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Young Miko via InstagramJuly 24, 2026Music / FeatureMusic / FeatureYoung Miko is the ultimate lesbian matchmaker

Queer women are meeting their future wives at Young Miko concerts. The Puerto Rican artist talks creating LGBTQ+ spaces and performing with Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl

ShareLink copied ✔️July 24, 2026July 24, 2026Text Isobel Van Dyke

Calling all lesbians. Listen to Young Miko, and you might find your future wife. Not only do her shows facilitate countless hookups, but they’re leading to marriage too. Last year, a lesbian couple from Mexico got engaged after being brought together by the Puerto Rican artist. “Two girls met at a concert of mine, and now they’re married,” she says. “Isn’t that insane?”

I’m backstage at the Outernet, where the 28-year-old rapper is reclining on a sofa before she gets ready for her first ever London show. For now, she’s wearing a crisp grey tracksuit (the kind you know is still fluffy inside), with two star-shaped pimple patches dotted on her cheek and chin. She has no clue what day of the week it is. “We’re going to the Outernet tomorrow,” she incorrectly explains. “Wait no, the Outernet was yesterday.” Wrong again – it’s our current location and the show is tonight.

She can’t be blamed. Miko is currently in the thick of her Late Checkout tour, which kicked off in Denmark at the start of July and will conclude in Brooklyn four months from now. It’s ironic that the tour – and the album it’s named after – is called Late Checkout, since she usually leaves each city after the show. In London, the gig wraps at 10pm, and she’s back on the plane by 2am.

Courtesy of Young Miko

The rapid pace of the tour is a reflection of the past four years of her life. Since dropping her debut EP Trap Kitty in 2022, Miko has grown a fandom of over 20 million monthly listeners. She’s released two albums and a deluxe, joined both Billie Eilish and Karol G on tour, and danced with Bad Bunny at his Super Bowl halftime show. Now, while embarking on a sold-out tour across Europe and North America, she’s able to see how far her fanbase stretches.

“I honestly can’t believe I’m here,” she says. “I never thought I’d be out here performing a full Spanish show. “It’s a bit of a reality check too. It shows that all our hard work is paying off. Latinas are everywhere! I feel blessed that I get to go to places I never thought I’d be able to visit.” The sound that’s carried her here is a cocktail of rap, reggaetón and Latin trap, laced with sexually explicit lyrics about other women. It’s no wonder then, that she has so many lesbian fans.

“It’s such a colourful crowd,” she says proudly. While some artists encourage dress codes at their shows, at Young Miko concerts, the audience is a sea of pride flags. “That’s so comforting for me,” she says. “There are a lot of things going on in the world right now that are very difficult, but I enjoy having these moments at my shows where we can enjoy each other’s company and hug each other if we need it. Then, when we leave, we’re filled with a little bit more hope, which is very needed right now.”

Despite the comfort she finds in her fans, she still gets homesick. Born María Victoria Ramírez de Arellano Cardona in a small town on Puerto Rico’s west coast, it’s the simple things that she misses most – waking up in her own bed, making coffee and eating typical Puerto Rican food everyday. “I’m a homebody,” she admits.

That said, her childhood wasn’t always easy. Her mother, who worked as a seamstress, couldn’t accept Miko’s queerness at first. She took her to church and then to therapy, before eventually coming to accept her daughter’s sexual orientation thanks to Kany Garcia, a Puerto Rican musician who came out publicly in 2016.

Today, Garcia remains one of Miko’s greatest role models. “She was the first queer woman I remember really looking up to,” she says. “Then there were athletes like Abby Wambach and Megan Rapinoe, but I also looked up to Lady Gaga a lot. She was such a big ally to the queer community.” The rapper is aware that she’s now a role model herself, and takes the responsibility seriously. “I think about the young queer people that look up to me and I try to be careful with what I say, because I know they take it to heart.”

Her earliest memories of seeing lesbians on TV are seared into her memories. “I remember the movie, After Sex, with Mila Kunis and Zoe Saldaña. There’s one scene where they’re in the library…” she trails off, referencing the moment Saldaña fingers Kunis against the bookshelves. “I remember going insane when I saw that. Then there was John Tucker Must Die. There’s a bit where the girls kiss in the car. That changed my brain chemistry.”

“I think about the young queer people that look up to me and try to be careful with what I say, because I know they take it to heart”

As a teenager, when she wasn’t rewatching After Sex, she was playing on the Puerto Rican women's national football team. She’s still passionate about the sport today and watched as much of this summer’s World Cup as she could. At the time of this interview, the tournament was still in full swing. “Any chance we get we’ve been getting together to watch the World Cup,” she says. “I think it’s been an amazing World Cup for the underdogs. Cape Verde had the whole world shook with their performance! Costa de Marfil [Ivory Coast] did amazingly. We’re rooting for all the underdogs.” She was especially impressed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s leopard suits. “That’s what the World Cup is all about.”

Earlier this year, she found herself on a different type of football pitch. Swapping the beautiful game for American football, Mico appeared alongside her friend and collaborator Bad Bunny during his Super Bowl halftime show. “I was so excited to be part of such a beautiful moment in Latin culture and history,” she says. Though she was already planning on attending the show, two days prior, she received a call inviting her to join Benito on stage, dancing at La Casita. “I was like, if I’m going to be dancing anyway I might as well dance up there!” She was given just two instructions: “There was a colour palette we had to wear, and the second thing was to have fun.”

I wonder what her own Super Bowl show would look like. “Very colourful. Pride flags everywhere,” she laughs. But before she starts plotting her halftime performance, she’s dreaming of becoming a super hero. “Acting is a big dream of mine,” she admits. “My friends always say I would be a good super hero.” What would her power be? I ask. “I want to fly through the clouds and watch the sunset.” Until then, the plane window will have to do, as she flies across the world from show to show.

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