Born on April 30, 1980 in Madrid, Leiva is the soccer nickname of José Miguel Conejo Torres. He is best known as one half of Pereza, the group Leiva and Rubén Pozo formed in 1999 which went on to become one of Spain's most popular pop/rock acts of the first decade of the 21st century. Beginning with their 2001 debut, Pereza released six studio albums, a number of video packages, and a 2010 internet-only compilation.

In September 2011, Leiva and Rubén announced their temporary separation plus upcoming individual projects for each member. Since Leiva was the lead composer and singer of most of Pereza's singles, his solo debut, Diciembre (released in early 2012), was particularly anticipated. Thanks to the success of the single "Eme," the album became very popular.

Pólvora, which appeared in January 2014, performed even better. Debuting at number one in Spain, it spent a month on the Top Ten and more than a year on the charts as a whole; it also charted in Italy and Mexico. The singles "Afuera en la Ciudad" and "Terriblemente Cruel" both hit the Top 10 in Spain as well. Third album Monstruos also hit number one in Spain upon its release in 2016. ~ Mariano Prunes, Rovi