Instagram has steadily sky-rocketed to 10 million. In an interview with Popsugar, the star spoke about sticking true to who she was as the key for her success, "One day I started dancing on social media, and some famous people noticed me. Before I knew it, I had 100,000 followers, then 1 million. I was just being myself! And now we're almost 8 million strong on Instagram," she said.
Venturing Into Music
With her newfound internet following, Trevejo decided to venture into a music career, having grown up on a childhood of Latin pop stars like Shakira and Jennifer Lopez. Signing on with a management team, the dancer dropped her first single "Luna Lluna" in September of 2017, which has amassed over 110 million views on YouTube to date and peaked at #8 on Billboard's Latin Digital Songs chart.
"Luna Lluna" was just the start. Her entrance into the music world also gained her collaborations with people like Cuban reggaeton duo Gente De Zona, Haraca Kiko, and producer Jeon, as well as live performances across the United States, Spain, and Latin America.
The singer told People that Instagram was a major factor in launching her music career, with a platform of 5 million followers at the time. “I started like a year ago,” she told People. “I posted a video of me dancing and people liked it a lot and they started reposting it. I started getting followers and started doing more music videos and videos of me dancing.”
Trevejo also told People that following going viral, she had to drop out of school due to classmates bullying her and treating her differently.
“I’m homeschooled because I cannot go to school. There are too many people coming up to me and asking dumb questions,” she told the publication. “I can’t be a normal teen, to be honest. If I want to sing, then I have to live this life.”
Malu soon signed a recording contract with In-Tu Linea, a Latin division of Universal Music Group-- although she would later void her contract with the label and sue them, due to various issues with the label, including the fact that she was a minor when she first signed. A year later, the bilingual singer dropped her first project, EP Una Ves Mas in August of 2019.
Relationship Drama
Malu has been in a star-studded roster of relationship entanglements. After breaking up with her boyfriend Reese, the singer reportedly dated NBA Youngboy briefly, at the age of 14, with a three-year age gap between the two. Trouble stirred when Malu accused Youngboy of trying to take her virginity when she wasn't ready.
Soon after the argument, the two ended their relationship. Around the same time, Danielle Bregoli, best known by her artist name Bhad Bhabie, who Youngboy previously dated before moving onto Malu, began beefing with Malu over the rapper. The two have had years of bad blood between them, which peaked when Bhabie allegedly drove over an hour in order to fight the singer in person. The situation between the two had escalated after Youngboy added both of them to a group chat.
“She has talked sh*t about me for three years and she always say she gonna fight me and I’m here to FIGHT HER! Tell her come out the f***ing house!” Bhabie shouted outside of the 17-year-old's home at the time
The two did not get into a physical alteration, as Malu later revealed to her Instagram followers. “They did call the cops on us,” she said. “I’m glad we didn’t do sh*t because I would have been in jail, and she would have been in jail. And I’m not pressing charges because I’m not dumb… I’m not going waste my time on no f***ing body. I’m not going to do anything bad to anyone.”
Most recently, Malu has had ties with Swae Lee. Dating rumors about the two sparked after videos of the two hanging out started circulating on social media. Fans were quick to accuse the 28-year-old rapper of grooming Malu. The singer denied the rumors.
“All these salty a** mfs, I already said and would say it again any rapper tha hit to say itttt wwith prooffffff lmfaoaooa," she said on Instagram. "No basketball no singer no nun my friend. I could walk in a room full of mfs tha y’all say I f***ed and I’ll ask them and they’ll say nooooo lmfaoaooaaoa.”
“Y’all just salty is ok if u ain’t got no haters u ain’t popping," she added.
Signing With Travis Scott
In October of 2020, Malu relocated to Los Angeles, and a year later, she announced on social media that she was the latest artist signed to Travis Scott's label Cactus Jack in partnership with Atlantic Records. A short month later, the statement was redacted when the singer announced that she was no longer with the label.
“Birthday girl I’m so happy dreams come true got signed to @cactusjack and @atlanticrecords,” Malu wrote in a now-deleted Instagram post. “I’m so happyyyyy Libra gang #myteamisthebest.”
Sources have reported that Travis' manager, David Stromberg, reached out to outlets asking them to take down Malu's announcement posts, claiming that they were fake, sparking a controversy that Malu lied about her record deal.
The singer once again took to Instagram to defend herself against these claims, with some evidence.
“I wouldn’t lie about getting signed to anybody. Things just changed and that’s ok Bc tha means something bigger is waiting for me,” she wrote.
“I don’t gotta lie ask the man himself How many times he said he belive in me and he wanted to help me. Stop spreading lies. I had a 2 hour conversation with him crying and hugging him he knows and he knows I ain’t lied about anything… At the end of the day what he told me a lot of times make me more confident with myself and I appreciate the time I spent with him made me realize a lot.”
Malu had already dropped a new single, "Complicado," which was released under Cactus Jack Records and Atlantic Records. The singer uploaded screenshots of the song's music video with its credits to her story, pointing out the affiliation.
“Now if I wasn’t signed by Cactus Jack that wouldn’t be there. It would be illegal, but guess what, ya girl got the contract,” she wrote.
The singer also uploaded photos of her record contract as proof.
No further statements have been released from Cactus Jack Records about the situation.
Will you be checking out Malu Trevejo in the future?