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 highest exponent, Daddy is today the most popular reggaeton artist as well as one of the most influential and respected figures in the genre worldwide. Thanks to his solid and successful artistic career and his numerous collaborations that have helped to bring other Latino artists in the genre to light, reggaeton has established itself as a musical variety that is known and heard all around the world.
The term reggaeton (derived from the word reggae and the suffix ton) is credited to Dady Yankee in Puerto Rico in 1992, as he mentions 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 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 5 Grammy Awards, 1 Lo Nuestro Award, and other prestigious honors recognizing Latin artists. In 2009, he was considered by CNN one of the most important and influential Hispanics in the world.
In recent years, his collaborations with other rising musicians in the urban music scene have become a safe bet, turning the songs he collaborates on into guaranteed hits that dominate charts worldwide. For instance, in 2017, his song with Luis Fonsi, "Despacito," reached the number 1 spot in over 80 countries and became the most streamed song on YouTube. Additionally, he won four Latin Grammy Awards in 2017 for Best Song, Best Recording, Best Urban Fusion/Performance, and Best Short Form Music Video.
His subsequent English version featuring Justin Bieber topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart. That same year, Daddy Yankee became the most listened-to artist on the planet 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. With the last three, he recorded "Azukita," 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 was suffering from prediabetes after feeling unwell during a tour in Colombia and having to be hospitalized urgently.
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. During the 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 respected the people of Miami greatly 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 created a remix of Bad Bunny's song "Tú no metes cabra," in which he compares the dictatorships of Fidel Castro and Nicolás Maduro to 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 played on his electric violin: Que tire pa' lante and Llamado de emergencia.
