Armando Christian Pérez was born in Miami in 1981 and has spent most of his career as Pitbull, also billed as Mr. Worldwide. "Give Me Everything," with Ne-Yo, Afrojack and Nayer, was his first Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 in 2011. "Timber," with Kesha, became his second at the start of 2014. He later won a Grammy for the album Dale. His 2023 album Trackhouse ends on "Can't Stop Us Now," a collaboration with Zac Brown.
Away from the stage he has put his name on things in Miami. In 2013 he backed SLAM, the Sports Leadership and Management charter school in Little Havana, and in 2024 he agreed to pay Florida International University $1.2 million a year for five years to rename its football field Pitbull Stadium. He was also a co-owner of the NASCAR team Trackhouse Racing until he stepped away in February 2025.
His 2026 ran on the I'm Back Tour, which covered North America and then reached Europe, including his first Italian show in more than ten years. In July he played BST Hyde Park in London, and before his set 22,141 fans in bald caps, the "Bald-E's" who'd been copying his look, suit and tie included, at his shows for several tours, set a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people wearing bald caps. He'd announced earlier in the year that he wanted to make the joke official.