Martha Ivelisse Pesante Rodríguez aka Ivy Queen, is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer and actress. Born in  Añasco, Puerto Rico, Queen was raised in New York where she got her education until her junior year of highschool. Queen began her professional career at age 18 when she moved to San Juan. There she met DJ Negro and joined the all-male Puerto Rican group The Noise in 1995.

Her short time with the group got her introduced to the Reggaeton scene before she went solo a year later. Queen released her debut studio album En Mi Imperio (In My Empire)  in 1997 and her second album The Original Rude Girl in 1998 to little success. This resulted in her label at the time, Sony Discos, dropping her.

Queen then appeared on compilation albums until her and her then husband Gran Omar signed with independent Real Music, appearing on the label’s first album Jams Vol. 1. 

Her third studio album, Diva,  released later in 2003. The album was her first mainstream success, getting certified platinum by the RIAA and winning the Reggaeton Album of the Year at the 2005 Billboard Latin Music Awards. As the years went on, Ivy Queen became a pillar within the Reggaeton industry. Queen has over 5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and is a host of the Spotify original podcast Loud.