Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez, better known as Daddy Yankee, is a Puerto Rican singer, actor, record producer, radio host, and entrepreneur, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on February 3, 1977.
Regarded as one of the pioneers of reggaeton in the 1990s and its foremost exponent, Daddy is now the most popular reggaeton artist, as well as one of the most influential and respected figures in the genre worldwide. Thanks to his established and successful artistic career and his numerous collaborations that have helped showcase other Latin singers in the genre, reggaeton has solidified its position as a musical variety that is known and listened to everywhere around the world.
The term reggaeton (derived from the word reggae and the suffix ton) is attributed to Daddy Yankee himself in Puerto Rico in 1992, where it was mentioned for the first time in the mixtape "Playero 36" (alongside DJ Playero). "I want you to keep jumping, and I want you to jump again because it's the phenomenal man who sings reggaeton," Daddy Yankee can be heard saying in the mixtape.
Among his most famous songs is "La gasolina," which is part of his third and best-selling album, released in 2004, titled "Barrio Fino."
He has won 5 Grammy Awards, 1 Premio Lo Nuestro, and other top honors that recognize Latin artists. In 2009, he was named one of the most important and influential Hispanics in the world by CNN.
For a few years now, his collaborations with other rising musicians in the urban music scene have become a sure bet, turning the tracks he collaborates on into guaranteed hits that dominate charts worldwide. In 2017, his song with Luis Fonsi, "Despacito," reached number 1 in over 80 countries and became the most-streamed song on YouTube. He also won four Latin Grammy Awards in 2017 for Best Song, Best Recording, Best Urban Fusion/Performance, and Best Short Form Music Video.
His later English version featuring Justin Bieber reached number one on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. That same year, Daddy Yankee became the most listened-to artist in the world on Spotify.
Among his collaborations are tracks with artists such as Anuel AA, Kendo Kaponi, Rosalía, J Balvin, Farruko, Sech, Zion, Lennox, Steve Aoki, Play-N-Skillz, Elvis Crespo, among others. He recorded "Azukita" with the last three artists, which has nearly 200 million views on YouTube.
On January 24, 2019, he once again reached the top spot with his single "Con calma," a reinvention of the 90s hit by rapper Snow, "Informer."
In July 2020, he announced that he had prediabetes after feeling unwell during a tour in Colombia and being urgently hospitalized.
Recently, in 2020, an old interview resurfaced from Daddy's visit to the television program Estudio Billboard, hosted by Colombian journalist Leila Cobo in 2007. In that interview, Daddy was asked about the possibility of ever singing in Cuba. His response was that he would actually love to go to the Island, but he had great respect for the people of Miami and did not want to cause any political chaos, so he preferred to leave things as they were and wait for the right moment to go.
In July 2018, Issac Delgado, who was then serving as the president of the organizing committee for the Varadero Festival, mentioned that he had already spoken with the reggaeton artist and that the performance was being finalized.
In 2017, he did a remix of Bad Bunny's song 'Tú no metes cabra,' in which he compares the dictatorships of Fidel Castro and Nicolás Maduro with those of the Italian fascist Mussolini and the Soviet leader Stalin.
The Puerto Rican has shared twice on his Instagram the talent of Cuban violinist Zamir Muñoz Hernández, who has impressed the singer with two versions of his songs performed on his electric violin: "Que tire pa' lante" and "Llamado de emergencia."
