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 1990s and its highest 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 bring spotlight to other Latino singers in the genre, reggaeton has firmly established itself as a musical variety recognized and listened to all around the world.
The term reguetón (derived from the word reggae and the suffix tón) is attributed to Dady Yankee himself in Puerto Rico in 1992, as he mentioned it 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 reguetón,” 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 5 Grammy Awards, 1 Lo Nuestro Award, and other top accolades honoring Latin artists. In 2009, he was recognized by CNN as one of the most important and influential Hispanics in the world.
In recent years, his collaborations with other emerging musicians in the urban music scene have become a safe bet, turning the tracks he works on into guaranteed hits that dominate charts worldwide. For instance, in 2017, his song with Luis Fonsi, "Despacito," reached the number one spot in over 80 countries and became the most played song on YouTube. He also won four Latin Grammy Awards in 2017 for Best Song, Best Record, Best Urban Fusion/Performance, and Best Short Form Music Video.
His subsequent English version 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 songs 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, which has nearly 200 million views on YouTube.
On January 24, 2019, he once again reached the number one spot with his single "Con calma," a reinvention of the 1990s 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, an old interview from 2007 resurfaced, which took place during his visit to the television program Estudio Billboard, hosted by Colombian journalist Leila Cobo. In this interview, 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 great respect for the people of Miami and did not want to create political chaos, so he preferred to leave things as they were and go when the right moment arrived.
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 created 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 amazed the singer with two versions of his songs performed on his electric violin: Que tire pa' lante and Llamado de emergencia.
