Daddy Yankee

Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez, better known as Daddy Yankee, is a Puerto Rican singer, actor, record producer, radio host, and businessman born in San Juan, Puerto Rico on February 3, 1977.

Considered one of the pioneers of reggaeton in the 90s and its highest exponent, Daddy is today the most popular reggaeton artist as well as one of the most influential and respected in the genre worldwide. Thanks to his established and successful artistic career and to his multiple collaborations that have allowed other Latin singers in the genre to gain recognition, reggaeton has become a musical variety that is known and heard in all corners of the world.

The term reguetón (comes from the word reggae and the suffix ton) is attributed to Dady Yankee himself in Puerto Rico in 1992, mentioned for the first time in the mixtape “Playero 36” (along with Dj Playero). "I want you to keep jumping and I want you to jump again because it’s the phenomenal man who sings reguetón," Daddy Yankee can be heard saying in the mixtape.

Among his most famous songs is La gasolina, which is part of his third album and the best-selling album of the singer, released in 2004, titled Barrio Fino.

He has 5 Grammy Awards, 1 Premio Lo Nuestro, and other top honors that recognize Latin artists. In 2009, he was regarded by CNN as one of the most important and influential Hispanics in the world.

For a few years now, his collaborations with other rising musicians in the urban music scene have become a safe 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 played song on YouTube. Additionally, he won four Latin Grammy Awards in 2017 for Best Song, Best Recording, Best Urban Fusion/Interpretation, and Best Short Music Video.

Its subsequent version in English with Justin Bieber reached number one on the Billboard 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: Anuel AA, Kendo Kaponi, Rosalía, J Balvin, Farruko, Sech, Zion, Lennox, Steve Aoki, Play-N-Skillz, Elvis Crespo, among others. With the last three, he recorded "Azukita," which has nearly 200 million views on YouTube.

On January 24, 2019, he once again achieved first place with his single "Con calma," a reinvention of the 90s hit by rapper Snow, "Informer."

In July 2020, he announced that he was suffering from prediabetes after feeling unwell during a tour in Colombia and being hospitalized urgently.

Recently, in 2020, an old interview has resurfaced that took place during his visit to the television program Estudio Billboard, hosted by Colombian journalist Leila Cobo in 2007, where Daddy was asked about the possibility of ever performing in Cuba. His response was that he would actually love to go to the Island, but he had a great deal of respect for the people of Miami and did not want to cause political chaos, so he preferred to leave things as they were and go when the right moment came.

In July 2018, Issac Delgado, who was then 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 made 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 the Cuban violinist Zamir Muñoz Hernández, who has surprised the singer with two versions of his songs played with his electric violin: Que tire pa' lante and Llamado de emergencia.