He was born Francisco Javier Bautista in Tijuana and raised in San Diego from the age of 2. He comes from a musical background with his father being the lead singer of a traditional band. Frankie J grew up listening to both traditional latin music as well as R&B.

As a teenager, he started listening to freestyle music by Lisa Lisa, Brenda K. Starr and George Lamond. He started writing his own songs and singing in the same falsetto style as Lamond. At 15, he signed a contract with a Canadian independent label working as Frankie Boy and recorded songs which failed to achieve any success. In 1997, he signed with Jellybean Benitez.

In the late 1990s, he joined Los Kumbia Kings and was a member of that successful Latin group touring throughout Latin America. The group played in front of 100,000 people in a concert in Monterey, Mexico.

Frankie J signed as a solo artist with Sony Music and released his first album What's A Man To Do in 2003 which failed to chart. His second self-titled album released later in the same year charted on the Billboard Latin chart reaching the top 20. The single "Don't Wanna Try" reached the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 while "Ya No Es Iqual" was top 10 on the world Latin charts and #11 on the Billboard US Latin pop chart.

He collaborated with Baby Bash on another pop hit called "Suga Suga" which reached #1 in New Zealand in 2004 and was a top 10 hit in the US and Australia in the same year. Frankie J worked with a number of wellknown producers on The One including Irv Gotti of Murder Inc. on the title track. Mario Winans on a track called "Just Can't Say It's Love". The first single "Obsession (No Es Amor)" has been a big hit on the US pop charts reaching the top 5 in April 2005. The One was released in the US in April 2004 and debuted at #3 on both the Billboard 200 chart and R&B chart.

--Wikipedia